FT Chronicle

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Dalai Lama’s chief envoy said Tuesday that President Barack Obama probably won’t make a public appearance this week with the Tibetan spiritual leader during a White House visit that is already infuriating China.

A joint appearance by Obama and the Dalai Lama before reporters could make tense U.S.-China ties even worse and further complicate U.S. efforts to secure Chinese help in settling North Korean and Iranian nuclear standoffs and crucial economic, military and environmental issues.

Still, Lodi Gyari said Thursday’s meeting in the White House between the Nobel Peace laureates would be an important boost for Tibet and for the broader U.S. commitment to human rights.

The Dalai Lama, who has met with every U.S. president for the last two decades, is a recurring thorn in U.S.-Chinese ties. China accuses him of pushing for Tibetan independence — something he has repeatedly denied — and considers meetings between the monk and foreign leaders to be an infringement on Chinese sovereignty.

This week’s meeting follows a tense couple of months in what the Obama administration has called the world’s most important relationship, highlighted by the recent U.S. announcement of a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island Beijing claims as its own.

Former President George W. Bush appeared at the public presentation in 2007 of a Congressional Gold Medal Award to the Dalai Lama, but presidential meetings with the Dalai Lama have typically been held away from reporters, often in the White House’s private residences.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday that he didn’t know if Obama and the Dalai Lama would make a televised appearance after their meeting.

BEIJING (AP) — China has responded sharply to President Barack Obama’s plan to meet this month with Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, saying it is “resolutely” opposed to any such contact.

China accuses the Dalai Lama of pushing for Tibetan independence, which he denies.

The United States confirmed on Thursday that Obama would meet the Dalai Lama in Washington in the middle of this month.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement late Friday that “China resolutely opposes the visit by the Dalai Lama to the United States, and resolutely opposes US leaders having contact with the Dalai Lama.”

Bilateral relations have already been strained by the U.S. announcement Friday that it planned to sell $6.4 billion worth of arms to Taiwan.

Beijing quickly suspended military exchanges with Washington and announced an unprecedented threat of sanctions against the U.S. companies involved in the sale.

China is very sensitive to any meetings that the India-based Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has with government leaders, calling them interference in its internal affairs.
Every US president in the last two decades has met with the Dalai Lama.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just a week after enraging China with an arms sale package for rival Taiwan, President Barack Obama risks more damage to this crucial relationship by agreeing to meet with the Dalai Lama in two weeks.

Obama already postponed the visit once, angering U.S. lawmakers and rights groups. As Obama struggles to regain his footing after political setbacks, the last thing he needs is to open himself up to fresh criticism that he is kowtowing to China.

So on Thursday, his administration confirmed what had long been expected: Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan monk visits Washington on Feb. 17-18.

China immediately urged the United States to scrap the meeting to avoid hurting bilateral ties. China accuses the Dalai Lama of pushing for Tibetan independence, which the Dalai Lama denies, and believes that shunning the exiled Tibetan monk should be a basic principle of international relations for countries that want to deal with China.

Every US president for the last two decades has met with the Dalai Lama, and those visits are considered powerful signs of the American commitment to human rights. Obama also told Chinese leaders last year that he would meet with the monk.

The Dalai Lama enjoys widespread support in America. High-profile celebrities call him friend; college students flock to his frequent campus lectures; powerful US lawmakers would call another postponed meeting a betrayal.

Obama is focused on domestic matters as he deals with a struggling economy and a series of Republican political victories. He does not want to add to that with an outcry over his snubbing the Dalai Lama again.

For the last year, Obama has faced criticism that his administration is more eager to win Chinese cooperation on nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea and climate change and economic crises than to hold Beijing accountable for what activists call an abysmal rights record.

Much of that criticism stems from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s comments during a trip to China a year ago that human rights should not interfere with improving U.S.-China ties. Activists also said Obama failed to make human rights a big enough priority during his China trip in November.

Just a month before that high-profile trip, Obama faced anger for putting off a White House visit when the Dalai Lama came to Washington.

Still, he has little to show from China for his outreach. As Beijing refuses to give ground on many key issues, the Obama administration has shown an increasing willingness to get tough.

In September, Obama slapped tariffs on a flood of Chinese tires entering the United States. Although he antagonized China and heard complaints about US protectionism, he was praised by powerful American union allies who blame Chinese tire imports for the loss of thousands of jobs.

And, in recent weeks, the administration announced the $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island Beijing claims as its own; Clinton urged Beijing to investigate hacking attacks that led to Google’s threat to pull out of China; and Obama vowed to get tough with China on a currency dispute.

China maintains that Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for much of its history.

Tibet and Taiwan are China’s most sensitive issues, and Obama risks Chinese retaliation by stoking anger in Beijing.

Already, China has threatened to punish US companies involved in any arms sales to Taiwan and has suspended military exchanges with Washington.

Many will be watching whether the Dalai Lama meeting wrecks a possible April visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington.

President Barack Obama implored Senate Democrats on Wednesday to stay aggressive in pushing their agenda despite the loss of one vital seat, saying: “We still have to lead.” (Feb. 3)

In a blunt election prescription for his own skittish party, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored Democratic leaders to swing big, be honest with an angry public and expose any obstructionism by Republicans.

WASHINGTON– US President Barack Obama joined forces with his White House predecessors, George W. Bush Democrat Bill Clinton, to help victims of Haiti’s major quake.

Obama said that America stands united with the people of Haiti to help them to recover and to rebuild.

The United States have launced “one of the largest relief efforts in our history” to bring support to Haiti following Tuesday’s devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake that claimed properties and lives.

Bush, who congratulated Obama for his “swift and timely response to the disaster” and called for people to contribute money for organizations who will be able to effectively spend it for the Haiti people.

The challenges in Haiti “are immense, but there’s a lot of devoted people leading the

Clinton, the United Nations special envoy for Haiti, said the priority for now is to ship food, medicine and water to Haiti.

Obama and the ex-presidents directed people to the website www.clintonbushhaitifund.org to make donations.

JACKSON, Tennessee — An Arkansas man has pleaded guilty to charges he plotted to kill then-Sen. Barack Obama and dozens of other black people.

Paul Schlesselman pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to one count of conspiracy, one count of threatening to kill and inflict bodily harm upon a presidential candidate and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

He faces 10 years in prison when he’s sentenced in April.

A co-defendant, Daniel Cowart of Bells, Tennessee, remains in custody pending a hearing.

Authorities have described the two as white supremacist skinheads who hatched a plot for a cross-country robbery and killing spree in 2008 that was to culminate with an attack on Obama, then a candidate for president. - AP

US President Barack Obama promised earlier Wednesday to mount an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort to help the people of Haiti overcome a “cruel and incomprehensible” tragedy.”

The president said the relief effort is gearing up even as the U.S. government is working to account for Americans who were on the island nation when the disaster struck late Tuesday afternoon.

Video from Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Tens of thousands are feared dead while many are still trapped under rubble of collapsed buildings brought by the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti last Tuesday.

Tuesday’s earthquake brought down buildings great and small even President Rene Preval’s lustrous white National Palace while bodies were everywhere in Port-au-Prince

Hospitals, schools and the main prison collapsed. The capital’s Roman Catholic archbishop was killed when his office and the main cathedral fell. The quake damaged the airport, stranding dozens there. The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was missing in the ruins of the organization’s multistory headquarters.

Haiti’s leaders struggled to comprehend the extent of the catastrophe — the worst earthquake to hit the country in 200 years — even as aftershocks reverberated.

US President Barack Obama promised an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort including the military and civilian emergency teams from across the U.S. Late Wednesday, the Navy said the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan had been ordered to sail as soon as possible with a 2,000-member Marine unit to join other warships headed to the Caribbean nation.

The first cargo planes with food, water, medical supplies, shelter and sniffer dogs headed to the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation a day after the magnitude-7 quake flattened much of the capital of 2 million people.

Some of the biggest immediate health threats include respiratory disease from inhaling dust from collapsed buildings and diarrhea from drinking contaminated water.

The international Red Cross said a third of the country’s 9 million people may need emergency aid, a burden that would test any nation and a crushing catastrophe for impoverished Haiti.

Officials said the UK and the US would cooperate to fund an anti-terrorists police unit in Yemen following an alleged bomb airline attack over Detroit.

The US president has suspected that the Christmas Day bomb suspect was trained by a Yemen-based al-Qaeda offshoot.

According to Gen David Petraeus, responsible for US Middle East and Central Asian operations, the US was keen to support Yemen’s struggle against al-Qaeda.

Barack Obama has sent his top Middle East general to meet Yemen’s president.

On Saturday, Mr Obama for the first time publicly accused an offshoot of al-Qaeda, based in Yemen, over the alleged attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner over Detroit.