As holiday shoppers hunted for safe toys on Sunday, Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama touted his plan for tighter regulation of Chinese-made playthings, millions of which have been recalled because of unsafe levels of lead.
Obama said he would test to find toys with lead-based paint and ban those with even trace amounts of the substance.
"Now don't get me wrong, as president I will work with China to keep harmful toys off our shelves," Obama said. "But I'll also immediately take steps to ensure that all toys are independently tested before they reach our shores and I'll significantly increase penalties on companies that break the rules."
"The more toys we import from China, the more risk to our children," Obama said. "As president I will act with urgency to protect our children from being harmed by unsafe toys."
Obama used a pre-Christmas swing through western Iowa to call for bolstering consumer protection efforts against toys from China. His campaign said up to 80 percent of the toys sold in the US are made there. Background documents provided by the campaign said up to 400,000 children each year suffer some form of lead poisoning, underscoring the need for independent inspection of those toys.
After the appearances, he was headed home to Chicago and joked about power-shopping.
"I'm going to have to do all of mine tomorrow. It's going to be tough," Obama said.
Iowa voters launch the presidential nominating season with precinct caucuses on Jan. 3 and most polls show Obama, Hillary Clinton of New York and former representative John Edwards of North Carolina locked in a tight, yet fluid, race.
When Obama asked for the undecideds in the audience of about 200 to show their hands, roughly one-third did.
Besides the promise of improved toy safety, the Obama also argued for trade policies that are tougher and with more environmental standards and protections for workers.
Still, Obama sought distinctions with rivals Clinton and Edwards, though he softened the edges a bit. On Saturday, Obama criticized Edwards, saying his rival did not have the record to back up the populist rhetoric he uses on the campaign trail.
Obama also argued that he has not been forced to apologize for any of his issue positions or votes. That was an apparent reference to Edwards and Clinton. Edwards has apologized for voting for to authorize the use of force against Iraq when he served in the Senate; Clinton has been criticized for refusing to apologize for voting the same way. Her Democratic presidential rivals also have assailed Clinton for voting to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
"I'm not the one who has to apologize for votes I made not standing up to Republicans," Obama said. "And I think voters should feel pretty confident that when I feel strongly about an issue, I'm going to stand my ground."
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including