Obama and Clinton join forces for presidential campaign
Former United States
President Bill Clinton gave a rousing endorsement of fellow Democrat Barack
Obama in his first 2012 campaign appearance with the president today, and
helped him raise more than $2 million.A white-haired and svelte Clinton, 65,
pounded the podium and pointed at the crowd while addressing about 500 Obama
supporters outside the Virginia home of his friend and Democratic adviser Terry
McAuliffe."I think he's done a good job," he told the crowd in his
signature raspy voice, warmly introducing the man who beat his wife, Hillary
Clinton, to win the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and then made her
US secretary of state. "We are going the right direction under President
Obama's leadership."Clinton's support could be pivotal for Obama's efforts
to raise money and to sell voters on his economic plans, which Republicans have
denounced as fiscally reckless and rooted in populism instead of good business
sense.Clinton oversaw one of the most prosperous times in recent American
history and managed to balance the federal budget, something Democrats are keen
to remind voters before the November 6 election.When he took the backyard
podium, Obama, 50, noted Clinton's "remarkable" economic record in
his two White House terms and referred frequently to the political powerhouse
standing behind him, who stands to be a huge fundraising force in the final
months of the presidential campaign."I didn't run for president simply to
get back to where we were in 2007. I didn't run for president simply to restore
the status quo before the financial crisis. I ran for president because we had
lost our way since Bill Clinton was done being president," Obama said.The
state of the US economy is expected to be the pivotal issue for voters in
November.With unemployment still relatively high and growth showing signs of
slowing, Obama is under pressure to defend his string of big budget deficits
and prove the soundness of his proposals to keep spending on infrastructure,
clean energy and education and to raise taxes on the very rich.Neither Obama
nor Clinton referred to George W. Bush, the Republican who served two
presidential terms in between their tenures, nor the presumptive Republican
nominee for this year's White House race, Mitt Romney, by name in their outdoor
remarks.But Clinton said Obama's likely White House opponent this year wanted
to revert to the policies that plunged the United States into crisis, but
"on steroids, which will get you the same consequences as before, on
steroids."Clinton applauded Obama's efforts in healthcare, clean
energy promotion and student loan reform, and argued that US employment levels
were rebounding quickly from the financial and mortgage crises that took hold
before Obama took office."Look, the man's not Houdini, all he can do is
beat the clock. He's beating the clock," he said, comparing the pace of US recovery to Japan's extended weakness after its own
crisis. "The last thing you want to do is to turn around and embrace the
policies that got us into trouble in the first place."Fresh from the
previous night's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, where he took
several digs at Romney, Obama was clearly in good humor at the Virginia
event.Turning to foreign policy, Obama said he and Hillary Clinton had
"spent the last three and a half years cleaning up other folks'
messes," and made fun of Romney's recent comment that Russia was the
United States' "No. 1 geopolitical foe.""I'm suddenly thinking,
'What? Maybe I didn't check the calendar this morning. I didn't know we were
back in 1975,'" he said. The comment echoed Vice President Joe Biden's
criticism last week of Romney as being stuck in a Cold War mindset.Clinton had
not appeared with Obama this election cycle. But last week the Obama campaign
released a video of Clinton praising Obama for approving the commando raid that
killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last May.Tickets to Sunday's outdoor
reception cost $1,000 and up, and Obama and Clinton later addressed a more exclusive
dinner at McAuliffe's home for 80 people who paid $20,000 each.The money went
to a fund supporting Obama's re-election, the Democratic National Committee and
several state Democratic parties.
Aus billionaire to build Titanic II
Sydney -
One of Australia's richest men, Clive Palmer, on Monday unveiled plans to build
a 21st century version of the doomed Titanic in China, with its first voyage
from England to New York set for 2016.Palmer, a self-made mining billionaire,
said he had commissioned state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to
construct Titanic II with the same dimensions as its predecessor."It will
be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic but of course it will have
state-of-the-art 21st century technology and the latest navigation and safety
systems," Palmer said in a statement."Titanic II will sail in the
northern hemisphere and her maiden voyage from England to North America is scheduled for late 2016."He
added that he had invited the Chinese navy to escort the Titanic II to New York.The
announcement comes just weeks after the 100th anniversary of the sinking of
Titanic, which went down on April 15 1912 after striking an iceberg on its
first voyage, from Southampton to New York.Palmer said the new ship would be a
tribute to the spirit of the men and women who worked on the original, which
sank with the loss of 1 514 passengers and crew."These people produced
work that is still marvelled at more than 100 years later and we want that
spirit to go on for another 100 years," he said.Titanic was commissioned
by White Star Line and was the largest liner in the world at the time.Palmer
said he has established his own shipping company, Blue Star Line, with the new
vessel having the same specifications as its predecessor - 270m long, 53m high
and weighing some 40 000 tonnes.It will have 840 rooms and nine decks with
design work in conjunction with an historical research team underway. No figure
was given on how much it would cost.The only changes to the original would be
below the water line including welding and not riveting, a bulbous bow for
greater fuel efficiency, diesel generation and enlarged rudder and bow
thrusters for increased manoeuvrability."Titanic II will be the ultimate
in comfort and luxury with on-board gymnasiums and swimming pools, libraries,
high class restaurants and luxury cabins," Palmer said.The ship would also
include an exhibition room which will be located in the space of the original's
coal boilers which will showcase his home state of Queensland.Palmer is estimated
to be Australia's fifth richest person, worth more than Aus$5bn, thanks to his
vast coal and other mining assets in Queensland and Western Australia.He has
also branched out into tourism and owns the luxury Coolum resort on the
Sunshine Coast, while recently saying he wants to move into the media industry,
a sector dominated byFairfax and Rupert Murdoch's News Limited.His decision to
commission a Chinese shipbuilding yard, which will also construct other luxury
liners for the tycoon, reinforces his ties to the country, which is a key buyer
of his coal and iron ore."The Chinese are renowned for building commercial
cargo and container ships," he said."China currently produces around 2 to 3%
of the world's luxury ships but is looking to challenge the Europeans who have
around 75% of this market."The Chinese ship building industry with our
assistance wants to be a major player in this market."The original Titanic
was built in Belfast.
Head of UN mission urges peace in Syria
The head of the UN observer mission in Syria on Sunday called on President
Bashar al-Assad and the country's opposition to stop fighting and allow a tenuous
cease-fire to take hold.Major General Robert Mood spoke after arriving in the
Syrian capital, Damascus, to take charge of an advance team of 16 UN monitors
trying to salvage an international peace plan to end the country's 13-month-old
crisis.Under the plan, a cease-fire is supposed to lead to talks between Assad
and the opposition on a political solution to a conflict that has killed more
than 9 000 people.On Sunday, Syrian troops killed at least 28 civilians,
including 14 in a village in the central Hama province, said an activist group,
the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Opposition fighters shot dead
three Syrian soldiers in a clash and four soldiers were killed while handling
explosives, the group said.The Observatory also said several explosions were heard
in Damascus, but provided no details.Mood told reporters that the 300 observers
the UN has authorised for the mission "cannot solve all the problems"
in Syria, asking for co-operation from forces loyal to Assad as well as rebels
seeking to end his rule."We want to have combined efforts focusing on the
welfare of the Syrian people," he said, "true cessation of violence
in all its forms".The cease-fire began unravelling almost as soon as it
went into effect 12 April. The regime has kept up its attacks on opposition
strongholds, while rebel fighters have continued to ambush government security
forces. Defying a major truce provision, the Syrian military has failed to
withdraw tanks and soldiers from city streets.Despite the violence, the truce
still enjoys the support of the international community, largely because it
views the plan as the last chance to prevent the country from falling into
civil war — and because it does not want to intervene militarily.Jakob
Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said
that while he is still hopeful, "unfortunately, I am also aware how much
this plan is at risk"."That's why it's especially important for this
mission to expand quickly," Kellenberger told the Swiss newspaper Der
Sonntag. He met with Syrian leaders earlier this month.Most analysts say the
plan has little chance of succeeding, though it could temporarily bring down
the level of daily violence.That has largely been the case in Homs, Syria's third largest city, which has
emerged as the heart of the uprising. Regime forces pounded parts of Homs for months, leaving large swaths of
the city in ruins, before two UN monitors moved into an upscale hotel there
last week.Since then, the level of violence has dropped, although gunbattles still
frequently break out. "The shooting has not stopped in Homs," local
activist Tarek Badrakhan said on Sunday.An amateur video posted online on
Saturday showed the observers walking through a heavily damaged neighbourhood,
where residents collected a body lying in the street and put it in the back of
a pickup truck.Mood, a Norwegian, was appointed head of the observer mission by
UN chief Ban Ki-moon. One hundred monitors should be in the country by mid-May,
said mission spokesman Neeraj Singh. It is unclear when or if the full
contingent of 300 monitors will deploy to Syria.Mood brings a wealth of Middle
East experience to the job, including stints with UN peacekeepers in Lebanon in
1989-1990 and as the head of a UN peacekeeping mission known as UNTSO from 2009
to 2011. That mission was the UN's first-ever peacekeeping operation, starting
after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to monitor a cease-fire. It now watches
cease-fires around the Middle East.The Syrian state news agency said observers
visited the embattled Homs neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh on Sunday but provided no
further information.The Observatory, an activist group monitoring the situation
in Syria, said government snipers shot and killed two people in the
neighbourhood of Joret al-Shayah, which borders Khaldiyeh.The group said an
additional 26 civilians were killed by troops across Syria, including 14 in the
village of Hamadi Omar in the central Hama province and a child in the southern
province of Deir el-Zour.Ban has blamed the regime for widespread violations of
the truce - prompting Syria to fire back that his comments were "outrageous"
and accuse him of bias.The spat has further stoked concerns among the Syrian
opposition and its Western supporters that Assad is merely playing for time to
avoid compliance with a plan that - if fully implemented - would likely sweep
him out of office.
