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<p>KINSHASA, Congo -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's temper flared on Monday when a Congolese university student asked her for her husband's thinking on an international financial matter.</p> <p>A week after former President Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea to secure the release of two detained American journalists and stole the limelight from the start of his wife's first trip to Africa, Clinton was clearly displeased by the question at town hall forum in Kinshasa.</p>

A week after former President Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea to secure the release of two detained American journalists and stole the limelight from the start of his wife's first trip to Africa, Clinton was clearly displeased by the question at town hall forum in Kinshasa. "You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" she replied incredulously when the male student asked her what "Mr. Clinton" thought of World Bank concerns about a multi-billion-dollar Chinese loan offer to the Congo. "My husband is not secretary of state, I am," an obviously annoyed Clinton said sharply.

Former President Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker Thursday at the Netroots Nation convention being held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center this week. Netroots Nation is a group of liberal bloggers who use the Internet and grassroots activism to promote their causes and candidates. In June, the President met with bloggers to discuss a range of topics, from the environment to health care to the role of today's new progressive era. "At a time when we're all working together to make sure we get the change we voted for, President Clinton's message is spot-on. After all, holding...

America's chief diplomat sounds off on Iran, North Korea and Team ObamaIn a wide-ranging interview taped while she was in Nairobi last week, Hillary Clinton on “Fareed Zakaria GPS” said that her differences with Obama during the campaign were "maybe [a] difference in degree, not kind," and said she had no worries about foreign policy power moving from the State Department to the White House, noting, "I'm not exactly a shrinking violet." She also defended her husband's mission to North Korea, and dismissed the claim by Bush's ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, that Clinton's trip encouraged hostage-taking and...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- President Bill Clinton spoke to a group of students at the University of Central Florida on Sunday. Clinton addressed the first class of a new leadership program at the school. Clinton challenged students to make a difference in their communities. “Once you believe the tomorrow doesn't have to be like yesterday, the whole world opens up,” Clinton said. His speech lasted about 30 minutes, but his message was clear. “You can make a better tomorrow for Florida,” Clinton added. It was a message heard loudly and clearly by those in the crowd. “It was really empowering....

Former President William Jefferson Blythe Clinton has returned from Pyongyang, North Korea, with Al Gore's employees Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The two women, reporters for Gore's Current TV operation, were seized by North Korean border guards March 17 along the frozen Tumen River -- the border between North Korea and China. On June 8, following a five-day "trial," Pyongyang's Central Court convicted the women of "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry" and sentenced them to 12 years' hard labor. On Tuesday, Aug. 4, Mr. Clinton, accompanied by a doctor and his former chief of staff John...

The U.S. national security adviser says North Korean leader Kim Jong Il still appears to be in "full control" of his government. Jim Jones based the assessment Sunday on reports from the recent trip of former U.S. President Bill Clinton to North Korea. South Korean intelligence reports have suggested Mr. Kim has pancreatic cancer, raising questions about his successor. North Korean media deny Mr. Kim is sick. Mr. Clinton traveled to Pyongyang this past week to secure the release of two U.S. journalists who were jailed in March for illegally entering North Korea. Jones said on Fox News Sunday Mr....

Both Clintons are suddenly back on the world stage - but this time the third person in their marriage isn't an intern, it's a president. From New York, Philip Sherwell dissects the ultimate in power couples.It was vintage Bill Clinton. The former US president had been lying low and licking his wounds after being slammed for some intemperate outbursts during his wife's failed run for the White House. But that semi-seclusion ended in headline-grabbing fashion last week as he burst back on to the world stage with a foray to North Korea to collect two jailed US journalists sentenced to...

The story has all the ingredients of a Hollywood blockbuster. Two beautiful girls in peril, an evil North Korean dictator holding them captive and, riding to the rescue, Slick Willy himself, former President Bill Clinton. As journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee collapsed, sobbing tears of joy, into the arms of their relieved families after being pardoned from a sentence of 12 years’ hard labour in North Korea, their palpable relief was perhaps enhanced by the flood of lucrative film, book and interview offers that came pouring in. [Snip] As of last night, the bidding war for the first...

The new President is having to address his predecessor's toxic legacy The image of two American women weeping with relief, after being spared 12 years of hard labour in North Korea, led to a tempting conclusion: that even in the darkest recesses of the world's most reviled regimes, the Obama effect is starting to take hold. From the moment he came to office just over six months ago, the new US president has sought to undertake a fundamental rebranding of America's international image. Gone is the Bush administration's Manichean view that divided the world between good countries (those that supported...

Seoul Still Baffled by Clinton's N.Korea Trip The South Korea government was still reeling Wednesday after former U.S. President Bill Clinton's surprise visit to North Korea. A senior government official said, "The worst-case scenario for us would be to see the repetition of the nightmare of 1994." At the time, the South Korean government was completely left out in the cold as the U.S. and North Korea concluded the Geneva Agreed Framework in the wake of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's visit to Pyongyang. Under the deal, South Korea had to bear most of the construction costs for a light-water...

I am wondering: Obama and Al Gore think huge carbon footprints are sinful. But they apparently endorsed a private jet flying all the way across the ocean with one guy...to pick up two women. Can we measure how much carbon was put into our atmosphere for these liberals' jaunt?

A wealthy Hollywood producer paid for the flight that carried former President Bill Clinton and two American journalists home from North Korea, a California businessman confirmed Wednesday. Stephen Bing, a close Clinton friend and longtime Democratic fundraiser, is the plane's owner, said Marc Foulkrod of Burbank, Calif., chairman of Avjet Corp., the company that manages the aircraft. Foulkrod said the Federal Aviation Administration "at the highest levels" cleared the flight plan, which required an exception because U.S. planes are not allowed to fly into North Korea. The effort to set up and clear the flight only started four to five...

Former president Bill Clinton's central role in the return of two journalists detained by North Korea has once again cast a spotlight on his vast web of financial and political contacts, a network that troubled senators who weighed whether to confirm his wife as secretary of state. In the case of the detainees, Clinton tapped wealthy business people to execute a mission that, without a special federal waiver for the aircraft to travel to North Korea, would have been illegal. A few weeks ago, one of his business contacts had the ear of Hillary Rodham Clinton in her role as...

It was not long ago that the world had written him off as an ageing leader with little or no remaining grip on power. But Bill Clinton is back. So it seems is the other dear leader, Kim Jong-il. For a man who had just a few weeks ago been declared terminally ill – one Japanese academic had even claimed he was dead – North Korea’s dictator is looking quite sprightly. The extraordinary photographs showing him flanked by a former US president (doing his best to imitate a sphinx) and several former US officials are a propaganda coup. They will...

Foreign Policy: We're glad former President Bill Clinton returned from North Korea with two American journalists who had been wrongly imprisoned there. But apologizing sets a very bad diplomatic precedent.Who wouldn't be happy seeing the tearful, smiling faces of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the journalists who were nabbed by Kim Jong Il's security forces while on a reporting mission on the China border? The secretive state nabbed them five months ago, and a government tribunal sentenced them to 12 years of hard labor. In North Korea, hard labor means hard labor. Had the sentences been carried out, one or...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After his talks with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Bill Clinton sure has a story to tell. And one of the first in line to hear his tale is President Barack Obama. "I suspect that President Clinton will have some interesting observations from his trip and I will let him provide those to me," Obama told MSNBC on Wednesday. The former president was chosen by the North Koreans from among four possible envoys proposed to them to try to gain freedom for two American reporters sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea. Other...

Bill Clinton's unexpected and successful trip to Pyongyang to secure the release of two American journalists sentenced to 12-year prison terms was a highly theatrical coup for the former president. His surprise arrival in North Korea, the three hours of face-to-face talks with an ailing though evidently still sentient Kim Jong-il, the tearful dawn homecoming in California – it was a perfectly executed foreign-policy triumph, played out live on the world's TV screens. But who has gained from it? Obviously, Euna Lee and Laura Ling have won their freedom from what was, in effect, a state-sponsored hostage-taking operation by one...

WASHINGTON - Republican Senator John McCain says North Korea was attempting to use former President Bill Clinton’s visit for propaganda purposes and enhance the prestige of Pyongyang. In an interview with Reuters, McCain said the Obama administration should resist any temptation to engage in direct talks with the North Koreans but instead should push North Korea to rejoin stalled six-party negotiations over its nuclear program. The six-party talks include the United States and North and South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. McCain, the Republican candidate in last year’s presidential election won by Barack Obama, said he believes all Americans appreciate...

WASHINGTON — It was a stirring scene: Bill Clinton, the former president, and Al Gore, his former vice president, back together, sharing a long and emotional hug as Mr. Clinton delivered back to American soil from captivity in North Korea two journalists who worked for Mr. Gore. There on the tarmac in California were the two dominant Democrats of the 1990s, having helped to ease an international crisis on behalf of an administration in which Hillary Rodham Clinton serves as secretary of state to the man, President Obama, who defeated Mrs. Clinton last year in a bitter race for the...

Amid all the adulation over Bill Clinton's "rescue" of the two reporters from North Korea, what have we learned since they were released about the circumstances under which they were captured by the North Koreans? Have the two acknowledged whether they crossed illegally into North Korea and thereby precipitated the crisis?

Never underestimate the power of a former president. Expressing "sincere words of apology," Bill Clinton persuaded North Korean President Kim Jong Il to release two American journalists in Pyongyang Tuesday, the North Korea state media reported. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested last March, while reporting for U.S. news outlet Current TV. The two, who inadvertently crossed a stream bordering China into North Korea, were convicted of "hostile acts" and sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor. The state news agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced "the measure taken to release the American journalists...

August 5. 2009 Juche 98 Report on Bill Clinton's Visit to DPRK Made Public Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) --A report on Former U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is as follows: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his party visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from August 4 to 5. Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, met with Bill Clinton and his party. During their stay Clinton and his party paid a courtesy call on Kim Yong Nam,...

6:55am UK, Wednesday August 05, 2009 Peter Sharp, Asia correspondent The release of the two US television journalists from North Korea may be regarded triumph but the reality is that the United States may have paid a high price to bring the women home. When Mr Clinton touched down in North Korea the former president was seen as the man who could force the hand of Kim Jong Il and orchestrate the release of the journalists. In reality it emerged that it was Kim Jong Il himself who had invited Mr Clinton to Pyongyang and had guaranteed freedom for the...

NORTH Korea's release of two American journal ists to former President Bill Clinton must be viewed as part of the succession crisis in Pyongyang. Mourning has already begun in anticipation of dictator Kim Jong Il's demise. Rumors from South Korean sources suggest that the "dear leader," suspected of having suffered a debilitating stroke in 2008, may have terminal pancreatic cancer. Kim Jong Il has tentatively named his son Kim Jong Un as successor. But the transition is rife with tension. When Kim Il Sung, the regime's founding dictator, decided to groom his son for succession, he took 10 years to...

They were arrested near the North Korean-Chinese border in March while on a reporting trip for Current TV, the Green media venture founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton brought two freed U.S. journalists out of North Korea early Wednesday following rare talks with reclusive leader Kim Jong Il, who pardoned the women sentenced to hard labor for entering the country illegally. Euna Lee and Laura Ling were heading back to the U.S. with Clinton, his spokesman Matt McKenna said, less than 24 hours after the former U.S. leader landed in the North Korean capital...

Here are three videos updating the release of two American reporters held by North Korea since March. Former President Bill Clinton secured their release today after meeting with Dictator Kim Jong-Il. The first video shows Clinton boarding a plane to leave North Korea along with the two American reporters. That video is followed by a detailed report on the day's events in Pyongyang that brought about their release. The final video is of the father of one of the journalists - Laura Ling - talking about his joy at the news of her release. . . . . . (Watch...

Now that all the hoopla and nonstop CNN 24/7 type celebrations and TV interviews and book deals will ramp up over the release of two liberal Democrat California-based freelance/Al Gore journalists from communist North Korea, based on a Bill Clinton secret deal and eventual flying to North Korea to apologize and legitimize the dictatorial regime--developing nuclear strike capabilities and exporting said terror--I say "hold your horses", as we have important unfinished business. I would expect the MSM to gloss over these so I raise them here.

U.S. journalists head home from North Korea (CNN) -- Two U.S. journalists who had been detained by North Korea were traveling back to the United States with former President Clinton hours after being pardoned, a Clinton spokesman said. President Clinton meets Tuesday with North Korea leader Kim Jong Il. "They are en route to Los Angeles [California] where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families," said spokesman Matt McKenna. Doug Ling, Laura's father, reacted to the news outside his home in Carmichael, California, with, "One of the best days in my life ... I figured, sooner or later,...

B reaKinG N ews on Fox News Channel..

CNN reporting that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has "pardoned" the two American journalist captured within his country.

(CNN) -- Nearly a decade has passed since Bill Clinton left the White House, but despite becoming a private citizen, the former president never left the public eye. While much of his time has been devoted to global philanthropic interests and speeches, Clinton has never strayed too far from the campaign trail and remains one of the world's most recognizable statesmen. [Blah, blah, blah, blah]

North Korea welcomed former President Bill Clinton to Pyongyang with flowers and hearty handshakes Tuesday as he arrived in the communist nation on a surprise mission to bring home two jailed American journalists. Clinton was making his first trip to North Korea in hopes of securing the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media venture who were arrested along the North Korean-Chinese border in March. But the visit could reap rewards beyond the women's release, with Clinton and North Korean officials broaching the nuclear impasse, diplomatic relations and other...

Former President Bill Clinton arrived Tuesday in Pyongyang, North Korea, on a mission to free two U.S. journalists imprisoned there since March, North Korea's official news agency reported. Mr. Clinton's trip was first reported by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. The State Department declined to comment, but diplomats indicated that the Yonhap report was correct. The journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were arrested March 17 near the Chinese border with North Korea. They were on assignment for Current TV, a cable outlet co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Last month, they were sentenced to 12 years of hard...

August 4. 2009, Juche 98 Bill Clinton Arrives Here Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- Bill Clinton, former president of the United States, and his party arrived here Tuesday by air. They were greeted by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs. A little girl presented a bouquet to Bill Clinton.

Former US president Bill Clinton is understood to have landed in Pyongyang earlier today for a surprise visit to North Korea as relations between the United States and the regime continue to sour and mystery surrounds the health of its enigmatic "Dear Leader". The regime's mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency, said in a bulletin this afternoon that Mr Clinton had been greeted at Pyongyang's airport by two senior government figures - the vice president of the presidium of North Korea's parliament and the vice foreign minister. "A little girl presented a bouquet to Bill Clinton," ran the rest of...

An aircraft believed to be carrying former US president Bill Clinton landed in North Korea on Tuesday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. "We're aware that an aircraft from the US landed at Sunan Airport in Pyongyang at around 10:48 am (0148 GMT)," it quoted a Seoul official as saying on condition of anonymity. South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the report. The agency and Chosun Ilbo newspaper earlier reported Clinton was en route to the communist state to try to secure the release of two jailed US journalists.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left Monday for a seven-nation trip to Africa, pressing for more anti-corruption efforts but seeking to boost trade as China's influence rises on the continent. Her trip comes less than a month after President Barack Obama visited Ghana and told African leaders that Western aid must be matched by good governance and greater attempts to end war, disease and corruption. U.S. officials said Clinton's 11-day visit was intended to reinforce that message but also aimed at showing that the Obama administration sees Africa as a foreign policy priority despite other challenges,...

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Via BNO News: Yonhap: Former U.S. President Clinton will visit North Korea on Tuesday to win the release of two detained American journalists. No link to story yet

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Bill Clinton may no longer occupy the White House, but the abortion advocate can still make use of his fundraising prowess. Clinton penned an email fundraising pitch for the big pro-abortion group Emily's List that it sent out today to its members. The email focuses on the 2010 Congressional elections and Clinton asks abortion advocates to give Emily's List money to supports it efforts to keep pro-abortion stalwarts in control of the House. "We can't afford to lose our Democratic majority in 2010, and women -- our nation's most progressive force -- will be crucial to...

In his struggle to change the nation's health care system, Barack Obama again faces certain obstacles that almost stopped his amazing march to the presidency. Aside from the Washington chattering class and the right-wing media, which always oppose progressive reform, Mr. Obama is losing his grip on the middle class and working families in swing states. He is losing Democratic senators and members of Congress in places like Florida and Arkansas. He is losing the propaganda war with his professorial style of explanation. So perhaps he should stop trying to walk this treacherous path alone. Perhaps the time has come,...

Former President Bill Clinton visited Central Intelligence Agency headquarters today to express his gratitude to employees and thank them for their role in protecting the United States against foreign threats. "I think it's critical to meeting the challenges that we face today and the ones we're likely to face tomorrow. I guess that's the most important thing I can say—that I am grateful to all of you for your service here," Mr. Clinton said. Mr. Clinton was also briefed on counterterrorism and regional hotspots by senior analysts at CIA headquarters. He said staffers are "trying to stop the big bad...

Note: The following text is a quote: Former President Clinton Visits CIA July 27, 2009 Former President Bill Clinton visited the Central Intelligence Agency today to thank the men and women of CIA for their essential work in protecting the United States from foreign threats. Welcoming the former President back to CIA, Director Leon E. Panetta said: “President Clinton understood very well the role of intelligence and its vital importance in the post-Cold War era. He relied on this Agency for information and insight, as he and his team confronted an array of foreign challenges.” In remarks to hundreds of...

According to The Nation, former president Bill Clinton has said that he is now "basically in support" of gay marriage. During an appearance at the Campus Progress National Conference in Washington on July 8, the former president said that he thinks it is "wrong for someone to stop someone else" from marrying. "I personally support people doing what they want to do," Mr. Clinton said. Mr. Clinton also said that he supports states' right to decide the legality of same-sex marriage and that he thinks "all these states that do it should do it." He said he does not believe...

President appears to be picking up some of his predecessors more, shall we say, unseemly, habits!

Former first cat Socks, the pet of President Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, has been laid to rest at the Arkansas Governor's Mansion in Little Rock. A portion of the black-and-white cat's ashes were scattered in a flower garden on the west side of the mansion in the spring, according to the Northwest Arkansas Morning News.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Bill Clinton aims to refocus international attention on this Caribbean country's deep economic problems and environmental decay during his first visit as the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti. The former U.S. president, who is expected to meet with Haitian President Rene Preval and visit hurricane-battered areas, is lending his prestige to the plight of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere as world attention has shifted to the global financial crisis and other trouble spots. He was scheduled to arrive late Monday, but no public events were planned until Tuesday, the United Nations said.

WASHINGTON – In a slap at President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton will headline a fundraiser for a New York congresswoman challenging White House-backed Sen. Kristen Gillibrand in the state's Democratic primary. Clinton has not endorsed in the race, but his efforts to help Rep. Carolyn Maloney could be seen as a snub to Gillibrand and the Obama White House. Matt McKenna, a spokesman for Clinton, said he will be attending a July 20 fundraiser in New York. The White House has played an active role in clearing the field for Gillibrand, who was appointed earlier this year to...