Clinton pledges American leadership in Asia

Washington - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that the United States will continue to forge a leadership role in Asia, as she began a major trip to the region.

The United States will use its tools of diplomacy, defence and development to maintain regional stability and promote security, economic growth and trade, Clinton said in a speech at the East-West Center in Honolulu, the first leg of her trip.

Following the speech, Clinton was due to fly to Vietnam to attend the East Asia Summit before a brief stop in China. She then heads to Cambodia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia during the nearly two-week trip - the longest of her tenure.

The flight to China's Hainan Island was a late edition to her itinerary, reflecting the sensitive nature and simmering tensions in US-Chinese relations. Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to visit Washington early next year.

During the speech, Clinton sought to downplay the differences between the two countries, saying the United States is working closely with China to create a relationship of mutual interests, but reiterated the US position that Beijing must be more open to US exports and business, and to working towards combating climate change.

"In the 21st century it is not in anyone's interest for the United States and China to see each other as adversaries," Clinton said.

"We are committed to getting it right," she said.

The United States has been frustrated by China's alleged artificially low valuing of the yuan, which Washington believes places American exports at a disadvantage and hurts jobs.

Clinton's visit comes ahead of President Barack Obama's plans to travel to the region. Obama is expected to arrive in India on November 6 with stops also planned in Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. Obama will be in South Korea to attend the G20 summit.
 

Obama defends record on Jon Stewart's Daily Show

Washington - Less than a week before mid-term elections that could see his Democrats lose control of Congress, US President Barack Obama appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart late Wednesday in a last effort to reach out to young voters.

Obama, the first sitting president to appear on the popular Comedy Central show, defended his record by citing gains such as healthcare reform, a growing economy and financial regulatory overhaul.

"I'm feeling great about where the American people are, considering what we have gone through," Obama said. "We have gone through two of the toughest years since the Great Depression." But while there was "still a lot of good stuff happening," he acknowledged that "people are frustrated , a lot of folks are hurting out there."

Comedian Stewart asked Obama why it was that two years after he won the presidential election after running on a "very high rhetoric of hope and change," his fellow Democrats now "seem to be running on 'Please, baby, one more chance'."

Obama said, "When I won and we started the transition and we looked at what was happening in the economy, a whole bunch of my political folks came up and said, 'Enjoy this now because two years from now, folks are going to be frustrated'. And that is, in fact, what's happened."

But he said that over the last 18 months his administration had prevented another Great Depression, and they had seen nine consecutive months of private sector job growth, an "historic" health care reform, financial regulatory reform, and "done some things that folks don't know about."

To which Stewart quipped, "What have you done that we don't know about? Are you planning a surprise party for us, filled with jobs and healthcare?"

Obama responded by citing a government-sponsored health insurance programme for children and tougher regulations on credit card companies.

"Over and over, we have moved forward an agenda that is making a difference in people's lives each and every day," Obama said. "Is it enough? No. And so I expect, and I think most Democrats out there expect, that people want to see more progress."
 

Canadian Khadr apologizes to wife of slain soldier

Washington - Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, known as the "child soldier," apologized Thursday at a Guantanamo Bay sentencing hearing to the wife of a US solider he killed in Afghanistan.

Khadr directly addressed the widow of Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer and her two children, the Toronto Star reported.

"Im really, really sorry for the pain I have caused you and your family. I wish I could do something that would take this pain away from you," he said.

Khadr, 24, pleaded guilty during a US military commission hearing earlier this week in Guantanamo as part of an agreement with the military prosecution that limits his sentence.

Speer's wife, Tabitha, who was in the courtroom, shook her head as Khadr spoke, while gripping the arm rests of her chair. The sentencing hearing continued on Thursday with Tabitha Speer speaking before Khadr and expressing no sympathy for him.

"You'll forever be a murderer in my eyes. It doesn't matter what you say from this day on," she said, frequently referring to how her two young children will grow up without a father.

In 2002, Khadr was 15 years old when he was taken into custody in Afghanistan and later charged with murder and other terrorism-related charges.

The sentencing hearing is expected to wrap up this week. Khadr cannot be sentenced to more time in prison than the terms reached under the plea deal. While those terms have not been made public, it has been reported that the deal called for Khadr to serve eight years in prison - one year in US custody and the remaining seven in Canada.

He could have faced live imprisonment had he been convicted in a trial.
 

China, India vow cooperation, common development

New Delhi - The world was big enough for both China and India to grow, the two countries' leaders said after meeting Friday in Hanoi on the sidelines of a regional Asian summit.The reportedly cordial meeting with between Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh eased strained ties over Beijing's tacit refusal to acknowledge Indian sovereignty in Delhi-administrated Kashmir.Wen echoed earlier comments by Singh, saying "There is enough space in the world for India and China to achieve common development. To that I add that there is enough space ... to have cooperation."We must strive to ensure the sound and steady growth of our relationship," Wen said in his opening remarks at the meeting, which was attended by top officials from both sides.He added that he would visit India by the end of the year, and Singh said he was sure they would find common ground for a successful visit, a news report said.The two sides, who met at the sidelines of a summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations agreed to discuss contentious issues such as boundary disputes ahead of the visit, India's state-run Doordarshan television reportedThe prime minister (Singh) spoke of the need to show sensitivity to each other's core issues," India's National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said.India and China disagree over their largely unmarked 3,500-kilometre-long border, the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama who lives in Indian exile and China's close relations with India's historical enemy Pakistan.Trade and investment between the two Asian nations, however, have been growing rapidly. China is India's second-largest trading partner and their total bilateral trade stood at 42.44 billion dollars in 2009-2010.

Rights groups condemn Cambodia's threat to shut UN office

Phnom Penh - Prominent international human rights groups on Friday condemned the Cambodian government's demand that the United Nations close its local human rights office and fire the country head.In a joint statement, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International said the government's assertion that the UN human rights office in Cambodia was a mouthpiece for the political opposition were "baseless."The groups said the government's stance was "a direct assault on the UN's human rights mandate," and said the UN's leadership should continue to speak out on behalf of the local office and its country head, Christophe Peschoux."Donor governments to Cambodia should likewise voice their strong objections to the Cambodian government's statements," they added.On Wednesday, the first full day of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's official visit to Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen told him to close the human rights office and sack Peschoux.n response Ban's spokesman, Yves Sorokobi, said the secretary general stood by the organization's human rights work and its "representatives around the world including here."He said that pulling staff out of a particular country was an internal matter for the UN.HRW and Amnesty called on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was due in Cambodia this weekend, to express her support for the UN human rights office and its mandate. Ban arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday and left Thursday for Vietnam where he is attending a summit between the United Nations and the regional Association of South-East Asian Nations bloc. He will conclude his current Asian tour in China.
 

Australians search for French chopper missing in Antarctica

Sydney - Australia

is coordinating the search for a French helicopter missing in Antarctica with four people aboard, news reports said Friday. The chopper, which took off from a ship that supplies the Antarctic research station from Australia, disappeared in bad weather after sending a distress signal. Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins told national broadcaster ABC that bad weather was hampering the rescue effort. The last tracking we had of the helicopter was that it was flying low and slow, so we are hopeful the bad weather conditions have just meant the helicopter could no longer fly in those conditions and has put down itself," she said. But, as I said, until we get confirmation through communications with the vessel we won't actually know what condition those people might be in."  

  

 

Races to watch in Obama's fight to hold Congress
 

Scranton, Pennsylvania/Washington - The eastern US state of Pennsylvania will be watched closely as Americans head to the voting booths on November 2 to choose leaders in Congress.

The state is often seen as an early indicator of national mood, because of its mix of rural and industrial areas, small towns, suburbs and urban Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. This means there's always a tug and pull between centre-right Republicans and centre- left Democrats.

This year, as opposition Republicans eye a takeover of Congress, the state features a competitive Senate race between Democrat Joe Sestak, a former Navy admiral and congressman who has been gaining steam, and Republican Pat Toomey.

Additionally, up to eight House races in the state could see Republicans take over seats now held by Democrats. That number includes seats in solidly Democratic strongholds, such as Scranton, where incumbent Paul Kanjorski could be ousted after a quarter century in Congress.

US President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party face a major challenge not just here, but nationwide when US voters select all 435 members of the House of Representatives, 37 members of the Senate and 37 governors.

Democrats are widely expected to lose seats and perhaps their majority in the House of Representatives, if not the Senate. Opposition centre-right Republicans are tapping into anger over the stagnant economy, with unemployment stuck at 9.6 per cent and home foreclosures continuing at or near a record pace.

In Ohio and Florida, which provided the nail-bitting conclusions to the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, Republicans also stand to make big gains. The Politico newspaper counts six Democratic House seats in play in Ohio and four in Florida. The same could happen in New York, a traditional Democratic stronghold, where several seats in the rural part of the state are up for grabs.

Florida also features a three-way Senate race between conservative Hispanic Republican challenger Marco Rubio, Democrat Kendrick Meek and Charlie Crist, the state's governor who left the Republican Party to run as an independent candidate. The governor's race remains a toss-up between Democrat Alex Sink and Republican Rick Scott amid particularly high unemployment and home foreclosure rates.

Elsewhere, the Delaware Senate race will provide an initial indication of the strength of the conservative grassroots Tea Party movement, a Republican fringe group that has ousted some mainstream Republicans in favour of conservative candidates.

Republican Christine O'Donnell, who has drawn sharp criticism for bizarre decades-old comments on witchcraft, faces Democrat Chris Coons to take the seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden. Though Coons far outweighs O'Donnell in opinion surveys, the national attention she has drawn will make this an early race to watch.

Obama's former Senate seat is also a hot contest that could provide a symbolic victory for Republicans. Democrat Alexi Giannoulias faces Republican Mark Steven Kirk.

The plight of the Democrats is perhaps best embodied by the tenuous situation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who faces a fierce challenge from Republican Sharron Angle, a Tea Party favourite, in the western state of Nevada. Polls a week before the vote showed the race on the edge, with a slight lead for Angle.

California, the most populous US state, features a big name governor race to replace action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger. Democrat Jerry Brown, who served as governor from 1975-1983, faces Republican Meg Whitman, former chief executive of eBay who has spent 150 million dollars of her own money on the race.

The state's Senate race also features a high profile woman from the tech sector, Republican Carly Fiorina, former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, in a neck-and-neck race with longtime Senator Barbara Boxer.

Alaska also features a cast of colourful characters after incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski refused to give up her bid to keep her seat despite losing in the intra-party primary to a Tea Party candidate. She now faces the conservative winner of the primary contest, Joe Miller, and Democrat Scott McAdams.  
 
 

PREVIEW: Obama's agenda at risk in US mid-term elections 

Washington - US President Barack Obama is bracing for a voter backlash in congressional elections next week that could put a severe dent in his remaining legislative priorities.

Obama's left-leaning Democrats, who have controlled both legislative chambers since 2006, are poised for major losses on November 2 when all 435 members of the US House of Representatives and 37 members of the 100-seat Senate stand for re-election.

Most political pundits predict conservative Republicans will win control of the House but face an uphill battle in retaking the Senate. At the very least, all sides agree that the Democratic Party's majorities will be sharply slimmed in both chambers.

The election comes after what many have termed the most ambitious legislative period since the 1960s, with major overhauls of the health insurance system, financial regulation and a massive 787- billion-dollar spending package designed to pull the US out of recession.

Yet each controversial and hard-won piece of legislation has further eroded Obama's political capital. Critics also argue the reforms have been at the expense of rescuing the world's largest economy from an ongoing slump that remains Obama's Achilles heel.

Unemployment remains near 10 per cent despite massive spending that has pushed the US budget deficit to record levels. Obama argues his policies saved the country from a far worse economic slump, but Republicans have capitalized on early White House promises to keep the jobless rate below 8 per cent. It has hovered at 9.6 per cent for months.

Facing an impatient electorate, Obama's failure to jump-start the economy has also reignited a broader distrust of government that is at the core of the conservative "Tea Party," a grassroots protest movement that exploded on the scene this election cycle.

Matt Dallek, a visiting scholar with the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center, said Obama's supporters shouldn't expect any more major "progressive" reforms championed by the left. The biggest casualties are likely climate change and energy and immigration reforms.

"It's highly unlikely that (Obama) will enact pieces of legislation on the scale of what he achieved during his first two years," said Dallek. "Expectations within the White House are going to have to be recalibrated."

The deep frustration among US voters has pushed Obama's approval ratings consistently below 50 per cent and sparked a broader disenchantment with all incumbent lawmakers. Approval ratings for Congress are near an all-time low of 20 per cent.

Just two years after his meteoric rise to the presidency, Obama's own role in the mid-term election has been curtailed. Democrats in swing districts have been reluctant to campaign with the president or trump his biggest legislative accomplishments.

Obama has instead stuck mostly to rallying voters in more reliably Democratic states and sent more popular "surrogates," including his wife Michelle, to convince the public in independent-minded states.

Yet the looming Democratic losses on November 2 are also part of normal political headwinds running against the party. Presidents ranging from Republican Ronald Reagan to Democrat Bill Clinton suffered big electoral defeats two years after first being elected.

This voter rebuke means presidents have typically been forced to scale back political agendas in the second half of their terms, according to Fred Beuttler, the House of Representatives' acting historian.

"The most productive time that a president will have is their first year of their first Congress," Beuttler said. "Youve got maybe that 15 months, perhaps, to get as much as your legislative agenda passed as possible."

Voters in the US have also long been wary of keeping one party in control of Congress and the White House, unlike in parliamentary systems in Europe and elsewhere.

"The American political system dynamic is not designed for a single party rule," said Buettler. The divide can either lead to a stalemate or force the two parties to find common ground.

While partisanship in the US Congress has reached a fever pitch in the last few years, Dallek believes Obama and Republicans could find deals on more limited issues, such as tax cuts for small businesses, and smaller elements of immigration and energy reform.

"Republicans may well decide that it is in their political interest to support legislative items ... that comport with their ideology," Dallek said. "The White House may want to to do that as well."  
 
 

Billionaire Soros gives million dollars to legal marijuana bid  

San Francisco - Liberal financier and philanthropist George Soros has donated 1 million dollars to the campaign to legalize marijuana in California, organizers said Tuesday.

The money will be used to finance a last-minute advertising blitz in the huge American state which votes on the controversial ballot measure known as Proposition 19 on November 2, Dale Jones of the Yes on 19 campaign told reporters.

The measure would allow Californians over the age of 21 to grow a small amount of pot for their personal use. Local authorities would have the power to permit and tax marijuana production, and there would be stiff penalties for anyone caught selling cannabis to underage users.

Support for the measure has been flagging in recent weeks following statements of opposition by the US Attorney General Eric Holder and other prominent law enforcement figures. But the Soros donation could help educate voters about the benefits of the measure, Jones said in a conference call.

"Once people have read the initiative and understand Prop. 19 and see what it will and will not do, we see overwhelming support," she said. "Every bit that supporters chip in, more people will get the right message."

News of Soros' donation came after the Hungarian-born financier published an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal promoting the measure.

"Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually," he wrote. "It also would reduce the crime, violence and corruption associated with drug markets, and the violations of civil liberties and human rights that occur when large numbers of otherwise law-abiding citizens are subject to arrest. Police could focus on serious crime instead." 
 
 

OVERVIEW: US mid-term elections at a glance

Washington - US President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party face a major challenge on November 2, when US voters select all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 37 members of the Senate.

The mid-term elections are traditionally seen as a referendum on the president's performance.

Obama's average approval rating has sunk to 46.4 per cent, not unusual for a president after his first two years, when his party typically suffers losses in the congressional elections.

This time, Democrats are widely expected to lose seats and perhaps their majority in the House of Representatives, if not the Senate. Opposition centre-right Republicans are tapping into anger over the stagnant economy, with unemployment stuck at 9.6 per cent and home foreclosures continuing at or near a record pace.

In addition, a growing, loosely organized conservative rebellion call itself the Tea Party movement has been collecting steam after unseating establishment Republican contenders in party primaries with criticism of big government, Obama's health reforms and economic stimulus packages, and the Washington establishment.

Republicans need 39 seats in the House to win back control of the lower chamber. And they could make considerable gains in the 100-seat Senate, where Republicans already hold 41 seats - enough to block legislation.

A key factor in mid-term elections is voter turnout, which tends to be lower for mid-terms than in years with presidential elections.

That gives fringe groups like the Tea Party movement more of an opportunity to energize their conservative voters to turn out to the polls and could enable them to punch above their weight. Analysts say that up to 33 Tea Party-linked Republicans could be elected to the House and another eight to the Senate, thanks in part to expected strong turnout.

In addition, 37 state governorships are up for grabs, with Republicans expected to make gains around the country.

This year's atmosphere is a far cry from the "Yes we can" mood that swept Obama into office in 2008, brought centre-left Democrats large Congressional majorities and packed the Washington Mall with more than 1 million people for his January 2009 inauguration.

Wyclef Jean: Young people must vote down hate in US politics

Los Angeles - Rapper Wyclef Jean may have failed in his Haiti presidential bid, but he's keeping up his political activities in the US where he launched a youth voting initiative Monday.

The founder of the seminal band The Fugees teamed up with Campaign Money Watch, a political advocacy group that is spending 750,000 dollars on a media campaign before mid-term elections on November 2.

The campaign aims to energize young people to vote.

Jean's new song Election Time is a centerpiece of the Democrat- leaning campaign, which had the tagline: "Make Your Voice Heard: If you don't you have cast a vote anyway. For the other side."

Jean announced the campaign, saying the extreme atmosphere of hate and aggression in the US mid-term campaigns seemed even worse than the chaos of Haitian politics.

"After a month of campaigning for president of Haiti and the first six months after the earthquake helping the country start rebuilding, I sat back and looked around," Jean said in a statement.

"What I saw and felt in the US, my second home country, with all the haters and money craziness in the campaigns, it almost puts the chaos of Haitian politics to shame, you know?

"It's about making your voice heard. That's what's important, and I know that better than ever, so I want to reach the young people to remind them."

 
Iraqi government should probe abuses, US says

 
Washington - Investigations into allegations that Iraqi security forces abused or committed crimes against civilians are the responsibility of the Iraqi government, not the United States, the US State Department said Monday.

"If there needs to be an accounting, first and foremost there needs to be an accounting by the Iraqi government itself, and how it has treated its own citizens," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said. "And that, too, is a conversation that we have had and will continue to have with the government of Iraq."

WikiLeaks, the self-described whistle-blower website, on Friday published nearly 400,000 classified US military documents. Some of them contained information suggesting US forces were aware of the abuse of Iraqi citizens at the hands of Iraqi security forces or police officers.

International demands have since grown for the United States to investigate the cases, but Crowley said the matter is the responsibility of the sovereign Iraqi government. He said US troops notified Iraqi authorities if they witnessed abuse or crimes.

"Our troops are well trained on human-rights issues, and where they have seen issues of concern or outright abuse by any country where we have a partnership, they are required to report that, and they did," he said.