President Obama's trip to China yielded precious little Chinese cooperation on the Administration's key concerns, ranging from currency issues to Iran. That's a sign of the shifting balance of power between two countries that have been locked in an uneasy embrace for more than three decades. "I underlined to President Obama that given our differences in national conditions, it is only normal that our two sides may disagree on some issues," said China's President Hu Jintao. "What is important is to respect and accommodate each ...

President Obama's trip to China yielded precious little Chinese cooperation on the Administration's key concerns, ranging from currency issues to Iran. That's a sign of the shifting balance of power between two countries that have been locked in an uneasy embrace for more than three decades. "I underlined to President Obama that given our differences in national conditions, it is only normal that our two sides may disagree on some issues," said China's President Hu Jintao. "What is important is to respect and accommodate each ...

Whatever Leon Panetta lacked in formal intel experience he would make up for with his political smarts. That was one of the chief points made in his favor when the Obama Administration named the former California congressman and Clinton White House chief of staff as its first CIA Director. So many CIA veterans were particularly not happy over the summer when they felt that Panetta had failed to protect the Agency from the political backlash over its Bush-era detention ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she did not come to Pakistan for "happy talk."

Why Peshawar and why now?How much can be read into the timing of the attacks It coincides with Hillary Clinton being in the country. It's fundamentally saying: "You've got a high-ranked world leader who's a guest in the country, and we're showing you we're still kicking your backside," for lack of better words. It's really to make President Zardari lose face, as well as to continue the turmoil across the country and to show to the international community that the ...

The U.S. secretary of state arrived Wednesday in nuclear-armed Pakistan, a country hit hard by terrorism, economic crisis and rising sentiment that it is paying too high a price for its partnership with the United States in fighting extremists.Clinton said there has been "real progress in creating a base of trust that we are going to build on, but it is still a relatively short period of time. Nine months is not a lot of time to turn around a ...

The United States is fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but there are thousands of troops caught-up in a very different battle and President Barack Obama is promising to win it. Obama says he will reverse U.S. law and military tradition to assure a place in the armed forces for gay and lesbian personnel. "We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve this country," he said over the weekend. "We should be celebrating their willingness ...

With a runoff presidential election in Afghanistan appearing likely, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN on Friday that she expects the current president, Hamid Karzai, to win. "It is likely that they will find that President Karzai got very close to the 50-plus-1" in August's balloting, she said in an exclusive CNN interview, referring to the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff. "... I think one can conclude that the likelihood of him winning a ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed Tuesday that Washington and Moscow are working together to ensure Iran's nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes, but Russia has stopped short of committing to Iranian sanctions. Speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting, Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated there has been no agreement between the countries on any sort of sanctions plan, even though Russia is not opposed to sanctions in principle. The United States is using a ...

The assault began at dawn, as bullets and rockets peppered the remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan. The insurgency was so fierce, according to one soldier, that the troops couldn't get to their mortars to fire back. "They were under heavy enemy contact," Sgt. Jayson Souter said, describing the October 3 attack that pinned his comrades at Combat Outpost Keating, a remote base in Nuristan province. Four servicemen -- Souter, a fellow soldier, an Apache helicopter pilot, and a gunner -- ...