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....Obama promised yesterday (3 June) to beef up military support for eastern European members of the NATO alliance... Under attack from critics at home who say his leadership on the world stage has not been muscular enough, Obama plans to spend up to $1 billion... Obama...will attend celebrations in France with Russian President Vladimir Putin.... The Kremlin said Putin would hold private meetings on the sidelines with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron, but the Russian leader had no plans to meet Obama.

President Barack Obama slipped into Afghanistan for a surprise visit Sunday and made clear that the U.S. will likely maintain a limited role here even after its combat mission ends this year and America’s longest war comes to a close. “America’s commitment to the people of Afghanistan will endure,” he pledged. Speaking to troops gathered in an airplane hangar on this sprawling military base, Obama said the war had reached a pivotal point, with Afghan forces assuming primary responsibility for their country’s security. But while many of the 32,800 U.S. forces now in Afghanistan will leave in the coming months,...

The 50 minute meeting between Pope Francis and Barack Obama has ended. The President commented on how wonderful it was to be in the Vatican again “It is a great honour. I'm a great admirer. Thank you so much for receiving me,” the US President, Barack Obama said at the start of his meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican Apostolic Palace. The meeting lasted just under one hour (from 10:28 to 11:20). After this, the Pope was introduced to the President’s entourage and gifts were exchanged between the two leaders. The two were then photographed as per custom and...

resident Barack Obama flies Sunday to a Europe shaken by Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea and his threats against eastern parts of Ukraine. At a summit conference at The Hague on preventing nuclear terrorism – scheduled long before the Ukraine crisis – Obama will confer with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders. On Monday afternoon Obama will meet with President Xi Jinping of China, Russia’s neighbor and sometime rival. Putin has forced the United States and Europe to refocus on the origins of the modern transatlantic alliance -- the 1949 NATO defense partnership designed to prevent a Russian invasion...

Michelle Obama and her daughters, Sasha and Malia, are in China to promote family, a U.S.-China diplomacy, and they are doing it in style. Obama wore a leather-and-suede patchwork Derek Lam dress. She paired it with thigh high boots, and seemed to be dressed for slightly chilly weather. Sasha and Malia were equally as chic. The sisters wore complementary outfits, as they are known to do. Sasha wore a velvet red skirt, a black top and tights. Malia wore a shiny silver pleated skirt and a brown shirt. The Obamas were invited by another stylish lady, Chinese First Lady Peng...

President Barack Obama, the hardest working man in show business, is planning a family weekend vacation in south Florida this Thursday. This comes on the heels of the Obama family’s his & her separate Washington’s Birthday weekend vacations (three weeks ago), which followed on the Obama family’s Hawaii Christmas vacation that First Lady Michelle Obama stayed on well in to January (nine weeks ago) after the rest of the family returned to Washington. CNN Coverage Manager Steve Brusk reported on Twitter: President and first lady go to Miami area for education event tomorrow, and had planned to stay for family...

MANILA, Philippines: Police clashed briefly in the Philippine capital Tuesday with about 300 protesters opposed to a planned visit by President Barack Obama and the continued US military presence in the country. Riot police across a road from the US Embassy were pushed back by the demonstrators, prompting the police to retaliate with truncheons. ... No arrests were made and there were no serious injuries. About 500 American soldiers are based in the south where they have been providing Philippine troops anti-terrorism training since 2002. Protesters say their presence violates Philippine sovereignty. The Philippine Constitution allows foreign military bases only...

President Obama will again pivot toward Asia next month with a week-long trip to Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines, the White House announced Friday. Obama will be away Oct. 6-12 for a trip that the White House describes as “part of his ongoing commitment to increase U.S. political, economic and security engagement with the Asia Pacific.” He’ll start the trip in Bali, to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders meeting. He missed last year’s summit in Russia, which came weeks before the presidential election. Depending on the status of Syria talks, the summit could include a...

President Barack Obama's trip to Africa has largely been ignored by the U.S. media, and for good reason: it seems to have no real purpose. While attention to Africa is long overdue, the president is announcing no new strategy, concluding no significant agreements--merely announcing a new investment in African power generation, which African companies are arguably capable of funding and carrying out themselves. Much of his trip to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania consists of sightseeing with his family--and an entourage of 1,000, at a cost to taxpayers of $60 to $100 million. Consider the reason Obama gave reporters about...

It’s always interesting to notice what the mainstream media emphasizes when reporting on a speech delivered by Barack Obama – and always even more interesting to notice what they choose not to bother questioning. Here’s ABC News on Obama’s speech last week at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin: “Today President Obama will invoke two of the most memorable presidential speeches in modern history — Kennedy’s 1963 “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech and Reagan’s 1987 “Tear down this wall” speech — both delivered here….The idea, White House officials say, is to tap into the energy and legacy of those great Cold...

BERLIN (AP) — Five years and 50 years. As President Barack Obama revisits Berlin, he can't escape those anniversaries and the inevitable comparisons to history and personal achievement. With his own 2008 speech at Berlin's Victory Column and former President John F. Kennedy's 1963 historic denunciation of the Soviet bloc as markers, Obama will use an address at the city's Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday to renew his call to reduce the world's nuclear stockpiles. The White House said Obama will draw attention to his plan for a one-third reduction in U.S. and Russian arsenals, rekindling a goal that was a...

While Big Guy was busy charming world leaders, we had lunch. Fish and chips at Finnegan’s with Bono (!) and his lovely wife Allison, with whom we share a certain savoir faire. Allison’s a real fashion icon too! Imagine that a black slip – at the beach! (SNIP) Bono and Allison, like Big Guy and Lady M, also have two daughters; Jordan, in the gladiator outfit and Memphis Eve. I’ve no idea why they named her after a feminine hygiene product.                   Lady M and the girls had fish and chips, and Lady M also enjoyed a lobster starter, according...

President Barack Obama has to be the most partisan and most ideological president we've seen in a long, long time. He cannot or will not refrain from injecting his partisan politics into almost every occasion. Did he go to Mexico last week to improve our relationship with our southern neighbor or to use Mexico, as he does anything else he can find, as a political prop to bash Republicans and as a platform to criticize the United States? What other American president has so often sidled up to foreign countries on the backs of his own countrymen? Obama's defenders deny,...

It’s Palm Sunday and the new Pope Francis I celebrated his first Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican. Yesterday the Pope warned the faithful of the “tyranny of relativism;”  (SNIP)  “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.”  -Pope Benedict XVI And I think by now we all know the pitfalls of setting goals based on Won’s own ego and desires: I AM the Dream That reminds me, Big Guy finally wrapped up his Mideast tour yesterday with a visit to the...

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- U.S. President Barack Obama, visiting the West Bank city of Bethlehem, stopped twice to light candles for his family and himself: first at the Church of Nativity grotto, where Christian tradition holds that Jesus was born, then at the adjacent Catholic Church of St. Catherine. On the last leg of his four-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Obama also took time for a few moments of private prayer and contemplation, said Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, who was the first to greet the American leader inside the church, welcoming him as "a messenger of peace...

Finally, an answer to the question “Why does Congress have such low approval ratings?” Harry on Senate floor linking Big Guy’s idea for sequestration to the deaths of 7 brave Marines It’s because they are so despicable. I recommend that they work on that. Meanwhile, back at the Big White where the ill effects of Big Guy’s idea for sequestration are still being felt: (snip) Hard to believe, butt Big Guy headed out on Air Force Won right after the St. Patrick’s day celebration on his Mid-East Charm Offensive. Mazel Tov! So far, so good! “Say, Bibi, about that Iron...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – President Barack Obama left for the Middle East on Tuesday evening. He’s on a mission to charm the Israelis into making peace concessions and to find some way to peacefully stop Iran from building a bomb.

One of the limousines in Barack Obama's fleet has broken after reports that it was mistakenly filled with the wrong fuel at the start of the US president's visit to Israel. Another limo is on its way from Jordan, according to Ma'an News agency, citing Israel's Channel 10, to replace one that was filled with diesel instead of gasolene.

**A Post by Shifra** Honestly, I was not planning to do this. I mean, your wife, Mooch, has a staff of, what, 26 people? So, I figured you must have an entire army of people to help you out. But after that ridiculous interview you gave to Israel’s Channel 2 last week, I thought you could use a few pointers. First of all, you wished you could “wear a mustache in Tel Aviv” ? Seriously, who writes your material? Because two words come to mind: Fire Them! And, if you just made that up on the spot, I gotta tell...

Barack Obama's hopes of a smooth start to his first presidential trip to Israel suffered a hitch on Wednesday when his armoured limousine broke down after a driver reportedly filled it with diesel instead of petrol. The hulking vehicle, nicknamed "the Beast" for its supposed robustness in the face of potential attacks, juddered to a halt on the motorway between Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and Jerusalem after its engine apparently proved incapable of absorbing the alien fuel intake. Israeli media outlets, including the flagship Channel 2 television station, reported that the car had been filled with diesel. The sleek...