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President Obama Meet Italian Prime Minister Renzi at White House

April 17, 2015 By Ryan Harris Leave a Comment

President Barack Obama and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi met Friday and discussed a range of issues, including Libya , Ukraine and Islamic State militants. The two leaders were also expected to talk about Europe’s economy, an expected trade pact between the United States and Europe, but also energy security and climate change.

Obama welcomed reporters with “buon giorno”, which is Italian for “good day”, as the journalists were brought in to the Oval Office to report on the start of the meeting.

With Italy caught in a deep recession, Renzi also pleaded for Obama’s support for his economic program, even if it has yet to observably improve the country’s fiscal status.

Obama and Renzi will answer reporters’ questions at an East Room press conference after the meeting, then they will carry on with their talks over lunch.

Italy is also having a hard time to manage the unprecedented number of migrant people who are making the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to avoid instability in Libya and other regions of North Africa and the Middle East.

Police in the island of Sicily announced Thursday that Muslim migrants had killed 12 Christians by throwing them overboard during a recent dangerous crossing from Libya, and a human rights group said another 41 Christians were thought to have drowned in a different incident. Those tragedies followed the disaster in which 400 people were presumed to have lost their lives in the sinking of a ship close to the Libyan coast.

The Italian navy took control over a Sicilian fishing boat that had been captured overnight by unknown assailants close to the Libyan coast. This part of Mediterranean Sea has become increasingly chaotic in the last few years as hundreds of thousands of people make the treacherous trip to Europe.

A defense ministry press release added that naval personnel boarded the trawler after it was stopped by a boat 55 miles from the Libyan port of Misrata.

The ministry did explain whether there was any violent clashes with those who had captured the Italian trawler.

Recent tragedies have prompted calls for a more serious search and rescue of the waters between Europe and Libya to handle the surge in migration. Obama and Renzi met before when the U.S. president visited Italy last year, weeks after the prime minister took office.

Image Source: Lettera 43

Hillary Clinton To Announce 2016 Presidential Campaigh Bid

April 10, 2015 By Melissa Gansler Leave a Comment

Hillary Clinton is considering to launch her presidential bid on Sunday through a video message on social media, according to CNN. After this step, she will travel to Iowa and New Hampshire to start presenting her case to voters.

The journey to Iowa, where a third-place score in 2008 led to crumbling of her presidential ambitions, shows that Hillary Clinton is taking a commitment to not leave anything up to chance in her second bid for the White House, even though she is the favorite in the Democratic field in 2016.

Clinton has already shot her campaign video. It outlines the main themes of her bid for the presidency. The message aims at sending a signal to Democrats that she wants to aggressively combat for the party’s presidential nomination.

The focus of Clinton’s second presidential bid will be on reintroducing the former first lady to the American people. Democrats whom are close to Clinton have begun to call her the most unknown famous person in the world. Their argument is that people recognize the name of Clinton, but they are not aware of her story.

Clinton will probably trade large rallies for a series of smaller events with voters, as she aims to reintroduce herself to voters. Her supporters have asked Clinton to take more time to meet people directly and build their trust.

Clinton’s presidential campaign has long been expected. Speculation that she would make another bid for the White House has followed the former first lady since she departed from the State Department in the first months of 2013.

For a large part of the last two years, Hillary Clinton has traveled around the country delivering paid speeches, but also promoting her new memoir.

In the coming months, the Clinton campaign will use themes such as her Midwestern upbringing and her time raising a daughter to cast the presidential candidate in a more favorable light than she was seen back in the 2008 presidential run.

Voters in Iowa were delighted to see they can connect with Clinton in their homes or in coffee shops, but those small events were rare in 2008, compared to speeches and large rallies. For the 2016 elections, Clinton wants to bring out more her empathetic side, which was not seen during her previous bid for the White House.

Image Source: Huffington Post

White House Confirms American hostage Mueller’s death

February 10, 2015 By Ryan Harris Leave a Comment

It is now official; American Aid Worker Kayla Mueller who has been held hostage by ISIS has been killed. The acknowledgement was made a couple of days after ISIS said that US Hostage Kayla Mueller has been killed in a Jordanian Air Strike.

President Obama said in a statement released by the White House, “It is with profound sadness that we have learned of the death of Kayla Jean Mueller. On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I convey our deepest condolences to Kayla’s family – her parents, Marsha and Carl, and her brother Eric and his family – and all of those who loved Kayla dearly. At this time of unimaginable suffering, the country shares in their grief.”

ISIS had claimed in a statement on Friday that Mueller had been killed in a Jordanian Air Strike. However it did not present with any evidence leading to doubts about its claims.

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, Bernadette Meehan said that during the course of the week the Mueller family “received a private message from Kayla’s ISIS captors containing additional information. Once this information was authenticated by the intelligence community, they concluded that Kayla was deceased”

It is still not clear when or how Mueller was killed. Mueller was kidnapped in August 2013 in Syria.

Mueller’s parents, Carl and Marsha, released a statement shortly after the White House confirmation of Mueller’s death, “We are heartbroken to share that we’ve received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller, has lost her life. Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian. She dedicated the whole of her young life to helping those in need from freedom, justice and peace… Our hearts are breaking for our only daughter, but we will continue in peace, dignity and love for her.”

Mueller, from Prescott, Ariz., was kidnapped on Aug. 4, 2013 after leaving Spanish ‘Doctors without Borders’ hospital in Aleppo, Syria, according to information provided by a family spokesperson.

Ex Florida Governor Jeb Bush “totally focused” on presidential bid

February 9, 2015 By Ryan Harris Leave a Comment

Ex Florida Governor Jeb Bush is all set to release thousands of e-mails and also what would be the first chapter of his e-book which seeks to focus on what he calls considerate leadership style and deep traditionalist credentials.

“One of things that came out of this was a sense there is a story to be told here,” Bush said, describing “a style of leadership that tried to help people” and an ideological consistency “where I think we stayed true to conservative perspective.”

Jeb Bush declared his singular focus on a potential White House bid.

Bush was talking about his accomplishment during his tenure as a Governor for eight years.

Bush said, “I’m really proud of the conservative record we had in cutting taxes. Even, for the nerdy guys and gals on the phone, even achieving a triple-A bond rating. It still warms my heart. Creating 1.4 million net new jobs by building a better business climate. Reforming the things that were broken, particularly our schools. All of that story we can begin to tell people and I’m really excited about it.”

Standard & Poor’s had raised Florida’s bond rating to AAA in 2005 by, while Bush was governor. Bush said that he would release the rest of the book later this year.

The diehard Republican interacting with his political allies during a Monday morning conference call said that he will release the material on Tuesday on a new website. Numerous news outlets had earlier obtained the e-mails from Bush’s stint as a Governor. Bush felt that his dealing with constituents and staff would help shape his message in a prospective presidential campaign.

Bush has not announced his political intentions but is coming out strongly as one of the most aggressive GOP presidential prospects in recent times. Bush is hobnobbing with top political donors across the country, and also expanding his political machine which has remained idle for 8 years since he left the Florida governor’s mansion.

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