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Kerry: Obama 'Will Go Down in History' for 'Highest Standards of Transparency and Accountability' Jeryl Bier May 23, 2014 8:21 AM The same day President Obama held a press conference about the growing scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary of State John Kerry faced the press in Mexico at a joint appearance with Mexican foreign secretary Jose Antonio Meade. Kerry was in the country to discuss trade, economic growth, higher education, and security cooperation, but a reporter asked Kerry some pointed questions about President Obama and his policies and actions regarding surveillance and deportation. Kerry responded with unequivocal...

One of the oldest rivalries on the planet has flared up again, and it’s all because of where China placed an oil rig in the South China Sea. The location of an oil rig might not seem like enough to start a war. But the two countries are in an aggressive standoff that—given the politics of the region and the shared history between the two countries—has the potential to turn violent. But to understand what could happen next, it’s important to look at the history of conflict between China and Vietnam, and the military forces both sides have at their...

WASHINGTON — The United States' top naval officer said the Navy’s growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region is beginning to show results and shape events, but acknowledges it will be ‘a long-term effort.’ Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the Chief of Naval Operations, said he hopes the U.S. Navy will be able to expand cooperation with India once its new government takes its place. Speaking Monday at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Greenert said the growing military-to-military dialogue with China is beginning to show results, especially in the South China Sea, where maritime tensions between China and its...

A large number of People’s Liberation Army troops have reportedly been spotted heading towards the China-Vietnam border as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate, reports Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily. Sing Tao Daily is generally considered to be aligned to Chinese state media. Thousands of Chinese nationals living or on business in Vietnam have already fled the country amid anti-China riots, which were sparked by a tense standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese naval ships near a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on May 4. The Chinese foreign ministry...

Troops, tanks, trucks, artillery, and armored personnel carriers of China's military were seen heading to the Vietnamese border on May 16 and 17, according to photographs taken by by residents near the border. Chinese netizens have been posting photographs of the large movement of the People's Liberation Army, many of them showing Chinese troops in full combat gear heading to the local train station in Chongzuo, along with military vehicles. One netizen said the Chinese military was taking the train from the Chongzuo station to Pingxiang City, which shares a 60-mile border with Vietnam. The netizen said that the Huu...

China began evacuating hundreds of its nationals from Vietnam (via at least 2 planes and 5 ships) as the anti-China protests have become increasingly deadly following Beijing's attempt to deploy an oil drill in Vietnamese dispuited waters (detailed here, here, here, and here)... *CHINA SENDING 5 SHIPS TO VIETNAM TO EVACUATE CHINESE: XINHUA*HUNDREDS OF VIETNAMESE SECURITY IN CENTRAL HO CHI MINH CITY*VIETNAM PRIME MINISTER ISSUES DIRECTIVE TO PREVENT PROTESTS*VIETNAM GOVT TAKES ACTION TO PREVENT RIOTS: BINH Hundreds of police and security forces are in central Ho Chi Minh city and the Chinese consulate is under heavy guard. Tensions across...

The Chinese government has evacuated more than 3,000 of its nationals from Vietnam following a wave of anti-Chinese riots, Chinese media report. State-run Xinhua news agency says Beijing is arranging charter flights and ships to help more people to leave. At least two Chinese nationals have been killed and 100 injured in recent unrest in Vietnam over a Chinese oil rig drilling in disputed waters. On Saturday the Vietnamese government called for an end to the protests. Officials said "illegal acts" would be stopped as they could damage national stability. However, dissident groups have urged people to rally again in...

CHINA’S top general blamed the Obama administration’s new focus on Asia for various disputes in the East and South China seas, claiming that “some neighboring countries” were using it as a chance to provoke problems. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday, the People’s Liberation Army’s Chief of the General Staff General Fang Fenghui also warned that the US must be objective about tensions between China and Vietnam or risk harming relations between Washington and Beijing. He defended China’s deployment of an oil rig in the South China Sea and said China had no intention of abandoning drilling despite...

A U.S. Republican lawmaker on Thursday issued a second subpoena for Secretary of State John Kerry to testify before Congress this month about the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi. The State Department reacted angrily, saying it was the second time Kerry had been subpoenaed while on foreign travel, and noted the announcement had been made via Twitter. "This is not the way legitimate and responsible oversight is conducted," said State Department spokeswoman Marie Barf. House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa had earlier issued a subpoena for Kerry to appear on May 21, but...

More than 20 people were killed in Vietnam and a huge foreign steel project set ablaze as anti-China riots spread to the centre of the country a day after arson and looting in the south, a doctor and company officials said on Thursday. A doctor at a hospital in central Ha Tinh province said five Vietnamese workers and 16 other people described as Chinese were killed on Wednesday night in rioting, one of the worst breakdowns in Sino-Vietnamese relations since the neighbours fought a brief border war in 1979. "There were about a hundred people sent to the hospital last...

Kerry to warn of climate threats to national security in speech By Laura Barron-Lopez - 05/14/14 11:43 AM EDT Secretary of State John Kerry plans to give a major speech on the connection between climate change and national security this summer. In an interview with the New York Times, Kerry said the speech would also be an opportunity to build political support for President Obama's climate agenda. “We’re going to try to lay out to people legitimate options for action that are not bank-breaking or negative," Kerry said. A central part of that agenda are regulations to curb carbon emissions...

HANOI - Rioting broke out at industrial zones in southern Vietnam during protests by thousands of workers angered by Chinese oil drilling in a contested area of the South China Sea, officials said on Wednesday. Workers smashed gates in the rioting on Tuesday and entered industrial parks housing factories in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces, which are central to Vietnam's sizable manufacturing interests.... Vietnam's state-run newspapers and its television channels reported the rioting on Wednesday, but did not show photographs or any video footage. "About 19,000 workers were demonstrating against China's violation of Vietnam's territorial waters," Tran Van Nam,...

(CNN) -- Anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam have turned violent with demonstrators setting on fire a number of factories in a southern Vietnamese industrial park. Properties in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP) I & II in Binh Duong were targeted Tuesday by thousands of protesters demonstrating over China's deployment of an oil rig into waters that both countries claim as sovereign territory. Reports suggest the demonstrators targeted factories owned by Chinese firms, although CNN received a report that the arson was indiscriminate, with Korean-, Taiwanese- and Japanese-owned properties also torched by the angry mob.

Hanoi/Manila Reuters: Thousands of Vietnamese set fire to factories and rampaged in industrial zones in the south of the country after protests against Chinese oil drilling in a part of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam, officials said on Wednesday. The brunt appears to have been borne by Taiwanese companies in the zones in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces as rioters mistook the firms to be Chinese-owned. Vietnamese officials gave few details, but said gates to factories were smashed and windows were broken. Police said they were investigating. A Singapore foreign ministry spokesman said the premises of a...

David Tran fled communist Vietnam in December 1978 on the Huey Fong, a Panamanian freighter that carried Tran and more than 3,000 other refugees to freedom. According to a 2013 profile in the LA TImes, Tran and his family settled in Los Angeles, where he soon realized he couldn’t find work or a hot sauce that he liked. Tran began to make his own hot sauce and sold it in Chinatown. He named it after its place of origin (Si Racha, Thailand) and started a company in 1980, Huy Fong, which he named after the freighter that brought him to the United...

The State Department and a House panel are working on an alternative date for Secretary of State John Kerry to testify about information related to the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya. "The State Department has told the Committee that they are committed to finding an alternative date in the near future for Secretary Kerry to testify before the Oversight Committee," Frederick Hill, a spokesman for the panel, said Monday. "As such, Chairman Issa agreed to lift the subpoena obligation for May 21."

Vietnam said on Wednesday a Chinese vessel intentionally rammed two of its ships in a part of the disputed South China Sea where Beijing has deployed a giant oil rig, sending tensions spiraling in the region. The foreign ministry in Hanoi said the collisions took place on Sunday and caused considerable damage to the Vietnamese ships. Six people sustained minor injuries, it said. "On May 4, Chinese ships intentionally rammed two Vietnamese Sea Guard vessels," said Tran Duy Hai, a foreign ministry official and deputy head of Vietnam's national border committee. "Chinese ships, with air support, sought to intimidate Vietnamese...

Eleanor Holmes Norton is the Democrats’ non-voting congressional observer from the District of Columbia. You may remember her as the genius who claimed that people didn’t know they had to sign up for ObamaCare because evil Republicans had convinced everyone it had been repealed. Well, Democrats, congratulations. Your brain trust is at it again. This is a woman you actually elected and she’s dropped another nugget of wisdom in your laps. An incensed Ms. Eleanor Norton wants everyone to know that the Iraq war was “perhaps the most catastrophic war of the 20th century.” Here’s the clip:

Commentary by Paul Winters, Dignitas News Service In comments made Thursday in Japan, US President Obama pledged his support for Japanese rights in its dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea. The disputed land, known to the Japanese as Senkaku and referred to as Diaoyu are at the center of the Sino-Japanese tensions. The comments come as part of Mr. Obama's week-long trip through Asia in which he has been vocal in support for Japan and Korea in the region, but has been embarrassingly silent on support for the Philippines amid increased Chinese aggression in the South...

US Secretary of State John Kerry has accused Russia of "distraction, deception and destabilisation" in eastern Ukraine. In a strongly worded statement, he called on Moscow to help defuse the crisis there or face further sanctions.