RTC Director

U.S. President Barack Obama is in Charlotte, North Carolina for the Democratic National Convention, a gathering of his staunchest supporters he hopes will propel him to re-election to a second term in the White House.

Mr. Obama arrived in the southern state Wednesday afternoon. Hours earlier, party officials looked at Thursday's weather forecast and decided to move his night-time nomination acceptance address from an outdoor football stadium because of concerns about rain. The president will instead speak in a much smaller, 20,000-seat indoor arena where the remainder of the convention is being staged.

Democratic officials said they feared the possibility of rainstorms during the speech. Mr. Obama's Republican opponents said the real worry for his supporters was that the president might not attract enough people to fill the 74,000-seat stadium.

In a statement, convention organizer Steve Kerrigan said the group shared the “disappointment of over 65,000 people” who had signed up for credentials to attend the outdoor event. He said Mr. Obama would speak to them during a Thursday conference call.

Meanwhile, former U.S. president Bill Clinton takes the spotlight at the convention on Wednesday, adding more high-profile support for Mr. Obama's re-election.

Mr. Clinton, the 42nd American president, will formally place the 44th president's name up for nomination during a nationally televised address. The relationship between the two Democrats has improved in the years since Mr. Obama defeated the former president's wife, Hillary Clinton, in the 2008 party nomination campaign.

Mr. Clinton remains a popular figure among many Americans who recall the economic prosperity during his two terms in office in the 1990s, and analysts say he could help Mr. Obama win support from older, white working-class Americans.

The highlight of the convention's opening night Tuesday was a speech by first lady Michelle Obama, who talked about her husband's character and ability to make tough political choices.

“Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. He didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically — that's not how he was raised –he cared that it was the right thing to do.”

Democrats used their opening speeches reaching out to women voters, with Mrs. Obama recounting how the president's early background — and his grandmother's employment setbacks — helped shape his governing policies as president.

Mr. Obama's opponent in the November 6 election is Republican Mitt Romney, a one-time venture capitalist and former governor of Massachusetts. Surveys of voters show the two candidates in a virtual tie nine weeks ahead of election day.

Forecasters have upgraded Tropical Storm Leslie into a hurricane.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its midday forecast Wednesday that Leslie was about 750 kilometers south of Bermuda and moving very slowly to the north.

Top sustained winds are 120 kilometers per hour.

Forecasters have not yet predicted whether Leslie will strike land, but say those living on Bermuda should closely monitor the storm. They also say Leslie could create life-threatening surf along the U.S. east coast.

Leslie is the sixth named hurricane of the Atlantic season, which began June 1 and lasts through November.

Egypt's president says Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad must learn from “recent history” and step down before it is too late, while Turkey's prime minister said Syria has become a “terrorist state” carrying out massacres against its own people.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi told a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo Wednesday that a resolution to the crisis is an Arab responsibility, reiterating his call for the Syrian government to resign. He said the time has come in Syria for “change and not wasting time speaking of reform.”

Mr. Morsi also said a quartet of regional states proposed by Cairo to discuss the Syrian crisis would meet. The group includes Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt.

In separate comments, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced further frustration at the lack of international consensus over the chaos in Syria. He told a meeting of his ruling AK party in Ankara that Turkey does not “have the luxury to remain indifferent” to what is happening in Syria.

Meanwhile, Syrian forces and rebels clashed in several regions on Wednesday including Aleppo, the country's commercial capital.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 33 people were killed in Aleppo, where Syrian forces have been pounding neighborhoods with rebel strongholds.

The Syrian government has blamed “terrorists” for much of the violence that has gripped the county for 18 months.

In another development, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon sharply criticized the Security Council for what he called its “paralysis” on Syria.

He told the U.N. General Assembly, on Wednesday, that a lack of decisive action harms the Syrian people and damages the credibility of the council.

The Security Council's efforts to pressure Syria have been hampered party by Russia and China. The two countries have vetoed three Security Council resolutions on Syria.

On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that his country supported a political transition in Syria.

But, he repeated China's opposition to foreign intervention.

Pirates have seized an oil tanker and its crew near the coast of Nigeria, the third hijacking in the Gulf of Guinea in two weeks.

Nigerian naval officials say pirates seized the Singapore-flagged ship Abu Dhabi Star near the Lagos port. There are conflicting reports about whether the vessel was in Nigerian waters when pirates took control.

Authorities say they believe the pirates will sail the ship to another vessel to siphon out the oil.

Last week pirates seized an oil tanker anchored in Togo's port, an area where crews typically feel more protected from pirate attacks.

The director of the International Maritime Bureau, Pottengal Mukundan, says Togo's navy was unable to rescue that tanker.

“This is very disturbing because it sends the wrong signal to these criminals, that they can succeed in these attacks,” he says.

Pirates freed the tanker and crew seized last week after stealing the oil on the vessel.

Hijackers in the Gulf of Guinea typically release ships and crew members after stealing cargo, unlike pirates in Somalia who usually hold the crew for ransom.

Mukundan warned attacks in the Gulf of Guinea will likely rise unless governments do more to catch and punish the pirates.