Former US president Bill Clinton kicked off his first charitable conference abroad in Hong Kong yesterday after he agreed to greater oversight of his foundation to pave the way for his wife Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s appointment by president-elect Barack Obama as secretary of state.
The two-day Clinton Global Initiative in Hong Kong marks the first time the former US leader has held his annual charitable conference overseas — but it also will be the last while his wife holds her new job.
Bill Clinton’s international business connections posed potential conflicts of interest for his wife’s post, and as part of the deal for her appointment, he agreed to stop holding the meetings overseas and to refuse donations from foreign governments.
PHOTO: AFP
He also agreed to disclose every donor to his foundation since its inception in 1997, step away from the day-to-day running of the foundation, and allow Obama’s administration to review his speaking schedule and new sources of income.
Bill Clinton did not mention his wife’s appointment or how it would affect his charity work in his opening remarks at the Hong Kong conference, but foreign officials attending the first panel discussion offered their congratulations.
“As a woman, I am very proud of her,” Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.
“I’m looking forward to our working together so the already strong relationship between the United States and the Philippines will become even stronger,” Arroyo said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) said he is “looking forward to a very good working relationship.”
Discussions at the Hong Kong conference will focus on education, energy and climate change and public health issues in Asia.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home