Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday vowed that the United States would help fight discrimination against gays and lesbians around the world. In what’s being hailed as a ‘landmark‘ speech, she marked Human Rights Day by announcing that the U.S. will use diplomacy and $3 million in foreign aid to help expand the rights of gay, …
Hillary Clinton
The Road to Naypyidaw: What Hillary Clinton Will See in Burma
As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes her historic visit to Burma from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, she will be touring two vastly different cities. Clinton, the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit the isolated nation in more than half a century, first stops in Naypyidaw, the country’s capital. The vast, surreal city, which …
For the First Time in More Than 50 Years, a U.S. Secretary of State Is Set to Visit Burma
This year, the leaders of Burma, once one of the most hermetic countries on earth, have unleashed a charm campaign on the world. The efforts, ranging from diplomatic globe-trotting to a raft of economic and political reforms designed to impress foreign governments, are now bearing fruit. On Nov. 18, U.S. President Barack Obama …
China Strikes Back After Taiwan Weapons Deal
China will likely suspend some military ties with the U.S. following the Obama administration’s approval of a $5.85 billion package of upgrades for Taiwan’s aging fleet of F-16 fighter jets and pilot training, a senior U.S. State Department official said Monday. (A transcript of the official’s briefing was posted on the State …
Hillary Goes to Bali: Fear, Disputes and Not That Much Love
Fresh off a three-day tour of India, Hillary Clinton arrived on Bali Thursday to attend a regional forum hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Since her first visit in 2009, the United States has taken an increasingly active role in regional politics, signing treaties, strengthening ties and speaking out on …
Six Things to Watch from Hillary Clinton’s India Tour
President Obama grabbed hearts and headlines with his state visit to India last fall, and there was a lot of talk about bringing the two countries closer together. It’s “a defining partnership of the 21st century” between “natural allies” who have committed themselves to a “strategic dialogue.” What does it all mean? …
The “Deadliest Zone”: Hillary Clinton Visits Central America’s Narco-Nightmare
Updated June 23
With the exception of catastrophic Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and the Honduran coup of 2009, the world has all but forgotten about Central America since its civil wars obsessed the Reagan Administration in the 1980s. But here, along with the storm and the putsch, is what happened in the meantime: the region has become …
Clinton Condemns Use of Rape, Sexual Violence in Libya Conflict
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi are using rape as a weapon of war. In a statement released Thursday, she says the United States is “deeply concerned” about reports of “wide-scale” rape in the Libyan conflict. Citing the International Criminal Court’s findings and the case of Eman al Obeidi, she …
Somalia: Deadly, Even For al Qaeda
The reported death of the mastermind of the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Nigeria Tanzania finally brings to a close the opening chapter of what went on to become the war on terror. Photographs and DNA analysis on the bodies of two men shot and killed at a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) roadblock in Mogadishu overnight on …
Hillary Clinton Blasts China’s Human Rights Record
Just as it seemed that top U.S. officials were publicly sending the same signals to China on human rights, namely that China should improve its record not just because it is morally right, but because it will help the Beijing government achieve its goal of social stability, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dropped a bombshell. In a …
In Talks With China on Human Rights, ‘Stability’ Becomes U.S. Buzzword
U.S. officials seem to have found a new buzzword when talking about human rights in China—stability. As the two countries’ Strategic and Economic Dialogue opened Monday in Washington, both Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised the prospect of greater domestic stability in China through improved human …
Talking Past Each Other: Hamas Broaches Peace While Israel Sees Only Terror
Almost unnoticed on Wednesday, as two rival Palestinian factions agreed to bury the hatchet, was the head of Hamas announcing that his group, which exists for armed struggle against Israel, was willing to give peace with the Jewish state a chance, too. The statement from Khaled Mashal was grudging and hardly optimistic, but cut enough …
In Human Rights Talks, U.S. Raises Concerns About China’s Crackdown
After two days of talks in Beijing on human rights, a U.S. representative expressed concern about the recent crackdown in China and the lack of information about several activists being held incommunicado by police. “In recent months we’ve seen a serious backsliding on human rights and a discussion of these negative trends dominated the …