Thailand enters calm before election storm (Reuters)

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Political campaigning in Thailand drew to a close Saturday, taking a day to cool off before an election which could exacerbate the country's six-year-old political crisis just as easily as end it.

Opinion polls point to a win by the opposition Puea Thai (For Thais) party led by Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, over the Democrat Party of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Thaksin, who lives in self-appointed exile in Dubai after being ousted by the military in 2006, looms large over the election, popular with the red shirts supporters of Puea Thai and hated by the Democrat elite who want him to stand trial for corruption.

The risk of turbulence lies in the margin of a Puea Thai win and the reaction of the red shirts, mostly rural and urban poor whose protests last year prompted a bloody crackdown. Key as well will be the response of the military, which has a history of intervening in Thai politics.

"It's almost certain the Puea Thai will win, the question is by how much," said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

If they win by a landslide, it would be a "slap in the face" of the Democrats, but would likely rile the military which has a record of launching coups when riled, he said.

Yingluck told reporters Saturday she was confident Puea Thai would win more than 250 seats, an outright majority, while Abhisit appealed to supporters to give the Democrats the same margin of victory.

"What we would like to see is a clean and fair election," Yingluck said, adding that it was premature to talk about a coalition with any other party.

It also is possible the Puea Thai party has reached a deal with the military -- allowing them to rule in return for not pursuing the generals responsible for last year's violence, which killed 91 people, mostly red shirts.

If the margin of the win is small, Puea Thai would have to garner the support of smaller parties. Their backing could be contingent on Thaksin serving jail time for corruption as part of any plan to bring him back from self-exile in Dubai.

There also is the possibility of the Democrats teaming up with smaller parties to get the necessary majority, an outcome sure to bring the red shirts back out on to the streets.

At a stadium packed with about 20,000 people, many under umbrellas in driving rain, Yingluck Friday called for reconciliation and promised a probe of last year's violence.

"If only you give this woman a chance to serve you," she said.

Abhisit warned about 15,000 voters not to believe her.

"They say they will move Thailand forward, but I don't believe they will do so on your behalf," he said, before assuring supporters he would heal rifts in Thai society.

Amnesty International called on whoever wins to end repression, unlawful use of lethal force and intimidation of peaceful dissidents.

Election days in Thailand are traditionally dry affairs, with alcohol sales banned from 6 pm Saturday to midnight on Sunday and the go-go bars closed.

A spoof Web site called "Not the Nation" wondered how the city's foreigners would cope, and whether Thai police were bracing for a weekend of violence from "angry, sober, alcoholic expatriates."

(Additional reporting by Vithoon Amorn; Editing by Brian Rhoads)

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North, south Sudan clash before split: south army (Reuters)

KHARTOUM/JUBA (Reuters) – South Sudan's army said it clashed with northern troops in the disputed Abyei border region on Wednesday, in the latest sign of deteriorating relations in the build-up to the secession of the south in July.

Long-standing tensions between northern and southern-aligned groups along the shared border have come to a head less than a month before the independence of the oil-producing south.

Southerners overwhelmingly voted to declare independence from the north in a January referendum promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north, fought over religion, ethnicity, oil and ideology.

A return to full north-south conflict could have a devastating impact on the region by sending refugees back across borders and creating a failed state in the south at birth.

The south's army said its troops clashed with northern soldiers in Abyei on Wednesday more than three weeks after the northern military seized the fertile, oil-producing area.

A spokesman for the northern army said he had no information about any clashes on Wednesday.

The northern army has also been fighting southern-aligned armed groups in Southern Kordofan -- a northern, oil-producing state that surrounds Abyei on the ill-defined north-south border -- since June 5.

OBAMA CALL

President Barack Obama urged Sudan's government to halt military operations in Southern Kordofan and called for a ceasefire.

"There is no military solution," Obama said, appealing directly to leaders on both sides in an audio message issued through the U.S. government-funded Voice of America network.

Analysts have said the north may be trying to assert its authority along the north-south border to stamp out any remnants of southern support ahead of the split.

The division of Africa's largest country is a highly sensitive subject for the Khartoum government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir which stands to lose around a third of its territory and up to three quarters of its oil reserves when the south leaves.

The United Nations on Wednesday said air strikes on Southern Kordofan may have killed as many as 64 people and caused tens of thousands to flee.

"There is a growing sense of panic among some of the displaced populations who find themselves trapped by the ongoing violence and the ethnic fault lines," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report.

In Geneva, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said the situation in Southern Kordofan was deteriorating and that a "humanitarian corridor" should be created for aid deliveries.

"The problem is that the fighting is spreading by the day," said Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba.

"POLITICAL RUMOURS"

Some civilians were being targeted at checkpoints, she said.

"We even have unconfirmed reports -- people are telling us about torture, harassment, sometimes summary executions at checkpoints ... It is difficult for us to confirm that, but that is what displaced are telling us," she added.

Northern official Rabie Abdelati on Tuesday dismissed allegations of arbitrary torture, arrest and killing in Southern Kordofan as "political rumors."

Both north and south still have to resolve a list of issues ahead of the split, including how they are doing to share the country's oil wealth, the position of their border and the status of Abyei.

Abyei was a key battleground in the civil war and a symbol for both the mostly Muslim north and the south, where most follow Christian and traditional beliefs.

"SPLA and SAF clashed in Abyei in the area of the Kiir bridge (on Wednesday)," southern army spokesman Philip Aguer said, referring to the north's Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

The river, known as Kiir in the south and Bahr al-Arab in the north has become a frontline between northern and southern troops since Khartoum occupied the region.

Aguer said there had been casualties, but did not release any numbers.

The north says it moved into Abyei after southern soldiers attacked its troops in the area. The north has also accused southern-backed groups of trying to start a revolution in Southern Kordofan, the north's main oil state and home to some groups that sided with the south during the civil war.

After talks in neighboring Ethiopia over the weekend, both sides announced on Monday they had agreed "in principle" to pull their troops out of Abyei and deploy Ethiopian peacekeepers.

Southern minister Deng Alor told reporters in Addis Ababa the north was now holding up discussions over the withdrawal of northern troops with last minute conditions.

"Bashir has agreed to withdraw, but the problems are over his request to administer Abyei and over the status of the Ethiopian troops," Deng Alor, south Sudan's minister for regional cooperation, told reporters in Addis Ababa.

(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Geneva and Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa; Writing by Andrew Heavens)

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The calm before the firestorm in Arizona

NEW: Springerville and Eagar residents may be able to go home this weekendThe fire has destroyed 29 homesThe blaze is now 5% contained, officials say A Friday forecast of calm winds could make it easier to fight the fireAre you there? Share photos, video, but stay safe

(CNN) -- Crews battling one of the worst wildfires in Arizona could get their biggest break yet Friday when the high winds driving the flames are expected to weaken.

The blaze has scorched an area bigger than Los Angeles, sending thousands fleeing.

Firefighters battling the so-called Wallow Fire gained ground Thursday for the first time since the blaze broke out in late May. They also confirmed that 29 houses have been destroyed.

The number includes 22 homes in Greer that were annihilated when the blaze blew through town Wednesday afternoon.

See photos of the raging fire and efforts to fight it

Officials were in the process of telling evacuated residents whether their homes had been spared or destroyed, a spokesman said Thursday night.

"For most of us in the fire world, it's unfortunately become a common occurrence that we experience loss of residences," said Jim Whittington, spokesman with the Southwest Interagency Incident Management team. "It doesn't matter if they're rich or poor, if they live in a mansion or if they live in a very small house, the pain on people's faces is exactly the same."

"Our hearts go out to those folks and we're thinking about you," Whittington said.

Gary Linthicum of Scottdale told CNN affiliate KNXV that his family's summer home in Greer was among houses destroyed.

"My wife's taking it pretty hard," Linthicum said. "It was kind of a special place to her and all the kids so it's going to be something we're going to miss."

The house is valued at $1.2 million and is insured, the affiliate said.

Tracy Marasco told the affiliate that her home had survived the flames that had swept through Greer on Wednesday. Thursday's calmer winds brought additional relief for her.

"The erratic winds weren't there so that's a big ray of hope," Marasco said.

Whittington said firefighters on Thursday appeared to turn a corner on the relentless blaze, holding the line in some areas and preventing the spread of the fire into the towns of Eagar and Springerville.

At a community meeting Thursday, residents of those towns were told they might be able to return to their homes over the weekend.

The fire is 5 % contained, Whittington said.

Among other things, firefighters have been relying on a method called backfiring, in which they light smaller fires ahead of the blaze in hopes that it dies in the crispy timber.

"We've been reacting to this fire since the beginning. This was the first day we've been able to go after it," Whittington said.

Calmer winds buttressed the firefighting effort on Thursday. The National Weather Service forecast that Friday's winds could be lighter than they've been since the Wallow Fire started to sweep through Apache National Forest on May 29.

Whittington said the latest forecast gives firefighters a 36-hour window to gain ground before the winds pick up to 25 mph Saturday afternoon.

"Every minute, every second between now and when those winds hit, we've got to be doing really good work," Whittington said.

On Thursday, fire officials and power companies said they were planning for the possibility that the blaze would reach crucial transmission lines that supply power to thousands.

El Paso Electric said that the fire had crept to within 15 miles of company transmission lines that serve nearly 400,000 people. The utility was preparing for contingency plans, including rolling blackouts in some areas, she said.

"We do have a couple of transmissions lines that the fire is approaching. The fire is currently about eight miles from that line," Joe Salkowski, spokesman for Tucson Electric Power told CNN.

Tucson Electric serves about 400,000 customers, Salkowski said.

Another area power company, Navopache Electric, said on its website that some of its service territory remained without power, including Greer, Sunrise, Big Lake and South Fork.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has declared a state of emergency to mobilize funds for the wildfires in Apache and Greenlee counties.

The blaze, about 525 square miles, has caused authorities to evacuate more than 6,000 people.

Journalist Craig Johnson contributed to this report.

CNN

IMF accuser to testify before grand jury

New York (CNN) -- The head of the International Monetary Fund could be released on bail as early as Thursday pending a deal defense attorneys plan to submit on behalf of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, according to a court spokesman.

Strauss-Kahn, who is accused of sexual assault and the attempted rape of a 32-year-old Guinean-born maid, currently sits in a New York jail cell after being initially denied bail by a Manhattan Criminal Court judge.

His attorneys plan to appear in New York State Supreme Court on Thursday, to present a deal that could secure Strauss-Kahn's release, according to court administration spokesman David Bookstaver.

Prosecutors have warned that the powerful IMF chief is a potential flight risk.

Meanwhile, the alleged victim is set to testify before a grand jury in Manhattan Criminal Court, according to her attorney and a source with knowledge of the case.

"I want her to feel safe," said her attorney, Jeffrey Shapiro. "To the extent that his freedom would impair her feeling of safety, that would deeply concern me."

The woman, a widow with one child who lives in the Bronx borough of New York, is expected to refute the notion that the incident was consensual, Shapiro said.

Prosecutors allege that a naked Strauss-Kahn, 62, chased the housekeeping employee through his posh Manhattan hotel suite on Saturday and sexually assaulted her.

But Strauss-Kahn's defense attorneys say the incident was consensual. "The forensic evidence, we believe, will not be consistent with a forcible account, and we believe there is a very, very defensible case," attorney Benjamin Brafman said during Strauss-Kahn's arraignment Monday.

The IMF chief faces an array of charges, including two counts of first-degree criminal sexual act, one count of first-degree attempted rape, one count of first-degree sexual abuse, one count of second-degree unlawful imprisonment, one count of forcible touching and one count of third-degree sexual abuse.

"He grabbed the victim's chest without consent, attempted to remove her pantyhose" and forcibly grabbed her between her legs, the complaint against Strauss-Kahn says. He also forced her to perform oral sex on him, Assistant District Attorney John McConnell said at the arraignment. The woman also was forced to have anal sex, according to the charging document.

Afterward, the employee alerted hotel staff, New York Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said.

By the time police arrived at the Sofitel hotel on Saturday, Strauss-Kahn had left in the hotel limousine, according to a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation.

The IMF chief was captured on security video leaving the hotel and "appears to be in a rush," according to the source,

Defense attorneys dispute the reasons that Strauss-Kahn left the hotel quickly.

He apparently had a lunch appointment with his daughter and had booked his flight to Paris far in advance, according to a source with knowledge of the case.

It is not clear whether the maid was also seen on the video.

The law enforcement source said Strauss-Kahn was examined for scratches and DNA samples were taken, and investigators searched for other evidence in the suite, including possible bodily fluids from both individuals. Strauss-Kahn consented to the testing after investigators were prepared to execute a search warrant, the source said.

Forensic test results could be ready as soon as Strauss-Kahn's next court appearance, scheduled for Friday.

As one of the most powerful men in global economics, Strauss-Kahn was supposed to give the keynote speech at the Brussels Economic Forum in Belgium on Wednesday.

Instead, he sits in a New York jail cell.

Three weeks ago -- well before his visit to the New York Sofitel -- Strauss-Kahn, who had been considered a leading contender for the French presidential elections next year, discussed the possibility of a woman falsely claiming he attacked her.

In an interview April 28 with the French daily newspaper Liberation, he imagined "a woman who would be raped in a parking lot and who would then be promised 500,000 or a million euros to invent such a story," the paper reported in an article published Monday, two days after the alleged attempted rape.

Speaking to the paper about suggestions he could become France's Socialist Party candidate for president, Strauss-Kahn discussed "the long -- too long from his point of view -- campaign to come and the difficulties he will have to overcome," the paper reported.

"He sees three in the following order: 'Money, women and my Jewishness.' " He added, "Yes, I love women ... so what? For years they have been talking about photos of massive orgies, but I have not seen anything. ... Why don't they show them!"

At New York's Rikers Island jail complex, Strauss-Kahn was placed on suicide watch, a common procedure in high-profile cases, two sources with direct knowledge of the case told CNN.

Analysts suggest his career and political future are now in jeopardy.

"I do not see how he can perform his duties as director of the IMF. So by definition, this issue should be resolved in the coming days," Jean-Francois Cope, secretary-general of France's ruling UMP party, told reporters Wednesday.

The comments came a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Strauss-Kahn is "obviously not in a position to run the IMF," and Austria's finance minister Maria Fekter said "he should think about whether he is damaging the institution," and consider stepping down.

A former French finance minister, national legislator and economics professor in Paris, Strauss-Kahn became the IMF's 10th managing director in November 2007.

While the top job at the World Bank is customarily held by an American, the IMF chief is traditionally European.

But as pressure mounts over Strauss-Kahn's possible resignation, there appears growing sentiment among developing nations to buck the trend.

Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said that succession should be based "on merit" and the position "should be considered (among) candidates from emerging countries," Portugal's official news agency reported Wednesday.

South Africa's finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, said a new IMF chief should come from a developing nation,

"We need to have an inclusive system," said Colin Bradford, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former chief economist at the U.S. Agency for International Development

"The West needs to include the emerging markets and encourage merit based leadership," he said. "We need an inclusive system, otherwise we're not going to have a structure that can manage the planet and implement a fair and legitimate system of global guidance."

Bradford suggested the scandal is an opportunity to change the unofficial policy, but others like German government spokesman Christoph Steegmans said the institution's leadership should remain European.

In Strauss-Kahn's absence, First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky has been named acting managing director, "and the fund continues its normal work," according to IMF spokesman William Murray.

The IMF chief was widely viewed as a front-runner to unseat French President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's elections, and the charges against him have left some French citizens thinking he is the victim of a conspiracy.

According to a poll released Wednesday by the Conseil Sondage Analyses (Council of Polling Analysis), 57% of French people think Strauss-Kahn was victimized.

Still, 54% said they think Strauss-Kahn's Socialist Party can win in the 2012 presidential race without him.

The alleged victim moved to the United States from the West African country of Guinea. She had been working at the hotel for three years, according to a statement from the managing director of Sofitel, and was considered a good employee.

"Her world has been turned upside down," her attorney, Shapiro, said. "She is very scared about her future."

Shapiro said his client is cooperating with police and prosecutors, and is willing to testify against Strauss-Kahn.

The accuser picked the IMF chief out of a lineup Sunday at a New York police station, saying he was the man who had sexually assaulted her, according to a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation.

Diplomatic immunity, however, does not apply to the charges before him, Murray said.

CNN's Susan Candiotti, Deb Feyerick, Ivan Watson, Adam Reiss, Richard Roth, Saskya Vandoorne, Caroline Paterson, David Ariosto, Raelyn Johnson and Jim Bittermann contributed to this report.

CNN

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Is the U.S. safer today than before 9/11?

America has not seen a large-scale terrorist attack since September 11.Experts believe the U.S. is safer today than before September 11, 2001But they say the nation still faces threats that are very realMuch remains to be done, says a former National Security Council member

(CNN) -- The United States has adopted numerous measures to make itself safer since al Qaeda slammed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of billions of dollars spent to improve security and strengthen intelligence capabilities. More security for travelers.

After nearly a decade, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead, killed early Monday in Pakistan by U.S. special forces, officials said.

But is the United States any safer today than it was on September 10, 2001?

Experts mostly believe -- some strongly, some tentatively -- it is. But, they caution, by no means is it time for the nation to relax its guard.

"I think it's a mixed bag," said Amy Zegart, an associate professor at UCLA's School of Public Affairs who served on the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton in 1993. "... We're never safe. The question is, are we moving in the right direction? The answer is yes, but we have a long way to go."

"There's no question about that -- much safer," said Thomas Kean, former New Jersey governor and chair of the 9/11 commission, which investigated the attack and issued recommendations. "But not safe enough. We've still got some work to do. There are new threats. We need to adjust to those threats."

There has not been a large-scale terror attack on the United States since 9/11. There have, however, been some foiled attacks -- the attempted bombing in Times Square last year, for instance, or the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing on a flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit.

There also have been successful attacks, such as the November 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed and dozens of others wounded. Two U.S. senators found that FBI and Army officials repeatedly ignored multiple warning signs, including the suspect's "radicalization to violent Islamist extremism" and his reported communications with a suspected terrorist, according to a February report. The alleged gunman, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, reportedly communicated via e-mail with radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

"I think we're safer in terms of al Qaeda central," said Tom Fuentes, a CNN contributor and former FBI assistant director. U.S. military actions in Afghanistan forced al Qaeda to go further underground, he said, and reduced both bin Laden's and al Qaeda's effectiveness in carrying out "the big attacks."

"You've had instead the splinter groups start doing the other types of attacks," he said, eventually getting to the point where "they'll do anything they can do" -- attacks like the Times Square plot, for instance, which aim to kill one to 100 people rather than thousands.

But, he said, Americans are vulnerable to those smaller attacks. "You're always going to have the lone wolf, the psychopath, whether it be al Qaeda or others," Fuentes said.

Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, was linked to the Pakistani Taliban. But John Brennan, assistant to the president for counterterrorism and homeland security, said at the time of Shahzad's arrest that group, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban, or TTP -- is "closely allied with al Qaeda."

While the United States has made strides in preventing a would-be terrorist from coming into the country, homegrown terrorism remains one of the biggest threats the nation faces, Kean said. "We have to have a mechanism to deal with that," he said.

"I think we're absolutely safer, but it's more than just the killing of bin Laden, " said Frances Fragos Townsend, CNN national security contributor and homeland security advisor under President George W. Bush.

While "nothing is perfect," the United States has closed many of its vulnerabilities, she said. Even something as simple as buying large amounts of fertilizer now raises red flags, making it much more difficult for would-be terrorists. In addition, law enforcement and surveillance authorities are more aggressive and able to uncover plots much earlier, she said.

Without question, the nation's security and intelligence capabilities are much stronger than they were before the 9/11 attacks, and have effectively prevented such an attack from happening again, said Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst.

The 9/11 conspirators, he pointed out, would never be able to conduct the same kinds of actions today as they did pre-9/11 -- getting into the United States, taking flight lessons, wiring money overseas -- without catching authorities' attention. Their command and control centers -- in Germany, where a cell in Hamburg is believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan -- either no longer exist or have been severely crippled.

"Their ability to do that kind of attack is close to zero," Bergen said. "... These groups retain some capability, but they're under tremendous pressure."

At the time of the 9/11 attacks, 16 people were on the U.S. no-fly list, Bergen said. That number is now in the thousands. Air travelers face increased security and scrutiny at airport checkpoints, and must remove their shoes at the checkpoints because of another failed bombing attempt, in December 2001.

Before 9/11, the FBI and CIA didn't share information regularly, and the United States did not focus on overseas intelligence cooperation as it does today, Bergen said. The CIA's budget has doubled, Townsend said, and the number of case officers increased.

The United States' intelligence relationship with Saudi Arabia, for instance, is "as productive and as strong as our relationship with the British, which was not the case 10 years ago," Townsend said. Those countries understand our enemies better than we do, culturally and operationally, as they live in the same neighborhood, she added.

Kean said, "We're talking to each other now much more." The nation's 17 intelligence agencies were "silos" before 9/11, he said.

"Our targets are certainly harder than they were before," Zegart said. "Intelligence is better coordinated." But, she points out, that bar was low before 9/11. "We were caught flat-footed. ... We had nowhere to go but up."

One of the most dangerous issues still facing the United States is the fact that a common radio frequency has not been set up for first responders, Kean said.

On 9/11, as the World Trade Center towers began collapsing while New York firefighters were inside trying to save people, police had no way to warn them, he said. The same thing was seen during Hurricane Katrina, when "people in the boats couldn't talk to people in the helicopters." He said it's hard for him to believe that, nearly a decade after 9/11, a communications spectrum for first responders does not exist.

In a sense, al Qaeda has also contributed to its own downfall, Fuentes said. "Between 80 and 90% of the people who have been killed by al Qaeda are Muslims. That's really caused them to lose a lot of support in Muslim countries themselves." In addition, nations like Saudi Arabia and Yemen have lost any tolerance they may have had for al Qaeda and are not offering them anything resembling a safe haven, he said.

The to-do list for the United States remains long, Zegart said. On it are tasks such as defining the role -- and the power -- of the director of national intelligence, as well as those of the so-called "fusion centers," aimed at coordinating federal, state and local law enforcement. "We've got to carry the ball forward. We cannot think that the threat is gone."

"I think this is a critical juncture," she said. "It was before Osama bin Laden's death and even more so today." Figures like al-Awlaki continue to pose a threat, she said.

Also, there is still no proper oversight of intelligence agencies, Kean said. Some 80 congressional committees oversee the Department of Homeland Security, he said, and "instead of protecting us, (officials are) always testifying."

"The killing of bin Laden, yes, it makes us safer," Townsend said. "We've denied our enemy the inspirational leadership, the architect of the doctorate of al Qaeda. ... Does it mean the war's over? No. Does it mean there's still a threat? Absolutely. But it's a crippling blow."

CNN

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Congressional Blame Game Begins Before Government Shutdown Starts

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As a potential federal government shutdown looms, there are parallel efforts underway -- one to figure out how to reach an agreement, and another to cast blame in case there isn't one.

And as both parties focused on a temporary measure to avoid a shutdown, lawmakers were already pointing fingers.

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Leading black scholar dies days before book release

Leading black scholar dies days before Malcolm X biography release By Katie Silver, CNN STORY HIGHLIGHTSColumbia University director of black history center dies at 61Dr. Manning Marable wrote 20 booksUpcoming book on Malcolm X has high expectations New York (CNN) -- Dr Manning Marable, director of Columbia University's Center for Contemporary Black History has died, according to a statement from the NAACP. He was 61.

The statement did not give a cause of the Friday death.

"Dr. Marable's contributions to the struggle for freedom of African Americans will never be forgotten," stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous.

"Dr. Marable brought one of the keenest intellects of our age to the contemporary conversation on race in America," Jealous said.

Born in 1950, Dr Marable was a professor at Cornell, Fisk, Colgate, Ohio State and Colorado universities before founding the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia in 1993, according to the website for the Columbia center, CCBH.

This center went on to become one of the nation's most prestigious centers on African-American Study, the website said.

A prolific author, Dr Marable wrote some 200 articles and 20 books, though many have said his forthcoming 594-page book, ""Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,"" is one of his life's great achievements.

"So much that has been written and portrayed on Malcolm X has been a series of iconic, misleading images," Dr Marable told CNN in 2003. "He's been expropriated by everybody from the hip-hop generation to the U.S. Postal Service."

"Let's now document the true meaning of Malcolm through his own words," Dr Marable said.

A public memorial service is planned for May 27 by his wife, three children and two stepchildren, according to the NAACP release.

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