Trump’s son met Kremlin-linked lawyer after promise of damaging info about Clinton – NYT

President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. agreed to meet with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the 2016 campaign after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing three advisers to the White House.

Trump’s then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended the meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, two weeks after Trump won the Republican nomination, the Times reported.

The Times quoted a statement from Donald Trump Jr. in which he acknowledged meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

“After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton,” the Times quoted Donald Trump Jr. as saying. Clinton was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

“Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

The Times said Veselnitskaya then turned the conversation to the adoption of Russian children and a U.S. law blackisting Russians linked to alleged human-rights abuses.

President Trump was “not aware of and did not attend” the meeting reported by the Times, Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team, said in an emailed statement.

Trump Jr. was quoted saying he believed information on Clinton was only a pretext for the meeting. The Times said it was unclear whether Veselnitskaya produced the promised compromising information about Clinton.

Trump Jr. told the Times he did not tell Manafort and Kushner what the meeting was about when he asked them to attend.

Representatives for Manafort and Kushner did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

Allegations of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia have cast a shadow over Donald Trump’s first five months in office, distracting from attempts by his fellow Republicans in Congress to overhaul the U.S. healthcare and tax systems.

The Kremlin has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Moscow tried to tilt the election in Trump’s favor, using such means as hacking into the emails of senior Democrats.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion.

The allegations came up during Trump’s meeting on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin but the two agreed to focus on better ties rather than litigating the past.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Trump accepted Putin’s assertions the allegations of Russian meddling were false.

Trump said on Sunday he and Putin had discussed forming a cyber security unit, an idea harshly criticized by Republicans who said Moscow could not be trusted after its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

source: interaksyon.com

Evictions, sanctions as US strikes back at Russia over election hacks

HONOLULU/WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian suspected spies and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over their involvement in hacking US political groups in the 2016 presidential election.

The measures, taken during the last days of Obama's presidency, mark a new post-Cold War low in US-Russian ties which have deteriorated over Ukraine and Syria.

Allegations by US intelligence agencies that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed efforts to intervene in the US election process by hacking mostly Democrats have made relations even worse.

"These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm US interests in violation of established international norms of behavior," Obama said in a statement from vacation in Hawaii.

It was not immediately clear whether President-elect Donald Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin and nominated people seen as friendly toward Moscow to senior administration posts, would seek to roll back the measures once he takes office on January 20.

The Kremlin, which denounced the sanctions as unlawful and promised "adequate" retaliation, questioned whether Trump approved of the new sanctions. Moscow denies the hacking allegations.

US intelligence agencies say Russia was behind hacks into Democratic Party organizations and operatives ahead of the November 8 presidential election. US intelligence officials also say that the Russian cyberattacks were aimed at helping Trump, a Republican, defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump has rejected that conclusion and said on Wednesday that "we ought to get on with our lives," when asked about possible tough sanctions for the cyberattacks.

Should Trump seek to overturn Obama's measures, he would likely encounter wide bipartisan Congressional opposition.

US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, said Russia "has consistently sought to undermine" US interests and the sanctions were overdue.

Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said they intended to lead effort in Congress to "impose stronger sanctions on Russia."

The actions on Thursday were the strongest response by the Obama administration to Russia's cyber activities, however, a senior administration official acknowledged that Trump could reverse them and allow Russian intelligence officials back into the United States once he takes office. He said that would be "inadvisable".

"We believe these steps are important because Russia is not going to stop," one official said. "We have every indication that they will interfere in democratic elections in other countries, including some of our European allies," the official said.

Persona non grata

Obama is seeking to deter Russia and other foreign governments from leveraging cyberattacks in the future to meddle in US politics, former officials and cyber security experts said.

Obama put sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies, the GRU and the FSB, four GRU officers and three companies "that provided material support to the GRU’s cyber operations.

Obama said the State Department declared as "persona non grata" 35 Russian intelligence operatives and is closing two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland that were used by Russian personnel for "intelligence-related purposes". The State Department originally said the 35 were diplomats.

A senior US official told Reuters the expulsions would come from the Russian embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco. The Russian embassy declined to comment on the expulsions.

The Russians have 72 hours to leave the United States, the official said. Access to the two compounds will be denied to all Russian officials as of noon on Friday, the senior US official added.

"These actions were taken to respond to Russian harassment of American diplomats and actions by the diplomats that we have assessed to be not consistent with diplomatic practice," the official said.

The State Department has long complained that Russian security agents and traffic police have harassed US diplomats in Moscow, and US Secretary of State John Kerry has raised the issue with Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

The US official declined to name the Russian diplomats who would be affected, although it is understood that Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, will not be one of those expelled.

The United States also released an analysis report by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security examining forensic evidence officials said linked the cyberattacks to computer systems used by Russian intelligence services.

The report largely corroborates the existing findings of private sector cyber firms that investigated the breach at the Democratic National Committee and elsewhere.

source: interaksyon.com

Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Katy Perry lead celebs mourning Clinton loss

Lady Gaga called for kindness, Miley Cyrus was in tears, Madonna vowed never to give up and Katy Perry urged Americans not to weep as Republican Donald Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored Democrat Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.

Celebrities, many of whom had campaigned for Clinton, were shocked as Trump was elected after a long and bitter campaign.

A tearful Cyrus posted a video on social media on Wednesday saying she had not slept because of Clinton’s loss. But the “Wrecking Ball” singer, 23, who had said earlier this year she would leave the country if Trump won, urged unity, saying “Donald Trump, I accept you as President of the United States … Please treat people with compassion and respect.”

Lady Gaga went to Trump Tower in Manhattan early on Wednesday and posted a picture of herself on Instagram holding a “Love trumps hate” campaign poster.

“I want to live in a #CountryOfKindness #LoveTrumpsHate. He divided us so carelessly. Let’s take care now of each other,” she wrote.

Hollywood actors, comedians and filmmakers had thrown their support behind Clinton. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, entertainment sources contributed $22 million to her campaign and to pro-Clinton super-PACs through Oct. 19, compared with less than $290,000 for Donald Trump, Hollywood trade publication Variety reported this week.

Cher, who had said earlier in the campaign that she would move to Jupiter if Trump was elected, tweeted “World will never be the same. I feel sad for the young.” She made no mention of moving out of the United States.

Perry, who performed for Clinton at several campaign rallies, said “Do not sit still. Do not weep. MOVE. We are not a nation that will let HATE lead us.”

“A New Fire Is Lit. We Never Give Up. We never Give In,” wrote Madonna on Twitter.

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who is British, got into a Twitter spat after urging her followers to challenge “racism, misogyny and hatred.”

But Trump too had his show business supporters.

“CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT TRUMP! @realDonaldTrump against all odds ..against the establishment and even against most from the GOP..U did it!,” tweeted former “Cheers” actress Kirstie Alley.

Actor Stephen Baldwin, the brother of “Saturday Night Live” star Alec Baldwin, tweeted that he was “proud to have been part of such amazing history.”

source: interaksyon.com

At long last, Americans decide between Clinton and Trump

NEW YORK - Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump face the judgment of the voters on Tuesday as millions of Americans turn out on Election Day to pick the next US president and end a bruising campaign that polls said favored Clinton.

In a battle centered largely on the character of the candidates, Clinton, 69, a former secretary of state and first lady, and Trump, 70, a New York businessman, made their final, fervent appeals to supporters late on Monday to turn out to vote.

Their final week of campaigning was a grinding series of get-out-the-vote rallies across battleground states where the election is likely to be decided.

"We choose to believe in a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America," Clinton said in Philadelphia before a crowd of 33,000 - the biggest of her campaign.

She was joined by Democratic President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton

Trump made one of his final appearances late on Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire, where polls showed a tight race.

“Tomorrow, the American working class will strike back,” Trump said. “It’s about time.”

He brought much of his family on stage for his last rally in the state where he scored his first victory in the Republican nomination fight.

First woman president

Clinton went into Election Day as the favorite to become the first US woman president after spending eight years in the White House as the first lady in the 1990s.

A Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll gave Clinton a 90 percent chance of defeating Trump and said she was on track to win 303 Electoral College votes out of 270 needed, to Trump's 235.

But Trump advisers said the level of his support was not apparent in the polling and believed the New York businessman was in position for an upset victory along the lines of the "Brexit" vote in June to pull Britain from the European Union.

"We have seen enormous momentum," said deputy Trump campaign manager Dave Bossie.

Financial markets brightened in reaction to the latest twists in what has been a volatile presidential campaign. Global stock markets and the US dollar surged, putting them on track for their biggest gains in weeks.

Investors, who see Clinton as a known quantity, were buoyed by an announcement on Sunday by FBI Director James Comey that cleared Clinton of a cloud of controversy involving her use of a private email server while President Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

While opinion polls showed a close race, but tilting toward Clinton, major bookmakers and online exchanges were more confident of a Clinton victory. PredictIt put her chances of capturing the White House at 81 percent.

Both Clinton and Trump planned to vote on Tuesday - she in Chappaqua, New York, and he in Manhattan. They were then to hold victory rallies about a mile apart in the evening in New York City.

Eyes on Florida, North Carolina
An early indicator of the strength of each candidate could come in North Carolina and Florida, two must-win states for Trump that have been the subject of frantic last-minute efforts by both the Republican and Democratic campaigns.

Races in both those states were shifting from favoring Clinton to being too close to call.

A strong vote for Clinton could jeopardize Republican control of the US Senate, as voters choose 34 senators of the 100-member chamber. Democrats needed a net gain of five seats to win control. The 435-seat House of Representatives was expected, however, to remain in Republican hands.

Voters had to choose between Clinton, who has vowed to largely continue the policies of Democrat Obama, and Trump, who has never held public office and has positioned himself as a change agent. Both were viewed unfavorably by majorities of voters.

The long-running US election campaign has been one of the most negative in American history with each candidate accusing the other of lacking the character and judgment to be president.

Trump, a former reality TV star, reveled in the drama and seized the spotlight time and again with provocative comments about Muslims and women, attacks against the Republican establishment and bellicose appeals to build a wall along the US southern border with Mexico to stem illegal immigration.

But the spotlight was not always kind to Trump, with the release of a 2005 video in which he boasted about groping women damaging his campaign and leaving him on the defensive for critical weeks.

Clinton, a former US senator with a penchant for secrecy, sustained damaging blows of her own linked to her handling of classified information as the country's top diplomat. FBI Director Comey shook up the race and slowed her momentum with an Oct. 28 announcement the agency was reviewing newly discovered emails that might pertain to her email practices.

On Sunday, Comey told Congress that investigators had found no reason to change their July finding that there was no criminal wrongdoing in Clinton's use of the server. (Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson and Amanda Becker)

source: interaksyon.com

Clinton camp dares FBI to tell about Trump's Russia ties

WASHINGTON/FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A top aide to Hillary Clinton urged the FBI on Tuesday to disclose what it knows about any ties between Donald Trump and Russia, accusing the agency of unfairly publicizing its inquiry into Clinton's email practices while staying quiet about the Republican presidential candidate.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a preliminary inquiry in recent months into allegations that Trump or his associates might have had questionable dealings with Russian people or businesses, but found no evidence to warrant opening a full investigation, according to sources familiar with the matter. The agency has not publicly discussed the probe.

A week before Election Day, the Clinton campaign was trying to contain damage from the announcement by FBI Director James Comey on Friday that his agency was looking into newly discovered emails that might relate to Clinton's use of a private server while she was secretary of state.

Clinton has voiced confidence the FBI will not find anything problematic.

She campaigned on Tuesday in the battleground state of Florida, where she was joined in Dade City by former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom Trump had mocked for gaining weight. Chants of “Lock her up!” from dozens of Trump supporters gathered nearby could be faintly heard while Clinton spoke.

In Ft. Lauderdale, a young man who yelled, "She's a liar" was escorted out of the rally. Several other protesters removed during the course of her speech.

"I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior from people who support Donald Trump," Clinton said as another protester was removed from the rally.

Trump and other Republicans have seized on Comey's announcement, which did not indicate any wrongdoing by Clinton, to ratchet up criticism of the Democratic candidate. She leads in most opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Trump urged people on Tuesday who voted early for his Democratic rival to cancel their ballots and switch to him.

"This is a message for any Democratic voters who have already cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton and who are having a bad case of buyer's remorse, in other words you want to change your vote," Trump told a Wisconsin rally.

“So if you live here or in Michigan or Pennsylvania or Minnesota, you can change your vote to Donald Trump."

Several states, including those cited by Trump, have a process to allow voters who cast early ballots to change their votes, either by submitting new ballots or showing up at their polling place on Election Day.

'Connections to the Russians'

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook questioned why the FBI director had not released any information about the agency's Russia inquiries.

"If you're in the business of releasing information about investigations on presidential candidates, release everything you have on Donald Trump. Release the information on his connections to the Russians," Mook said on CNN.

The FBI inquiry reviewed allegations that Trump or his associates might have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or engaged in contacts or commerce with people in Russia who are subject to US or international financial sanctions.

The US government has blamed Russia for cyberattacks on Democratic Party organizations. Democrats criticize Trump for taking what they say is a pro-Russia foreign policy stance.

Russia's possible role in the campaign again came into focus when online magazine Slate said a group of computer scientists had been alarmed by records showing thousands of apparent connection attempts between an email server operated on behalf of the Trump Organization and computers inside a Russian company, Alfa Bank in Moscow.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the server, which had been used to send out hotel marketing material, had been dormant for years.

Prominent US cyber security company FireEye said it had been hired by Alfa Bank to investigate the records and had been granted access to the bank’s systems in Moscow to look for evidence of any relationship with Trump’s company or any signs of hacking or infection. FireEye said so far it had found no emails being sent back and forth or any other link.

Opinion polls showed Clinton's lead has narrowed slightly since early last week but it was too early to say whether the email controversy was hurting her.

Clinton led businessman Trump in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters released on Monday, by 44 percent to 39 percent. Clinton, hoping to be the first woman elected president, strengthened her lead over Trump in polls after the release last month of a 2005 video in which the Republican bragged in vulgar terms about groping women.

But in a dramatic twist, Comey told Congress in a letter on Friday that the FBI was reviewing the newly discovered emails.

Comey had announced in July that the FBI had completed a probe into the email practices, concluding there were no grounds to bring any charges.

Clinton's team has been pressing the FBI to provide details on the new trove of emails, which Comey said may or may not be significant in the case.

Little is publicly known yet about the emails, other than that they were found during an unrelated probe into former US Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Comey's letter has provided Republicans with fresh fodder for attack in the waning days of the campaign. US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday that a Clinton presidency would bog down in "scandal baggage."

Congressional Republicans, who had been concerned Trump risked damaging their majorities in the House and Senate, were also encouraged by his recent statements on efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. A campaign aide said if Trump wins, he would ask Congress to begin working on legislation to repeal the law before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

source: interaksyon.com

Clinton, Trump move to show medical fitness for White House

WHITE PLAINS, NY -- US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Wednesday moved to show their medical fitness for the White House as Clinton released a letter from her doctor declaring her fit for the presidency and Trump taped a TV-segment about his well-being.

Clinton, 68, is healthy and fit to serve as president and is currently recovering from non-contagious, bacterial pneumonia, her physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, said in a letter about the Democratic nominee’s medical condition released by the campaign.

Trump, 70, knows he could stand to lose a few pounds but otherwise is in great health, campaign adviser Sarah Huckabee Sanders told MSNBC on Wednesday after the Republican nominee taped an episode of the “Dr. Oz Show” in New York that will air on Thursday.

Bardack, in her letter about Clinton, wrote: “She is recovering well with antibiotics and rest. She continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as President of the United States.”

The announcements came as Clinton spent a third day resting at her home in Chappaqua, New York, after falling ill on Sunday morning as she left a September 11 memorial in New York City. Video footage taken by a bystander showed Clinton becoming dizzy as she attempted to get into a waiting vehicle. Her campaign said later in the day that the former secretary of state had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday.

Though senior aides knew about Clinton’s diagnosis, the delay in public disclosure fueled criticism that she is prone to secrecy and fed unsubstantiated internet rumors that she is hiding a health issue.

Bardack said Clinton’s pneumonia was diagnosed after a chest scan on Friday and that she was prescribed a 10-day course of antibiotics.

Bacterial pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics while viral pneumonia necessitates a different approach, according to Dr. Steve Simpson, acting director of the Division of Pulmonary Disease at the University of Kansas Hospital. Simpson has not evaluated or treated Clinton.

Since bacterial pneumonia is not contagious, Clinton was at no risk of transmitting the infection at campaign and fundraising events before or after she was diagnosed. She is scheduled to return to the campaign trail on Thursday.

Bardack said Clinton’s cholesterol and blood pressure are within normal ranges. She had a normal mammogram and breast ultrasound and shows no signs of developing heart disease, which runs in her family. Clinton takes medication for an underactive thyroid, which has been stable for years, Clarinex for her allergies, a vitamin B12 supplement and the blood thinner Coumadin following a 2012 blood clot in her head.

In December 2012, as Clinton was near the end of her term as secretary of state, she fell at home and suffered a concussion, developing a blood clot shortly thereafter.

Since then, Clinton’s dosage of Coumadin has “been adjusted as needed according to regular lab testing,” Bardack said. After consultation with a specialist, a decision was made to not switch Clinton to a newer anticoagulation drug.

Bardack had released a two-page assessment of Clinton’s health in July 2015. Trump’s campaign released a brief letter from his personal physician in December 2015 that said he was in “astonishingly excellent” health but did not provide detail about treatment or medications.

Neither candidate has released the type of detailed or voluminous medical records provided by past presidential candidates such as US Senator John McCain, who in 2008 allowed reporters to review 1,173 pages of medical records after concerns were raised about a cancer scare.

Trump’s campaign has said he will release additional medical information to the public in the coming days.

The “Dr. Oz Show” on Wednesday released a short clip of its Thursday segment with Trump. In it, Trump gives Dr. Mehmet Oz two letters showing the results of medical tests conducted last week. Huckabee Sanders said she did not see the summary Trump showed Oz, but “he self-admitted he could lose a few pounds.”

Trump weighs 267 pounds, according to media reports. That weight would mean Trump, like many Americans but few US presidents, is considered medically obese, according to body mass index standards.

Clinton’s running-mate, US Senator Tim Kaine, 58, also released a physician letter on Wednesday. Dr. Brian Monahan, who oversees the Office of the Attending Physician in the US Congress, said Kaine, as of his last physical last February, was in “overall excellent health.” Monahan said Kaine was on no medications but recommended a vitamin D supplement.

source: interaksyon.com

Sidelined by pneumonia, Clinton vows quick return to campaign trail

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton sought to draw a line Monday under the health scare rocking her White House campaign, assuring supporters she will return to the fray this week as her team stated she has no medical ailments other than pneumonia.

Clinton was set to get a boost Tuesday, when President Barack Obama will hit the campaign trail to support her bid to replace him.

Facing intensifying scrutiny about her health, the Democrat will also make new disclosures of medical records and data, as her team acknowledged it stumbled when it failed to transparently alert the press and public about Clinton's condition at the weekend.

"I felt dizzy and I did lose my balance for a minute, but once I got in (the van), once I could sit down, once I could cool off, once I had some water, I immediately started feeling better," Clinton told CNN, adding that she would be back on the campaign trail within the "next couple of days."

Clinton, 68, fell ill at a 9/11 memorial event in New York and was seen wobbling as she was helped into her vehicle, forcing her campaign to disclose she had been diagnosed with the acute respiratory infection.

The incident -- captured on amateur video -- gave her Republican rival Donald Trump, 70, a new opening to question her fitness for the nation's highest office as the race heats up with eight weeks until Election Day.

The campaign said she "felt overheated," then released a statement by her personal doctor, Lisa Bardack, revealing that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia Friday and was suffering from dehydration.

"There's no other undisclosed condition. The pneumonia is the extent of it," Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon told MSNBC.

On CNN, Clinton initially said that she has "twice" gotten dehydrated and felt dizzy over the past five years, then said it had been "a few times."

Clinton was forced to scrap her California fundraising trip Monday and Tuesday. And the campaign acknowledged, just as Clinton was tweeting, that she will not attend her scheduled campaign event Wednesday in Nevada -- with Bill Clinton due to stump there on her behalf according to an aide to the former president.

In his first public comments since Clinton abruptly left Sunday's Ground Zero ceremony, an unusually restrained Trump offered her his wishes for a rapid recovery.

But he also suggested the former secretary of state's health issues were of longer standing than admitted.

"Something is going on but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail, and we'll be seeing her at the debate" in two weeks, the Republican told Fox News.

The unexpected turn of events has turned a conservative angle of attack into a serious line of questioning about Clinton's health and why it took two days to reveal the pneumonia diagnosis.

"Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What's the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?" asked David Axelrod, a former White House aide to Barack Obama, on Twitter.

Clinton admitted: "If we weren't fast enough, you know, I've talked to my staff, we, you know, take responsibility for that."

But she quickly insisted she has been far more transparent than Trump.

"The information is out there. You can't say the same thing about Donald Trump," she said.

"The American people deserve to know what he's up to and what he is hiding."

'Not the first time'

The episode has fueled fresh speculation and conspiracy theories on the internet, already awash with unsubstantiated rumors Clinton may have a brain tumor, Parkinson's or dementia.

The root of persistent claims about Clinton's health lies in 2012, toward the end of her tenure as secretary of state.

A stomach virus and dehydration prompted her to faint, causing what her doctor said was a concussion. Doctors said they found a blood clot on the brain. Clinton later received the all-clear.

On Monday, Fallon insisted that "there was nothing here in terms of anything that was caused by what happened in 2012."

He also said Clinton's team would be releasing medical records "in the next few days" in order to "further put to rest any lingering concerns about what you saw yesterday."

Trump also promised to release medical records once test results are back.

The former first lady has dismissed rumors about her health, but Trump has repeatedly raised doubts about Clinton's stamina and physical strength, and he questioned her campaign's account of the current episode.

"They say pneumonia on Friday, but she was coughing very, very badly a week ago and even before that if you remember, and this was not the first time," he told CNBC.

'Hard time keeping up'

Clinton spokesman Fallon said several senior Clinton collaborators at campaign headquarters in Brooklyn also fell ill in recent weeks, including campaign manager Robby Mook. But it was not known if that was the source of Clinton's infection.

Democrats including her running mate Tim Kaine rushed to her defense.

"Her energy staggers me," he told a crowd in Dayton, Ohio. "I have a hard time keeping up with her."

source: interaksyon.com

Clinton vows to be president for 'all Americans'

PHILADELPHIA -- Hillary Clinton on Thursday accepted the Democratic Party's White House nomination, casting herself as a tireless champion of the people and rejecting Donald Trump's dark picture of America.

Becoming the first woman to win the nomination of a major political party, Clinton promised to be a president for "all Americans," whether they voted for her or not.

Making a bold play for the political center ground in an election year that has seen the hard right and the hard left become louder and more shrill, Clinton vowed to "be a president for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents."

"For the struggling, the striving and the successful. For those who vote for me and those who don't. For all Americans."

Much of Clinton's address to Democrats gathered in Philadelphia for their party's convention was focused on perhaps her biggest weakness come November -- a tough public image forged over decades of withering political trench warfare.

"Some people just don't know what to make of me," she said with a frankness that is unusual in American politics.

"The truth is, through all of these years of public service, the service part has always come easier to me than the public part."

But addressing her image of putting policy above politics, Clinton was unrepentant.

"It's true," she said. "I sweat the details," be it the amount of lead permissible in drinking water or the cost of prescription drugs.

"It's not just a detail if it's your kid, if it's your family," she said.

Clinton also trained fire on Trump's dystopian view of America.

"He wants to divide us from the rest of the world and from each other," Clinton said, mocking Trump's claim that he alone can "fix" the country.

"He's taken the Republican Party a long way from 'Morning in America' to midnight in America. He wants us to fear the future and fear each other."

Clinton also offered an olive branch to those who backed her rival Bernie Sanders, telling them their voice had been heard, even as isolated voices of dissent echoed around the Philadelphia sports arena.

"I want to thank Bernie Sanders ... And to all of your supporters here and around the country, I want you to know I've heard you," Clinton said.

"Your cause is our cause."

source: interaksyon.com

Clinton attacks Trump's foreign policy as a threat to US safety

WASHINGTON - US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lambasted Donald Trump's foreign policy platform as "dangerously incoherent" in a speech on Thursday that cast her Republican rival as both a frightening and laughable figure.

In remarks that at times resembled a comedy roast, Clinton unleashed a torrent of polished zingers and one-liners to attack Trump's policies and character, suggesting Trump might start a nuclear war if elected to the White House simply because "somebody got under his very thin skin."

"Donald Trump's ideas are not just different, they are dangerously incoherent," she said to a room of supporters in San Diego, California. "They're not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies."

Clinton, the front-runner in the race to become the Democratic presidential nominee, delivered her speech as she seeks to shift her attention to the Nov. 8 election against likely rival Trump and away from Bernie Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, who is continuing his long-shot bid for the nomination.

Clinton was speaking in San Diego ahead of California's June 7 primary election.

Democratic Party leaders have fretted about how to best oppose Trump, who managed to knock out all 16 rivals for the Republican nomination in part with his uninhibited style of assailing them with personal insults. Trump revels in referring to Clinton as "Crooked Hillary" and dredging up the infidelities of her husband, Bill Clinton, the former president.

Clinton's remarks were intended in part to show she would not be cowed and that she could go toe-to-toe with him in scornful put-downs.

"He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia," she said as the crowd guffawed, and she suggested Trump would run the US economy "like one of his casinos."

During her speech, Clinton predicted Trump, who has been deeply critical of Clinton's foreign policy record, would take to his Twitter account to insult her, and he did.

"Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton!" ran one posting during the speech, which included a typo. "Reading poorly from the telepromter! She doesn't even look presidential!"

Trump has said previously that Clinton is distorting his actual policies.

Two visions

Amid the laugh lines, Clinton cited her own experience as secretary of state, in particular her role advising President Barack Obama during the mission to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, to suggest her approach to foreign policy was the more serious.

"He praises dictators like Vladimir Putin and picks fights with our friends, including the British prime minister, the mayor of London, the German chancellor, the president of Mexico and the pope," Clinton said, listing some of the allies with whom Trump has verbally sparred in the last year.

Obama, who has also been repeatedly mocked by Trump, has criticized Trump as being ignorant or cavalier about world affairs and has said that Trump's rise has "rattled" foreign leaders.

Trump has talked tough on foreign policy. He has said he would bring back waterboarding and other brutal interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects that are widely regarded as torture and were discontinued by Obama.

Trump has also vowed to renegotiate trade deals, called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country, and said he would ask members of the 28-nation NATO alliance to "pay up" or "get out." He has said he would sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Clinton derided these and other positions, promising she would do a better job keeping the United States safe. Standing in front of a backdrop of 19 large US flags, an unusual abundance even by the standards of presidential campaign events, Clinton painted the election as a choice between "two very different visions."

"One that's angry, afraid and based on the idea that America is fundamentally weak and in decline," she said, summing up Trumpism. "The other is hopeful, generous and confident in the knowledge that America is great, just like we always have been."

Trump has criticized Clinton for her handling of foreign policy during her 2009-2013 stint as secretary of state, including the Sept. 11, 2012, attack by Islamist militants on a US diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the US ambassador and three other Americans.

He cites Clinton's support for the war in Iraq, launched by former Republican President George W. Bush, as another example of her shortcomings.

Democratic challenger Sanders echoed Clinton's concerns about Trump after her speech, though he also criticized Clinton's foreign policy. "I agree ... that Donald Trump's foreign policy ideas are incredibly reckless and irresponsible," Sanders said in a statement.

In criticizing Clinton, Sanders cited her vote for the war in Iraq, calling it "the worst foreign policy blunder in modern American history," and said "she has been a proponent of regime change, as in Libya, without thinking through the consequences."

In assailing each other's suitability for the White House, Clinton and Trump are reflecting a negative voter mood ahead of next month's party conventions that will choose the presidential nominees.

Both Clinton and Trump are facing record-low favorability ratings. A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken Friday through Tuesday shows half of Trump supporters say the primary reason they are going to vote for him is "I don't want Hillary Clinton to win," while 41 percent of Clinton supporters cite their primary reason as not wanting Trump to win. (Additional reporting by Chris Khan in New York and Ginger Gibson in Washington)

source: interaksyon.com

Trump, Clinton win pivotal New York primary

NEW YORK -- Manhattan billionaire Donald Trump and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton won the New York primary on Tuesday, galvanizing their bids to win the Republican and Democratic nominations for the White House.

US networks called the race for the Republican frontrunner seconds after the polls closed in the country's fourth most populous state, signaling a crushing victory over his rivals.

"I have to say to the people that know me the best -- the people of New York -- when they give us this kind of a vote it's just incredible," the 69-year-old businessman told a victory party at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

Trump, whose campaign has appalled the Republican establishment, led on 65.1 percent to 13.7 percent for his evangelical rival Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich on 21.2 percent, with nine percent of the vote counted CNN said.

He told supporters his campaign was going to "get a lot more delegates than anyone projected even in their wildest imagination."

Clinton was declared the winner over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders around 40 minutes after the polls closed.

The former first lady and New York senator had 60.5 percent of the vote, against 39.5 percent for Sanders, CNN said based on nearly half of precincts reporting.

Clinton had banked on victory in her adopted home state to stall the momentum generated by her self-styled democratic socialist rival and get a needed shot in the arm after losing seven out of the eight previous nominating contests.

It was New York's most decisive primary in decades and Trump's victory in the state, which has 95 Republican delegates in play, will bolster his quest to sew up the nomination before party grandees can swing behind another candidate at the convention in July.

While New York City is largely Democrat, Republicans in rural areas and fallen manufacturing cities upstate warmed to Trump's populist message, despite his insults towards women, Mexicans and Muslims.

'A great time'
A relaxed and confident-looking Clinton, 68, dressed in a colorful tunic, voted earlier on Tuesday with husband, former president Bill Clinton, in the leafy Chappaqua suburb they call home.

"I had a great time going around the city in the last couple of days just seeing a lot of old friends, meeting new people," she said.

The three main candidates also claimed New York as home: Trump, who has never lived anywhere else; Clinton, who was twice elected the state's US senator; and Sanders, who was raised in Brooklyn.

The 74-year-old Sanders -- who has galvanized a youth movement with his call for health care as a right, free college education and campaign finance reform -- was hoping for a win or a close margin to keep alive his White House dreams.

Clinton currently leads with 1,791 compared to 1,115 for Sanders, according to a CNN tally -- putting her on course to clinch the 2,383 delegates needed to secure the party's presidential nomination.

It was not immediately clear how many of the 247 Democratic delegates and 44 superdelegates up for grabs in New York will be accorded to Clinton.

There had been deep frustrations over New York's strict rules governing the vote, particularly among independent voters not allowed to participate and who could have been expected to favor Sanders.

Only New York's 5.8 million Democrats and 2.7 million Republicans who registered by last October -- four months before the nation's first caucus election in Iowa -- are eligible to vote.

Voters and rights monitors reported numerous errors on voting lists in Brooklyn, including the purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from the electoral roll.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has endorsed Clinton, called on the board of election to rectify the lists.

"The perception that numerous voters may have been disenfranchised undermines the integrity of the entire electoral process and must be fixed," he said.

Turnout was brisk at polling stations visited by AFP in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where a string of Democrats said they had voted for Clinton, who would make history if elected as America's first woman president.

"I think she's got the record across all of the issues that matter to me," said Rachel Karpf, 30, an arts producer who works in theater and lives in Brooklyn.

"I thought about Bernie Sanders quite a bit but I felt more comfortable voting for someone who has already a track record," she said.

source: interaksyon.com

Clinton, Trump move closer to White House nominations

CLEVELAND -- Hillary Clinton took a monumental step toward clinching the Democratic party's White House nomination Tuesday, while Donald Trump's seemingly unstoppable rush to victory hit a bump in Ohio.

Trump won key Republican primaries in Illinois, North Carolina and Florida -- where he thumped home state Senator Marco Rubio, who immediately announced he was suspending his presidential campaign.

"This was an amazing evening," a buoyant Trump told supporters. "We're going to win, win, win and we're not stopping."

Rubio's loss was a major setback for Republicans trying to stop the bellicose businessman, whose populist anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim stance they fear will split the party.

The 69-year-old Trump was clinging to a narrow lead in Missouri with nearly all of the votes counted, but was denied a clean sweep by Ohio Governor John Kasich, who carried his home state, a key general election battleground.

Trump may now struggle to reach the 1,237 delegates necessary to avoid a challenge at the party's nominating convention in July in Cleveland.

"The bottom line after tonight: it looks like Trump will not have a majority of delegates in July," said Paul Beck, a professor of political science at Ohio State University.

Big night for Clinton

There were fewer problems for Clinton, who defeated her rival Bernie Sanders in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois. She also had a slight edge in Missouri, according to vote tallies.

Sanders now faces an almost impossible task to catch up with Clinton's formidable delegate advantage.

"We are moving closer to securing the Democratic party nomination and winning this election in November," said Clinton, casting one eye on the general election -- and at Trump.

"When we hear a candidate for president call for rounding up 12 million immigrants, banning all Muslims from entering the United States -- when he embraces torture, that doesn't make him strong. It makes him wrong."

Republicans will now have to decide whether to rally behind one candidate or siphon votes away from Trump as a team.

The scope of Trump's victory against Rubio in Florida will shock the Republican establishment as much as it will raise hopes the party can challenge in the one-time swing state come November 8.

President Barack Obama carried the state in both the 2008 and 2012 elections.

Rubio bowed out, saying: "While it is not God's plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that I've even come this far is evidence of how special America truly is."

Kasich meanwhile openly called for a contested convention and vowed to campaign on.

"I want to remind you, again tonight, that I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land," he said.

Ted Cruz, an ultra-conservative senator from Texas, also remains in the Republican race.

Projections by US media showed him just behind Trump in Missouri, and in second place in Illinois and North Carolina.

Cruz made a call for Republicans to unity against Trump behind him.

"Donald may be the one person on the face of the earth that Hillary Clinton can beat in the general election," he said, telling Republicans they now face "a clear choice."

'Vulgar and divisive'

Trump's incendiary attacks on immigrants, threats of mass deportations and a proposal for a wall on the border with Mexico have ignited the campaign trail and drawn condemnation in some quarters -- the latest being from President Barack Obama.

Without pointing the finger directly at Trump, Obama professed to being "dismayed" at some of the comments during campaigning.

"We have heard vulgar and divisive rhetoric aimed at women and minorities -- at Americans who don’t look like 'us,' or pray like 'us,' or vote like we do," said the president, who along with his wife Michelle cast absentee ballots in their home state of Illinois.

But Trump's populist message has resonated -- even with some Democrats like 69-year-old Katharine Berry.

"We don't need all these illegals," she told AFP outside a polling station at the Zion Lutheran Church in Canton. "They're taking our jobs, they've got all these rights, Americans don't have rights.

"I voted Democrat today. But if Trump wins, then I'm going to vote for him in the general election."

source: interaksyon.com

Trump, Cruz in 2-way Republican race; Sanders still in race in Democratic contest

WASHINGTON DC - Donald Trump kept a firm grip on his lead in the Republican race for the White House on Sunday but Senator Ted Cruz emerged as his strongest challenger in weekend primaries with mixed outcomes.

Hillary Clinton extended her frontrunner status in the Democratic contests but Senator Bernie Sanders showed he is still in the race with a few victories.

Sanders won the Maine Democratic caucuses, according to US media projections.

Clinton and Sanders also faced off in a televised debate in Flint, Michigan, just two days before a crucial primary in that delegate-rich northern industrial state.

They tackled the scandal surrounding the lead-contaminated water in the city, with Sanders railing against the "disgrace beyond belief" and both calling for more accountability.

Republicans saw a stormy week in which panicked party leaders trained their biggest guns on Trump, the billionaire who has galvanized disaffected voters with an anti-immigrant, anti-free trade campaign filled with insults, attacks on minorities, and mockery of the political establishment.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio won by a whopping 71 percent the Republican primary election in Puerto Rico, a US commonwealth where residents do not vote in November's general election.

But the victory -- only the second, after Minnesota, for Rubio -- hands the youthful Cuban American contender the 23 party convention delegates at play.

Trump now has 384 delegates to 300 for Cruz and 151 for Rubio. Kasich has 37 delegates.

To win the Republican nomination outright, a candidate must win 1,237 delegates.

Failure to hit that number would result in a Republican nominating convention in July that could require multiple rounds of voting by delegates, something not seen in decades but which could conceivably throw the race to someone other than Trump.

Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee who denounced Trump as a "phony" and a "fraud" this week, said he expected to endorse one of the three other candidates before the party convention.

Asked if he would reject the nomination if drafted, Romney said such a scenario would be "absurd" but left the door open to it, in an interview with CBS's Face the Nation.

Pressure on Rubio
On Saturday, only ultra-conservative Cruz scored victories against Trump -- in Kansas and Maine. Trump won in Louisiana and Kentucky, but Cruz picked up more delegates overall.

Rubio picked up only a few delegates, unable to capitalize on the establishment assault on Trump, who called on Rubio to step aside.

"I would love to be able to take on Ted one on one," Trump said in Florida, minutes after winning in Kentucky on Saturday. "That will be easy."

Cruz also urged Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich to drop out, arguing that the anti-Trump vote will be split as long as they remain in the race.

"If we're divided, Donald wins," he warned. "The field needs to continue to narrow."

But both Rubio and Kasich were expected to stay in at least until the primaries in their winner-take-all home states.

The next big day on the electoral calendar is Tuesday, when Michigan and Mississippi have Democratic and Republican primaries.

Republican-only nominating contests also are being held that day in Idaho and Hawaii. Puerto Rico also holds a Republican primary on Sunday.

Clinton nearly halfway there

After Saturday's contests, Clinton had 1,121 delegates, nearly half the 2,383 needed to win the Democratic nomination.

The former secretary of state won in Louisiana, the biggest prize of the night, but Sanders won in Kansas and Nebraska, pushing his total to seven victories in 18 contests.

Clinton was favored in Louisiana thanks to overwhelming support from African-American voters, while Sanders has tended to do best in states with largely white voters.

"What we are seeing in many cases is not just a racial divide but a generational divide. We are doing better and better with younger people whether they're black, Latino, or white," Sanders said on CNN's "State of the Union" show.

"If the turnout is high in Maine today, I think we have a good chance of winning there as well. So I think we're showing strength all across this country."

End

source: interaksyon.com

Sanders, Clinton in dead heat - Reuters/Ipsos poll

NEW YORK -- Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has erased Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's wide lead for the Democratic presidential nomination since the start of year, putting the two in a dead heat nationally, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Clinton leads Sanders 48 percent to 45 percent among Democratic voters, according to the poll of 512 Americans, conducted February 2-5 following the Iowa caucus. The poll has a credibility interval of 5 percentage points.

Democrats had been supporting Clinton by more than a 2-to-1 margin at the beginning of the year. Sanders has narrowed that lead considerably over the past several weeks.

Clinton beat Sanders narrowly in the Iowa caucuses, the nation's first nomination contest ahead of the November election, but is expected to lose to him in New Hampshire. The two rivals clashed on Thursday night in their first one-on-one debate, reflecting the tightness of the race.

There is still a wide gap between the two in name recognition nationally. Nearly a quarter of Democrats and two-fifths of Independents say they are still not that familiar with Sanders. In comparison, Clinton has almost total name recognition among voters.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump continued to lead the field with 40 percent support. His level of support among Republicans was relatively unchanged following his second-place finish in the Iowa caucus. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas followed with 16 percent and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida came in third with 13 percent.

source: interaksyon.com

Sanders apologizes to Clinton over voter data breach

MANCHESTER, United States - White House hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders on Saturday apologized directly to Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton for his campaign peeking at voter data belonging to his rival.

"Yes, I apologize," Sanders said when asked by a moderator at the party's debate in New Hampshire whether Clinton deserved an apology.

"This is not the type of campaign that we run. And if I find anybody else involved in this, they will also be fired," Sanders said, adding that he hoped both campaigns could "work together" on an independent investigation into what happened.

The Democratic National Committee on Thursday temporarily suspended the Sanders campaign's access to the party's voter database after the breach was discovered. Sanders fired a staffer for accessing the data.

The incident occurred when a technical glitch -- in which a firewall protecting proprietary data was briefly lowered on Wednesday -- made voter data unique to the Clinton campaign viewable for outside eyes.

Clinton said she accepted her rival's apology and supported launching an independent inquiry.

But while she stressed that her staff had worked hard to collate private data, "we should move on because I don't think the American people are all that interested in this.

"I think they're more interested in what we have to say about all the big issues facing us," she said.

The third Democratic debate, the final one of 2015, also includes former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, who is polling well behind his two rivals.

source: interaksyon.com

Hillary Clinton ducks shoe thrown at her during speech to scrap recyclers

A woman threw a shoe at Hillary Clinton on Thursday as the former US secretary of state was delivering a speech at a Las Vegas hotel, but Clinton dodged it and continued with her remarks.

US Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie said the shoe-thrower was not a ticketed guest for Clinton's speech at the Mandalay Bay hotel and had been spotted by Secret Service agents and hotel security guards before the incident.

"As agents and hotel security approached her she threw a shoe and was immediately taken into custody by the Secret Service and hotel security," Ogilvie said.

Footage of the incident broadcast by KTNV-TV showed Clinton, 66, crouching to dodge an object as she stood on stage.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper reported that the former first lady joked about the incident as she continued her speech to some 1,000 people attending a metal recycling conference

"Is that somebody throwing something at me?" Clinton asked, according to the Review-Journal. "Is that part of Cirque du Soleil?"

The newspaper quoted Clinton as saying, "My goodness, I didn't know that solid waste management was so controversial."

"Good thing she didn't play softball like I did," Clinton joked, drawing cheers from the audience at the Mandalay Bay hotel/casino, according to video by KTNV.

The throwing of shoes at political figures is a form of protest in many parts of the world. In 2008 a shoe was hurled at then-President George W. Bush when he appeared at a Baghdad press conference with the Iraqi prime minister.

Clinton, who lost the Democratic presidential nomination to then-Senator Barack Obama, said at a marketing conference in San Francisco earlier this week that she was thinking about running for president again in 2016.

She has been giving speeches across the country since leaving the State Department last year.

A hotel spokeswoman told Reuters she had no information on the episode, and a spokesman for Clinton did not immediately reply to a request for comment. (with Agence France-Presse)

source: interaksyon.com

Obama to honor visit Kennedy grave site

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton will visit the grave site of John F. Kennedy next week, to mark the 50th anniversary of his assassination.

The three Democratic Party champions, along with First Lady Michelle Obama, will lay a wreath close to the eternal flame that marks the resting place of the 35th US president at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington.

The poignant moment of remembrance will come two days before the November 22 half century anniversary of Kennedy being gunned down in an open top limousine in Dallas, in a crime which traumatized the world.

The White House said Obama would also give a speech on Wednesday evening honoring Kennedy's legacy of service at a dinner honoring awardees of the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

The annual award of the medals was initiated by Kennedy, and earlier on Wednesday Obama will present this year's honorees at a White House ceremony.

Former president Clinton, former Washington Post editor and Kennedy confidant Ben Bradlee and talk show host Oprah Winfrey are among those getting medals this year.

source: interaksyon.com

Clinton says can't predict her future, as 2016 looms

WASHINGTON DC - With only days left until she steps down as America's top diplomat, Hillary Clinton left the door open Sunday to a possible future run in the 2016 presidential elections.

And, in a rare joint interview with CBS, she appeared to win the endorsement of none other than President Barack Obama, the man who beat her in the 2008 race to be the Democratic Party's nominee.

For months, 65-year-old Clinton has insisted that after more than two decades in the political spotlight she intends to step back into the shadows, catch up on some rest, and enjoy some downtime for a change.

But with her popularity riding high -- at around 65 percent according to a Washington Post-ABC poll last week -- many believe she will bounce back to take another shot at being the nation's first woman president in 2016.

"I am still secretary of state. So I'm out of politics," Clinton told CBS television's "60 Minutes" carefully, leaving herself the option of reviving her career once she leaves government.

A woman who has devoted much of her life to public service, as first lady and as a New York senator, she stressed she still cared "deeply about what's going to happen for our country in the future."

Clinton said neither Obama nor "I can make predictions about what's going to happen tomorrow or the next year," in comments bound to rekindle speculation that she could be preparing a 2016 run.

"What we've tried to do over the last four years is get up every day, have a clear eyed view of what's going on in the world. And I'm really proud of where we are," she added.

Obama did nothing to dampen speculation, heaping praise on Clinton and saying he believed she "will go down as one of the finest secretaries of state we've had."

"It has been a great collaboration over the last four years. I'm going to miss her," he added, saying he wished she was staying on.

"I want the country to appreciate just what an extraordinary role she's played during the course of my administration and a lot of the successes we've had internationally because of her hard work," Obama added.

The joint sit-down interview, which was filmed at the White House, was apparently Obama's idea, and some observers saw it as an early endorsement should she choose to run for president in 2016.

Obama will have to stand down after serving the statutory maximum of two terms, but his endorsement is likely to give any candidate a big boost.

Often the vice president becomes the natural choice as the incumbent party's presidential nominee. It is not clear yet if Vice President Joe Biden will make a tilt for the White House, but he will be 73 years old come 2016.

Obama hailed Clinton for having been one of his "most important advisors," saying she had established "a standard in terms of professionalism and teamwork in our cabinet, in our foreign policy making."

Their relationship had evolved into a friendship, with "a sense of trust and being in the foxhole together," he said.

He told CBS he had asked Clinton from the start of her tenure in 2009 to go out and represent America abroad so he could focus on dealing with the economic crisis facing the nation.

But he dismissed criticism the United States had become reluctant to take a lead in the more complicated issues of the day, such as Syria, arguing the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi probably would not agree with that assessment.

"We do nobody a service when we leap before we look. Where we... take on things without having thought through all the consequences of it," Obama said.

"Our job is to, number one, look after America's security and national interest. But number two, find where are those opportunities -- where our intervention, our engagement can really make a difference."

souce: interaksyon.com

Clinton has blood clot close to her brain: doctors

NEW YORK - Top US diplomat Hillary Clinton is suffering from a blood clot in a vein in her head but should make a full recovery, doctors said Monday as she spent New Year's Eve in hospital.

A routine scan on Sunday had revealed "that a right transverse sinus venous thrombosis had formed," doctors Lisa Bardack, of Mount Kisco Medical Group, and Gigi El-Bayoumi, of George Washington University, said in a statement.

They described it as "a clot in the vein that is situated in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear. It did not result in a stroke, or neurological damage."

Clinton was admitted to the New York Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday following the discovery and is being treated with blood thinners to dissolve the clot. She will be released "once the medication dose has been established."

"In all other aspects of her recovery, the secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff," they added.

Her top aide, Philippe Reines, said Sunday the popular US secretary of state would stay in the hospital for some 48 hours after being admitted so she could be monitored while on the anti-coagulant drugs.

The globe-trotting diplomat has not been seen in public after succumbing to a stomach virus on returning from a trip to Europe on December 7.

It's a rare absence for the most popular member of President Barack Obama's cabinet, who has been a highly-visible and loyal supporter of his foreign policy agenda, traveling almost a million miles during four years in office.

But Clinton, 65, has made it clear she intends to step down in the coming weeks, once Senator John Kerry, tapped by President Barack Obama to replace her, is confirmed by the Senate.

Clinton fell ill with the bad stomach bug virus on her return from her trip to Prague, Brussels, Dublin and Belfast, which caused her to become dehydrated. She fainted and suffered a concussion.

According to one media report on the website Buzzfeed, she was being treated amid tight security on the hospital's 9th floor, known as the VIP wing, where her husband, former president Bill Clinton, had bypass surgery in 2004.

The couple's daughter, Chelsea, was seen leaving the hospital visibly upset on Monday, The New York Daily News said.

It is not the first health scare for Clinton. In 1998, the then first lady had a blood clot in her leg which she told the New York Daily News was "scary because you have to treat it immediately -- you don't want to take the risk that it will break loose and travel to your brain, or your heart or your lungs."

Though once seen as a deeply divisive figure, she now has approval ratings above 60 percent. And many believe she will run again for the White House in 2016, despite being narrowly defeated by Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2008.

A Gallup poll released Monday showed Clinton again topping an annual list of the woman most admired by Americans, winning support from 21 percent of those surveyed. It is the 17th time she has topped the list, a landmark for Gallup.

Clinton's lengthy absence from public life had sparked claims from some of her fiercest critics that she was faking illness to avoid testifying before lawmakers investigating a deadly attack on a US mission in Libya.

The September 11 assault on the US mission in eastern Benghazi, in which the US ambassador and three other American officials were killed, sparked a political firestorm in the United States. A subsequent State Department inquiry found that security at the mission was "grossly inadequate."

source: interaksyon.com

Clinton: No New Cold War

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, (AFP) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday the United States was not seeking conflict with a rising China but urged emerging powers to act more “constructively’’ in the world.

As academics in China and elsewhere increasingly speak of US decline, Clinton offered a robust defense of the United States and said it still had the military power, innovative companies, and core values to make it “exceptional.’’

But addressing aspiring military leaders at the US Naval Academy, Clinton said bluntly that 2012 “is not 1912, when friction between a declining Britain and a rising Germany set the stage for global conflict.’’

“We are not seeking new enemies. Today’s China is not the Soviet Union. We are not on the brink of a new Cold War in Asia,’’ Clinton told the academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

“A thriving China is good for America, and a thriving America is good for China – so long as we both thrive in a way that contributes to the regional and global good,’’ she said.

Clinton acknowledged concerns overseas about US intentions but denied that the United States was bent on “denying rising powers their fair share’’ or on bringing them into “a rigged system’’ designed to preserve US power.

But Clinton said that rising Asian powers – naming China, India, and Indonesia – have been able to prosper thanks to an international system supported by the United States.

“Some of today’s emerging powers act as selective stakeholders, picking and choosing when to participate constructively and when to stand apart from the international system,’’ she said.

“While that may suit their interests in the short term, it will ultimately render the system that has helped them to get where they are today unworkable. And that would end up impoverishing everyone,’’ Clinton said.

The United States has frequently voiced concern that China, despite its rising wealth and ambitions, has not taken the role of a leading power on tough issues such as North Korea, Iran, and climate change.

Clinton conceded that many Americans faced “difficult’’ economic times but said that there was “simply no substitute’’ for the United States in the world.

“Only the United States has the global reach, the resources, and the resolve to deter aggression, rally coalitions, and project stability into diverse and dynamic regions of danger, threat, and opportunity,’’ Clinton said.

“There is no real precedent in history for the role we play or the responsibility we have shouldered. And there is also no alternative,’’ she said.

source: mb.com.ph