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President Obama put on a purple silk robe, matching the one worn by the Chinese president, to watch a fireworks display for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation he's attending in China. "It's a tradition that each year the APEC host provides shirt or jacket for the other leaders as sign of cooperation," says CBS's Mark Knoller.

There was China's president, Xi Jinping, Russia's president Vladimir Putin to his right, next to Philippine president Aquino and the uberwealthy Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah. And then there is Barack Obama, right in the middle of the "wives club"...

President Obama has cancelled a planned trip to Asia, citing the government shutdown. Obama had been scheduled to leave Washington late Saturday for summits in Indonesia and Brunei, but instead called leaders in those countries to express regret, the White House said. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Obama made the decision "based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel in the face of a shutdown, and his determination to continue pressing his case that Republicans should immediately allow a vote to reopen the government." Obama told the leaders that Secretary of State John Kerry will lead...

With little fanfare or public notice, the Obama administration has pushed full speed ahead over the past year with negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a so-called free trade agreement loaded with potential for enormous political and economic harm for Americans. The TPP, which currently involves 12 nations — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam (Japan is negotiating for membership and is likely to join soon) — is really intended as an interim arrangement, on the road to an expanded Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) that would...

HONOLULU: Canada, Mexico and at least two other countries have expressed interest in joining US-led talks for a pan-Pacific trade pact, a US Republican lawmaker said on Friday after Japan asked to take part. “There’s a good deal of momentum for the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership),” Representative Kevin Brady said after meetings with members of President Barack Obama’s administration at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. That momentum was evidenced by Japan’s announcement earlier on Friday that it was interested in joining the talks “and what seem to be very solid inquiries from Canada, Mexico and a few others,” Brady...

Yes, Dear Leader has scheduled a press conference for 9:45 p.m. EST during Patriots-Jets Sunday Night Football game. I doubt NBC will break in for it, but the cable networks will surely cover the APEC summit presser. That's the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit being held in Honolulu this weekend.There's plenty of mischief afoot as this Reuters article attests:U.S. expects "significant" APEC step on green trade The United States expects Asia Pacific leaders on Sunday to take a "significant step" toward reducing tariffs and other barriers that block trade in environmentally-friendly good and services, a senior administration official said on Sunday....

A  U.S. State Department law enforcement agent from the mainland was arrested for fatally shooting a man in his 20s early this morning on Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki, sources said. Honolulu police identified the alleged shooter as Christopher W. Deedy, 27, and sources who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that he is a federal agent who was off-duty at the time of the shooting. A State Department spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said only, "We are aware of the incident and we cannot comment on an ongoing investigation." She would not confirm whether he was here for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference...

*snip* The capstone comes on Nov. 12-13 when Obama hosts leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific economies at a summit in his native Hawaii and urges an expansion of trade with the fast-growing region. Obama hopes to assure leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in Honolulu that the focus on Asia has not been sidetracked by other diplomatic priorities.

Vladivostok Teeming with N.Korean Laborers In the scorching afternoon heat last Thursday, two Asian laborers sat in front of a grocery store near a building site in Vladivostok, Russia, cooling themselves with mugs of draft beer. When asked if they were North Koreans, the men asked, "Are you from South Korea?" One of the laborers, who was in his 40s, then said there were around 50 workers from all over North Korea, including Pyongyang and Nampo, at this particular site alone, and they can be seen at practically every construction site in Vladivostok. The entire Siberian city has turned into...

The absence of a plan to deal with Waikiki's entrenched homeless population for November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference has lawmakers and residents worried about the possibility of a law enforcement "sweep" they say will symbolize Hawaii's failure to solve the ongoing problem. The state's homeless coordinator told the Star-Advertiser there is no plan to address the homeless problem in Waikiki specifically for APEC, when Waikiki will be center stage before the leaders of 21 APEC nations and 2,500 international journalists. Gov. Neil Abercrombie's 90-day homeless plan that was launched in May is intended to address overall, long-term solutions, Marc Alexander...

Good ahead. Have a field day.

Obama delivers only hot air By Donald Kirk SEOUL – Theodore Roosevelt, a great American president with a clearly imperialist agenda, uttered one of the most famous lines in US history in 1901 when he advised a crowd, "Speak softly and carry a big stick". These days, US President Barack Obama seems to have gotten that aphorism reversed. He speaks a lot but doesn't seem to be carrying a big stick. That was the impression he gave after winding up his 11-day Asian odyssey in Japan at a tepid weekend gathering of Pacific rim leaders banded together in the Asia...

Go to the Link HERE.Stream the one minute report--by hitting the white triangle in center of page, showing Obama meandering throughout Asia country by country, but ending on the tone that "his Asian trip basically accomplished little", and saying that President Obama now heads into a weakened situation back home with the emboldened and multiplied Republicans waiting for him in D.C.Most computers can stream this short JNN video, voice over is in Japanese but good visuals of Obama "in action"; it will be up for a day or two.

The most conceited White House in memory thinks it is making history in Asia. Instead, President Obama is completing his longest foreign trip with no real accomplishments to show for himself—and a reinforced image as a weak leader in over his head...

Sitting here in Singapore as President Obama went through China and flew home from his 8-day trip to Asia, it is perhaps easier to see the true truth of his trip—it’s deep failure....

Heading to Oslo in Weeks, President Obama Faces Tough Days on the Diplomatic Front November 17, 2009 7:27 AM MoreBEIJING, CHINA -- In less than a month, President Obama will step onto a stage in Oslo, Norway, to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. If Mr. Obama hoped that his week-long four-country visit to Asia, his first as president, would yield concrete accomplishments that might silence critics skeptical that he deserves that prize, he might be disappointed. Though White House aides insist the president's trip was mainly to reassert a US presence in Asian diplomacy, and that his itinerary set no...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore has downplayed media reports of a plot to attack an Asia-Pacific summit in the city-state in November, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Monday. "The rumors are rumors. You check it, if it is unverifiable, you know you can't be chasing after every rumor,' Second Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam was quoted by the daily as saying during a mock terrorist attack exercise on Sunday. The Singapore Police Force and the Ministry of Home Affairs were not available for immediate comment. An intelligence analyst from the Center for Intelligence and National Security in Indonesia told Reuters...

Singapore will toughen its protest laws ahead of this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to reduce the number of civil disobedience acts, state media reported on Saturday. Wong Kan Seng, Singapore's interior minister, told the pro-government Straits Times newspaper the city-state will look to enact regulations in the coming months giving police greater power to prevent protesters from gathering. Singapore will host an APEC ministerial meeting in July and the annual summit in mid-November. It hopes to avoid a controversy like the one in 2006 when an opposition politician was prevented from holding a march during the World Bank...

Outgoing US President George W Bush plans to open a presidential library in Texas and found a Freedom Institute to promote democracy, his wife Laura Bush confirmed to Peru's El Comercio daily. "The President will build a library in Dallas, where we will move to, and a Freedom Institute," she said in an interview published on Sunday, as her husband wrapped up his participation in a weekend summit in Lima by Asia-Pacific leaders. "The institute will give us both the opportunity to work on issues that are very important to us," she said, according to the Spanish-language translation by the...

LIMA, Peru (AFP) – Asia-Pacific leaders wrapped up a summit Sunday voicing confidence the world would overcome the financial crisis within 18 months by jumpstarting global trade talks and resisting protectionism. The meeting in Peru marked the farewell to international summits for US President George W. Bush, who held final meetings with other top world leaders including a cool exchange with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum vowed in a final declaration to "act quickly and decisively" to combat "one of the most serious economic challenges we have ever faced." In an unusual...