President-elect Barack Obama today told the Governors' Global Summit on Climate Change, hosted in Los Angeles by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), that his presidency will usher in a new era of U.S. leadership on climate change.
"My presidency will mark a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process," Obama told the conference via videotaped message. "Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change."
President Bush today lauded Iraq's parliament for agreeing on a provincial elections law that would allow Iraq to hold provincial elections Jan 31, 2009.
"Elections in Iraq can now be held under a new system that will give Iraqis more say in choosing their elected representatives," Bush said in a statement released by the White House press office.
"Nothing is more central to a functioning democracy than free and fair elections. Today
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" last night, telling host Jon Stewart that he likes President Bush personally.
"I like him," Blair said of Bush.
Bush has a job approval rating of 32 percent among U.S. citizens, but as far as personal feelings go, Blair said Bush's likability depends on whether one agrees with him on national security issues.
"It depends whether you agree with him or not on the security threat, which I happen to do, but if you don't then obviously you are less inclined to like him," Blair said.
Blair went on to explain his views on the invasion of Iraq, telling the audience he came to his support for it of his own accord and that that he did not take the decision lightly.
"I don't disrespect people who take a different point of view, but it's what I believed then and what I believe now," Blair said.
Gen. David Petraeus said he's reluctant to ever declare victory in Iraq in an interview with the BBC.
"This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade... it's not war with a simple slogan," Petraeus said.
Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said that security gains made since the U.S. military surge aren't irreversable and that the United States still faced a "long struggle." But he added that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from most Iraqi cities by the middle of 2009 was "doable" since Iraqis are taking more responsibility for the security of their country.
Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi had glowing praise for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who last week became the first U.S. official to make a diplomatic visit Libya in decades.
"I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders," Gadhafi said, reports The Times of London. "Leezza, Leezza, Leezza . . . I love her very much. I admire her, and I
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is blasting the Chinese government for arresting Chinese citizens who have applied for permits to protest at the Beijing Olympics.
"Instead of living up to their commitments it made to be allowed to host the Olympic Games, the Chinese government is using the Olympics as a justification to crackdown on peaceful human rights activists, censor foreign and domestic journalists, and displace Chinese individuals and families who have no legal recourse to protest the seizure of their homes or their land," Pelosi said in a statement released by her office last night.
"From media reports, we are now learning that the Chinese government-designated
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Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao will replace Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as head of the president's delegation to the Beijing Olympics at the games' closing ceremony Saturday, the White House announced this afternoon.
Rice's "travel schedule has changed due to developing world events," the White House press office said. Presumably, those events include Russia's conflict with Georgia and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation. Rice traveled to Brussels yesterday for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting on the Georgia/Russia conflict.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, returning early from a vacation, said today that Russian and Georgian forces need to stop fighting, and that once that happens, there will be international efforts to facilitate a Russian withdrawal.
"It is very important now that all parties cease fire. The Georgians have agreed to a cease-fire. The Russians need to stop their military operations, as they have apparently said that they will, but those military operations really do now need to stop, because calm needs to be restored," Rice said. "There then will be international efforts to facilitate the withdrawal of forces from the zone of conflict. We can then look to the issue of how to resolve the longstanding frozen conflicts of South Ossetia and Abkhazia."
Rice also hinted at U.S. assistance in rebuilding areas torn by fighting.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that his country would welcome a new approach from the United States that's less confrontational.
"Today, we see new behavior shown by the United States and the officials of the United States," said Ahmadinejad in an interview on NBC that aired Monday. "My question is, is such behavior rooted in a new approach, in other words mutual respect, cooperation and justice? Or this approach is a continuation in the confrontation with the Iranian people, but in a new guise?"
Last weekend, U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns joined diplomats from Iran and five other countries in talks over the Islamic state's nuclear program. The United States and other Western nations have called on Iran to halt the enriching of uranium, a step in the process of developing nuclear weapons.
Ahmadinejad, who is the country's highest elected official yet serves under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, added in the interview that Iranians had become "acclimated" to a U.S. policy marked by confrontation.
"If this is the continuation of the old process, well, the Iranian people needs to defend its right, its interests as well," he said. "But if the approach changes, we will be facing a new situation, and the response by the Iranian people will be a positive one."
As the Bush administration seeks to conclude security negotiations with Iraq, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino today contrasted President Bush's agreement to a withdrawal "time horizon" with congressional Democrats' previous calls for troop withdrawal.
"It will be conditions-based," Perino said at today's White House press briefing. "We agree it would be flexible, we agree it is not an arbitrary date for withdrawal."
Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed last Thursday to include in their pending security agreement a "general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals" for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq. Bush has consistently opposed setting dates for troop withdrawal since the 2003 invasion.
Reporters pressed Perino on the similarity of Maliki's preferred timeline to that forwarded by Barack Obama. An Iraqi government spokesman today affirmed hopes for U.S. combat troops to leave by 2010, and Maliki was recently quoted in German magazine Der Spiegel as agreeing with Obama's 16-month timetable.
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