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Obama considers Clinton role in campaign

WASHINGTON, June 4 (UPI) -- While Barack Obama wants to focus on the U.S. presidential election, his advisers say they know they must first consider Hillary Clinton and her supporters.

Clinton let it be known she would be open to being his running mate before primaries in Montana and South Dakota ended Tuesday. Obama received enough delegate support to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton, speaking from her home state of New York Tuesday night, said she wasn't making any decisions for a few days. Obama's campaign said the freshman senator from Illinois wants to talk to Clinton soon.

An Obama-Clinton ticket has advantages, observers told The New York Times, such as repairing relations among Clinton's supporters, especially women. Clinton also would provide Obama with foreign policy credentials, a list of contributors and the potential to put more states into play.

"I think the world of both of them," said Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del. "I want to see them run as a team."

Others caution about Obama selecting Clinton as a running mate, especially so soon after the primary season has ended. He wouldn't want to appear to be pressured into the decision, the Times said.

"It's backward-looking to pick a Clinton at this point -- and he's all about forward-looking, to being about change," said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way, a moderate Democratic organization. "He's all about a fundamentally new kind of politics. Picking a Clinton is, by definition, backward-looking, and I just don't think he wants that."

Kenya celebrates Obama's likely nomination

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 4 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen Barack Obama's crossing the delegate threshold for the Democratic presidential nominee touched off celebrations in Kenya, home of Obama's father.

"I'm excited ... because he's a Kenyan. He's a half Kenyan," a woman in Nairobi told CNN.

Obama is popular across the African country, especially in western Kenya where many of his relatives live.

Kenyans danced and drank Senator Keg Lager, which was nicknamed "Obama Beer" in honor of the freshman senator from Illinois, CNN reported.

Blast injures 17 in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, June 4 (UPI) -- A bomb exploded Wednesday along a railway track in Sri Lanka, causing minor injuries to 17 people in a train as it passed.

The incident occurred in a suburb of the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, the LankaPage reported.

Police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera said a man tried to throw a parcel at a commuter train traveling from Panadura toward Colombo but was deterred by people in the area who began screaming, the report said.

"After noticing that the people had seen him, the suspect had thrown the parcel towards the railway track and run away from the scene," the spokesman said.

Violence has escalated in the Indian Ocean island nation in recent months with the military conducting a relentless campaign against the Tamil Tiger rebels. The rebels want a separate homeland for the Tamil-speaking minority in the predominantly Buddhist country.

Central Sudan becoming battle zone

ABYEI, Sudan, June 4 (UPI) -- Central Sudan has become a battleground for rival troops from the north and the south, a United Nations official says.

The country is teetering on the brink of resuming its 20-year civil war, David Gressley, U.N. regional coordinator for South Sudan, told the BBC.

Forces from the north and south have clashed recently over the oil-rich region surrounding Abyei, which both sides claim. About 50,000 people fled heavy fighting in the village in May.

The U.N. Security Council is in Sudan trying to ease tensions in Abyei and the western region of Darfur.

"There's a gradual escalation of forces on all sides at this point in time," Gressley said.

Neither side wants war, but the situation must be diffused or the entire peace process could come undone, Gressley told the British broadcaster.

The two sides reached a peace agreement in 2005. Under the pact, the sides were to withdraw from the border area once an independent commission determined boundaries. Abyei residents would decide whether to join the north or the south in a 2011 referendum.

Storms rip Midwest, more on Thursday

MOSCOW, Ind., June 4 (UPI) -- Weather forecasters warn an outbreak of violent thunderstorms over the Midwest Tuesday could be followed by much more serious storms on Thursday.

At least six people were injured and several homes were destroyed in southern Indiana while heavy rain and lighting strikes sparked a huge fire at a petroleum tank farm and flooded roads around Kansas City Tuesday night, Accuweather.com reported. No one was reported injured in the fuel tank blaze in Kansas City, Kan., which burned a million gallons of unleaded gasoline.

In Rush County, Ind., what authorities said could have been a tornado destroyed an historic covered bridge at Moscow and injured six, CNN reported.

But the real weather trouble could be coming Thursday. Accuweather.com predicted Wednesday a widespread outbreak of tornadoes will take shape across the nation's midsection as a strong storm emerging from the Rockies will cross the central plains and Upper Mississippi Valley.

Under threat are such cities as Des Moines, Iowa, Omaha, Neb., and Wichita, Kan., forecasters said. They urged residents of those areas to keep close tabs on the weather Thursday.