Obama blasts Trump's 'demeaning, degrading' comments on women

President Barack Obama condemned the Republican vying to replace him in the White House, Donald Trump, for his "demeaning" lewd boasts about groping women that have thrown his campaign into crisis.

"Are we really going to risk giving Donald Trump the power to roll back all the progress we've made?" Obama asked during a campaign event for Democrats in his adopted home state of Illinois.

"I don't need to repeat it. There are children in the room... Demeaning, degrading women, but also minorities, immigrants, people of other faiths, mocking the disabled... He puffs himself up by putting other people down."

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Trump son compares Syrian refugees to poisoned candies

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump's eldest son triggered an online storm with a tweet comparing Syrian refugees to a bowl containing an assortment of tainted and untainted candies.

"This image says it all," Donald Trump Jr, 38, wrote Monday, in a tweet showing a picture of a white bowl filled with the popular, rainbow-colored Skittles candies.

Written above the image is: "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syria refugee problem."

The Twitter post -- showing the familiar "Trump-Pence 2016" logo with the presidential campaign slogan "Make America Great Again!" -- was met with immediate scorn from users of the popular micro-blogging site.

"I'm not even big on Skittles but now I will buy up every single packet," wrote @SarahSahim.

"Is Donald Trump's new campaign slogan "Fear The Rainbow"? wrote Twitter user @AngrySalmond.

Donald Trump, the 2016 Republican presidential candidate, has sparked waves of criticism with comments on race, immigrants and refugees, including calling for a ban on Muslim travelers to the United States.

Equally controversial was his pronouncement last year that many Mexican immigrants were drug smugglers and rapists.

The brash businessman also is strongly opposed to plans by President Barack Obama to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States by the end of this month.

Syria is in the grip of the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, amid an exodus of more than 4.8 million fleeing the war-torn country.

The United States, which has a long tradition of taking in refugees, has been criticized for its slow response to the Syrian crisis.

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US ocean conservation meeting nets $5.3 billion in pledges

WASHINGTON - International participants at a high-level conference on the world's oceans pledged more than $5.3 billion for conservation and designated vast areas as protected waters, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday.

More than 90 countries took part in the two-day conference, the third of its kind, in an effort to galvanize attention to the dangers that pollution, climate change and over-fishing may pose to the world's oceans.

"This ocean conference, in order to protect marine eco-systems, to prevent pollution, to address the crippling impacts of climate change, has committed over $5.3 billion of money and initiatives in order to achieve those goals," Kerry said at the meeting's closing session.

Earlier, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that more than 1.3 million square miles (3.4 million square km) gained protected designation.

The United States and more than 20 countries joined on Thursday at the conference to create 40 marine sanctuaries around the world to protect the oceans from the threat of climate change and pollution. They limit commercial fishing, oil exploration and other activities that affect ocean ecosystems.

President Barack Obama also designated the first U.S. marine reserve in the Atlantic Ocean: 4,913 square miles (12,724 square km) known for underwater mountains and canyons off the coast of New England.

The announcement was part of more than 136 new initiatives unveiled during the event by countries such as Britain, Canada, Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Norway, Palau, Panama, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Thailand, as well as private charities and foundations.

Kerry, speaking to a Georgetown University audience on Friday as part of the conference, stressed the health of the world's oceans for national security and global stability.

"This is life and death. This is national security. It is international security," he said, saying nearly 50 percent of the world depends on food from the ocean and 12 percent of the world's work force relies on the ocean for their livelihood.

The European Union has committed to hold a similar conference next year, followed by Indonesia in 2018 and Norway in 2019, Kerry said.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Writing by David Alexander and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Andrew Hay)

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Six US senators urge Obama to prioritize cyber crime at G20 summit

NEW YORK - Six U.S. senators have urged President Barack Obama to prioritize cyber crime at this weekend's Group of 20 summit in China, in the wake of the theft of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.

In the letter sent to the White House ahead of the Sept. 4-5 summit, Sherrod Brown, a senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and five other Democratic senators say they want the U.S. president to press leaders from the world's 20 biggest economies to commit in joint communiques to a "coordinated strategy to combat cyber-crime at critical financial institutions."

The letter, dated Monday, suggests that concern among U.S. lawmakers is growing over the February incident in which hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems and used the SWIFT banking network to request nearly $1 billion from an account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Some of the dozens of orders were filled, with much of the lost $81 million disappearing into Philippines casinos - prompting months of international finger-pointing, an ongoing investigation, and several requests from members of Congress for answers from the Fed and from SWIFT, the secure messaging service that banks use to transfer money around the world.

"Our financial institutions are connected in order to facilitate global commerce, but cyber criminals - whether independent or state-sponsored - imperil this international system in a way few threats have," the senators, headed by Gary Peters of Michigan, wrote in the letter to Obama.

"We strongly urge you to work with your counterparts and prioritize this discussion at the G20 leaders level in September," it said of the summit to be held in Hangzhou, China, adding that "executive leadership circles across the globe" needed to pay more attention to the risks.

A senator in the Philippines has said Chinese hackers were likely to have pulled off the Bangladesh Bank heist, citing a network of Chinese people involved in the routing of the stolen funds through Manila.

Beijing has dismissed the suggestion.

Copies of the letter from the U.S. senators were also sent to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

The other senators signing the letter were Mark Warner and Martin Heinrich, both members of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence; Kirsten Gillibrand and Debbie Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the Senate's Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

The White House expects G20 members at the summit "to affirm their commitment to cooperate to fight cybercrime and to enhance confidence and trust in the digital economy," a senior administration official said.

Asked generally about cyber security on Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a press conference: "I would anticipate that this issue more generally will be on the agenda" when Obama meets Chinese President Xi Jinping, the G20 summit host, later this week.

At a November summit, the G20 pledged not to conduct economically motivated cyber espionage, an agreement intended to reduce the estimated hundreds of billions of dollars worth of commercial trade secrets that are stolen by foreign governments seeking to benefit industry in their own countries.

Since then, the Bangladesh Bank attack and others that have emerged are only some of the threats posed by cyber criminals, the senators wrote. World regulators should "erect more robust defenses and collaborative systems to prevent and mitigate the impact of successful attacks," the letter said, noting that steps already taken by SWIFT are not enough.

The Fed and other U.S. regulators said in a letter last week they were focused on cyber risks and controls at banks in the wake of the Bangladesh incident, though they offered few specifics.

Peters, a member of the Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told Reuters he is considering requesting a committee hearing on the heist.

"I am concerned about the response and what steps have been taken to make sure it doesn't happen again," he said in an interview. "You just need more collaboration and sharing of information... because often times all these entities aren't talking to each other."

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Obama designates first US LGBT national monument

WASHINGTON, United States - President Barack Obama designated the first LGBT national monument Friday, bestowing the honor on a New York bar and surrounding area considered to be the birthplace of America's gay rights movement.

The monument includes Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn bar, the small park next door, and the immediate vicinity, where protests that came to be known as the Stonewall Uprising erupted in 1969 following a police crackdown.

"The designation will create the first official National Park Service unit dedicated to telling the story of LGBT Americans," the White House said in a statement.

On June 28, 1969, officers arrived at the Stonewall Inn to enforce a law that forbids the sale of alcohol to gays.

Customers resisted the police crackdown and a crowd gathered outside, with riots ensuing on nearby streets.

In the days that followed, demonstrations and clashes with police continued, and nearby Christopher Park became a gathering place for members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community to express their frustrations and steel their resolve.

The events are "widely considered to be a watershed moment when the LGBT community across the nation demonstrated its power to join together and demand equality and respect," the White House said.

Christopher Park and Stonewall Inn remain to this day a rallying spot for the LGBT community.

Following the Orlando massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in US history that left 49 dead at a gay nightclub earlier this month, thousands gathered in the area.

It's also where the gay community gathered to celebrate the Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage in all 50 states on June 26, 2015.

The designation of the monument comes just days before the one-year anniversary of that decision.

Gay rights groups heralded Obama's announcement Friday.

"The Stonewall National Monument will pay tribute to the brave individuals who stood up to oppression and helped ignite a fire in a movement to end unfair and unjust discrimination against LGBTQ people," president of Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, Chad Griffin, said in a statement.

Within a year of the Stonewall Uprising New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago began to hold annual pride marches. Traditionally held in June, New York's is scheduled for Sunday.

Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park and their immediate surroundings were classified national historic sites in 2000.

The Stonewall National Monument will report to the National Park Service.

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'Sobbing' Obama marks daughter's high school graduation

WASHINGTON, United States - President Barack Obama made the short but sentimental drive across Washington on Friday to attend his oldest daughter's high school graduation.

Obama has joked that Malia's graduation was the one event where he could not give an address.

"Malia's school asked if I wanted to speak at commencement and I said no," Obama said in Detroit earlier this year.

"I'm going to be wearing dark glasses... and I'm going to cry."

True to his promise, Obama was photographed by guests at Sidwell Friends School wearing dark glasses.

He was accompanied by First Lady Michelle Obama, Malia and his youngest daughter Sasha.

Malia was 10 years old when Obama entered office, almost eight years ago.

She is expected to attend Harvard in 2017, after a gap year.

Obama earlier this year told television host Ellen DeGeneres of his sorrow at thinking that she would soon fly the nest.

He said he would be "sobbing" at the graduation.

"She's one of my best friends. And it's going to be hard for me not to have her around all the time. But she's ready to go. You can tell. She's just a really smart, capable person and she's ready to make her own way."

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Obama slams Trump: 'Ignorance is not a virtue'

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Sunday criticized the populist campaign of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, decrying "anti-intellectualism" and noting that "ignorance is not a virtue."

Obama did not specifically name the brash New York real estate developer during his remarks at a university graduation ceremony in New Jersey, but it was clear he was referring to the candidate who is running on a slogan of "Make America Great Again!"

The Democrat told students not to pine for an American golden age of years past, saying, "The good old days were not all that good," as he pointed out problems with racial discrimination, poverty and lack of equality for women.

"The world is more interconnected than ever before and it is becoming more connected every day. Building walls won't change things," Obama said, an apparent jab at Trump's calls for a wall along the US-Mexico border to keep illegal immigrants out.

Obama noted that no wall could stop outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola and Zika, or help the United States remain competitive in a time of globalization.

"Suggesting that we can build an endless wall along our borders and blame our challenges on immigrants, that does not just run counter to our history as the world melting pot," Obama said.

"It contradicts the evidence that our growth and our innovation and our dynamism has always been spurred by our ability to attract strivers from every corner of the globe."

The US president also denounced politicians who hold themselves up as examples of straight-talkers but shun political correctness.

"In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. It's not cool to not know what you're talking about," he said. "That's not challenging political correctness. That's just not knowing what you're talking about."

Obama was speaking to students at Rutgers University, about one hour from New York. He wore a red and black gown and received an honorary degree from the school.

ico/acb/bfm

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SpaceX lands rocket on ocean platform for first time

MIAMI, United States – After four failed bids SpaceX finally stuck the landing Friday, powering the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket onto an ocean platform where it touched down upright after launching cargo to space.

Images of the tall, narrow rocket gliding down serenely onto a platform that SpaceX calls a droneship sparked applause and screams of joy at SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California.

"The first stage of the Falcon 9 just landed on our Of Course I Still Love You droneship," SpaceX wrote on Twitter, after launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 4:43 pm (2043 GMT).

Landing from the chase plane pic.twitter.com/2Q5qCaPq9P

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 8, 2016

 NASA spokesman George Diller confirmed that the rocket had successfully landed, just minutes after the Falcon 9 propelled the unmanned Dragon cargo craft to orbit, carrying supplies for astronauts at the International Space Station.

SpaceX has once before managed to set the rocket down on land, but ocean attempts had failed, with the rocket coming close each time but either crashing or tipping over.

Speaking to reporters afterward, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that being able to return costly rocket parts for repeated use, instead of jettisoning them into the ocean after each launch, will make spaceflight less expensive and less harmful to the environment.

"It is just as fundamental in rocketry as it is in other forms of transport such as cars or planes or bicycles or anything," said Musk, who also runs Tesla Motors.

Musk said it costs around $300,000 to fuel a rocket, but $60 million to build one.

"If you have got a rocket that can be fully and rapidly reused, it is somewhere on the order of a 100-fold cost reduction, in marginal costs," he said, adding that he hoped his competitors would follow suit.

Obama leads praise

President Barack Obama led the praise, tweeting: "Congrats SpaceX on landing a rocket at sea. It's because of innovators like you & NASA that America continues to lead in space exploration."

Also on Twitter, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield said: "Landed! That is amazing! World-leading ability, proven.

"Opens the imagination to what is possible."

    Congrats SpaceX on landing a rocket at sea. It's because of innovators like you & NASA that America continues to lead in space exploration.

 — President Obama (@POTUS) April 8, 2016


Friday's breakthrough came after a closely watched return-to-flight mission, SpaceX's first cargo delivery since June 2015, when the Falcon 9 exploded just over two minutes after liftoff, destroying the rocket and the supply ship.

SpaceX blamed the blast on a faulty strut in the Falcon 9's upper booster, which allowed a helium bottle to snap loose, causing the explosion of the rocket, cargo ship and all its contents.

It has since upgraded its Falcon 9 rocket and changed its protocol to avoid a repeat.

This time, the gumdrop-shaped capsule was packed with nearly 7,000 pounds (3,100 kilos) of supplies for the astronauts living in orbit.

The Dragon's cargo includes an inflatable space room astronauts will test in microgravity.

Known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, the chamber will be temporarily attached to the space station.

Lab mice for experiments and lettuce seeds for growing at the orbiting outpost were also included in the spacecraft, which should arrive at the International Space Station early Sunday.

'Proven it can work'

Musk said the rocket was being welded onto the droneship with metal shoes, so as not to tip over as it made its way back to land.

Next, the booster will undergo a series of tests, including 10 static fires on the launchpad, before engineers decide if it is in good enough shape to fly again.

If so, the next launch of the same booster could be in the next two to three months, Musk said.

"In the future, hopefully we will be able to relaunch them in a few weeks."

In the meantime, SpaceX will keep working on perfecting its landing techniques, whether on ocean or solid ground, since both options need to be available to suit different types of missions.

Musk said about half of SpaceX's rockets will need to land at sea, and it might take a few years to work out all the kinks.

"But I think it is proven that it can work," he said.

"We will get it to a point where it is routine to bring it back and the only changes to the rocket are to hose it down, give it a wash, add the propellant and fly it again."

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Obama says Trump doesn't know much about foreign policy

WASHINGTON, United States - President Barack Obama scathingly dismissed White House hopeful Donald Trump's foreign policy proposals on Friday and warned that the world was watching the upcoming US election.

At the end of a summit on nuclear security that Obama hosted in Washington, he was asked about Trump's suggestion that Japan and South Korea develop their own nuclear weapons.

"The statements you mentioned, what do they tell us?" Obama demanded, rhetorically.

"They tell us the person who made the statements doesn't know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the Korean peninsula or the world generally."

Trump, the Republican frontrunner, says he wants US allies to pay for more of their own defense and allow costly American forces to disengage from their regions.

Obama damned this as naive and an abdication of American leadership that would upset close allies and make the world a more dangerous place.

"I've said before that, you know, people pay attention to American elections. What we do is really important to the rest of the world," he said.

"Our alliance with Japan and the Republic of Korea is one of the foundations, one of the cornerstones of our presence in the Asia-Pacific region," he said.

"It has underwritten the peace and prosperity of that region. It has been an enormous boon to American commerce and American influence," he said.

The US alliance has brought peace to countries that had fought fierce wars in the past.

"So you don't mess with that. It's an investment that rests on the sacrifices that our men and women made back in World War II when they were fighting throughout the Pacific.

"And we don't want somebody in the Oval Office who doesn't recognize how important that is."

Obama added that concern about Trump's comments had come up on the sidelines of his summit meetings with world leaders.

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Obama says journalists partly to blame for tone of US presidential race

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Monday laid some of the blame for the tone of the presidential campaign on political journalism that has been pinched by shrinking newsroom budgets and cheapened by a focus on retweets and likes on social media.

In a speech to a journalism awards dinner, Obama urged journalists to ask tougher questions of the candidates vying to be president. He voiced dismay over the vulgar rhetoric, violence at rallies and unrealistic campaign pledges that have continually grabbed headlines, in a thinly veiled reference to Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

"The number one question I'm getting as I travel around the world or talk to world leaders right now is, 'What is happening in America?' about our politics," Obama said, describing international alarm over whether the United States will continue to function effectively.

"It's not because around the world people have not seen crazy politics. It is that they understand America is the place where you can't afford completely crazy politics," he said.

"When our elected officials and our political campaigns become entirely untethered to reason and facts and analysis, when it doesn't matter what's true and what's not, that makes it all but impossible for us to make good decisions on behalf of future generations," Obama said.

He said the media landscape has changed since his first presidential campaign in 2008, when "there was a price if you said one thing and then did something completely different.

"The question is, in the current media environment, is that still true? Does that still hold?" he said.

He said news organizations have a responsibility to dig deeper despite the faster pace of "this smartphone age" and steep financial pressures in the news business.

Voters "would be better served if billions of dollars in free media came with serious accountability, especially when politicians issue unworkable plans or make promises they can't keep," Obama said.

The New York Times earlier this month reported that Trump has so far earned almost $1.9 billion worth of media coverage, compared with $313 million for the next closest Republican challenger, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and $746 million for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

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U.S. Justice Scalia, conservative icon, dead at 79

WASHINGTON - Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died, setting up a major political showdown between President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled Senate over who will replace him just months before a presidential election.

"On behalf of the court and retired justices, I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away," Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement on Saturday, calling Scalia, 79, an "extraordinary individual and jurist."

Scalia's death was first reported by the San Antonio News-Express, who said he had apparently died of natural causes while visiting a luxury resort in West Texas.

Obama, who is traveling in California, extended his condolences, and the White House said he would have more to say about Scalia's death later on Saturday. The Supreme Court lowered its U.S. flag in honor of Scalia on Saturday.

The U.S. president will face a stiff battle to win confirmation of a nominee to replace the dead jurist, with Republicans likely to delay in the hope that one of their own wins the November election.

"The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican who currently controls if and when the Senate would vote on a nominee.

But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said Obama should send the Senate a nominee "right away."

Obama could tilt the balance of the nation's highest court, which now consists of four conservatives and four liberals, if he tries to and is successful in pushing his nominee through the Senate confirmation process. Conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy sometimes joins with the liberals on high profile issues, including gay rights and the death penalty.

"Justice Scalia was an American hero. We owe it to him, and the nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next president names his replacement," Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican presidential candidate, said on Twitter.

The question of replacing Scalia is likely to come up when six of the Republican White House hopefuls participate in a televised debate Saturday evening in South Carolina, which holds its Republican nominating contest on Feb. 20.

POSSIBLE REPLACEMENTS
Appointed to the top U.S. court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, Scalia was known for his strident conservative views and theatrical flair in the courtroom.

Scalia's replacement would be Obama's third appointment to the nine-justice court, which is set to decide its first major abortion case in nearly 10 years as well as key cases on voting rights, affirmative action and immigration.

Obama's first two appointments to the court, liberals Sonia Sotomayor in 2009 and Elena Kagan in 2010, both experienced relatively smooth confirmation hearings in the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats.

This nomination will be different, with Republicans now in charge of the Senate and keen to exert their influence over the process. Obama is likely to be forced into picking a moderate with little or no history of advocating for liberal causes.

Other factors the White House is likely to consider is whether to nominate a woman or a member of a minority group, or someone who fits into both categories.

Among those mentioned within legal circles as potential nominees are Sri Srinivasan, an Indian-American judge who has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since May 2013, and Jacqueline Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American who has been a judge on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since May 2012.

Paul Watford, a black judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who was appointed in May 2012, and Jane Kelly, a white woman and former public defender who has served on the St. Louis, Missouri-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since April 2013, also have been touted as possible nominees.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Jeff Mason and Scott Malone; Editing by Bill Trott and Paul Simao)

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Obama calls for rapid Zika research as virus seen spreading

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the rapid development of tests, vaccines and treatments to fight the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects and could spread to the United States in warmer months.

U.S. health officials are stepping up efforts to study the link between Zika virus infections and birth defects, citing a recent study estimating the virus could reach regions where 60 percent of the U.S. population lives.

Obama was briefed on the potential spread of the virus by his top health and national security officials on Tuesday.

"The president emphasized the need to accelerate research efforts to make available better diagnostic tests, to develop vaccines and therapeutics, and to ensure that all Americans have information about the Zika virus and steps they can take to better protect themselves from infection," the White House said in a statement.

The virus has been linked to brain damage in thousands of babies in Brazil. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya, which causes mild fever and rash. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms, making it difficult for pregnant women to know whether they have been infected.

On Monday, the World Health Organization predicted the virus would spread to all countries across the Americas except for Canada and Chile.

In a blog post, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins cited a Lancet study published Jan. 14 in which researchers predicted the Zika virus could be spread in areas along the East and West Coasts of the United States and much of the Midwest during warmer months, where about 200 million people live.

The study also showed that 22.7 million more people live in humid parts of the country where mosquitoes carrying the virus could live year round.

Given the threat, Collins said "it is now critically important to confirm, through careful epidemiological and animal studies, whether or not a causal link exists between Zika virus infections in pregnant women and microcephaly in their newborn babies." Microcephaly results in babies being born with abnormally small heads.

There is still much to learn about Zika infections, experts said. For example, it is not clear how common Zika infections are in pregnant women, or when during a pregnancy a woman is most at risk of transmitting the virus to her fetus.

Collins said the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease is conducting studies to more fully understand the effects of Zika in humans, and to develop better diagnostic tests to quickly determine if someone has been infected. The NIAID is also working on testing new drugs that might be effective against the virus.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also announced new instructions for pediatricians treating infants whose mothers may have been exposed to the virus during pregnancy.

In those guidelines, the CDC made clear that it considers the Zika virus a nationally notifiable condition, and instructs doctors to contact their state or territorial health departments to facilitate testing of potentially infected infants.

Dr. Kathryn Edwards of Vanderbilt University, who serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious disease, said the guidelines were intended to help establish whether Zika causes microcephaly and to help pregnant women who may have been infected with the virus.

Microcephaly is a lifelong condition with no known cure, the CDC website said. Symptoms range from mild to severe.

In mild cases, infants often have no symptoms other than small head size, but doctors still need to check their development regularly. In severe cases, babies may need speech, occupational and physical therapy.

The guidelines for testing infants affected by Zika infections follows CDC guidelines for caring for pregnant women exposed to Zika virus, which were first reported by Reuters. The CDC said last week it is trying to determine how many pregnant women may have traveled to affected regions in the past several months.

On Tuesday, the CDC added the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic to its list of countries and territories with Zika transmissions, bringing the total to 24.

The CDC has told pregnant women not to travel to countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean affected by Zika. Travel companies, including United Airlines, have begun offering refunds or allowing pregnant women to postpone trips to regions affected by Zika with no penalty.

There are no global estimates for how many people in the world have been infected by the Zika virus, World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier said on Tuesday.

He said that because Zika has such mild symptoms, the virus has "not really been on the radar."

Lindmeier said it was not yet clear whether the virus affecting Brazil and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean was a mutated version of the virus that has caused prior outbreaks.

He said the WHO was working with the CDC, the Institut Pasteur in France and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to establish that.

"There is a lot of effort going into this now, on the ground, in the laboratories, everywhere," Lindmeier said.

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Obama says fight against Islamic State is not World War III

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama accused critics on Tuesday of playing into the hands of Islamic State by comparing the fight against the militant group to World War Three, in an address aimed at laying out an optimistic vision of America's future.

Obama, who is delivering his last State of the Union speech to Congress before leaving office next year, said it was fiction to declare the United States was in economic decline or getting weaker on the international stage, despite rhetoric from Republican presidential candidates vying to replace him in the Nov. 8 election.

"Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence," Obama said, according to prepared remarks.

"That's the story ISIL wants to tell; that's the kind of propaganda they use to recruit. We don't need to build them up to show that we're serious, nor do we need to push away vital allies in this fight by echoing the lie that ISIL is representative of one of the world's largest religions," he said, referring to Islamic State by an acronym.

The remarks were a repudiation of Republican criticism of his strategy against Islamic State and, not so subtly, of Republican front-runner Donald Trump's call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States.

Obama's address comes as 10 sailors aboard two U.S. Navy boats were taken into Iranian custody. Iran told the United States the crew members would be "promptly" returned, U.S. officials said. The event gave Republicans further fodder to criticize Obama's nuclear deal with Tehran.

Obama did not address the issue at the top of his speech.

The address is one of Obama's few remaining chances to capture the attention of millions of Americans before November's election of a new president who will take office next January.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who is delivering the Republican Party's response to Obama's address, will knock his record on fiscal and foreign policy while delivering a not-so-subtle jab at Republican presidential candidates such as Trump.

"During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation. No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country," she will say, according to excerpts of her remarks.

Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants.

Obama stuck to themes he hopes will define his legacy.

He emphasized areas where compromise was possible with Republicans in Congress including criminal justice reform, trade and poverty reduction.

He called for lawmakers to ratify a Pacific trade pact, advance tighter gun laws and lift an embargo on Cuba.

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Sandy Hook victims to share $1.5 mn from shooter's mother's estate

NEW YORK, United States - Families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre three years ago have been awarded $1.5 million in damages from the estate of the shooter's mother, their lawyers' office said Wednesday.

Twenty children and six educators were killed when Adam Lanza went on a deadly rampage at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012.

US media reported that eight separate lawsuits, involving 16 plaintiffs, were filed seeking compensation from the estate of Nancy Lanza, who was fatally shot by her son Adam moments before the massacre.

Lanza went on to commit suicide.

"There was a settlement for the amount of 1.5 million" dollars, Ana Rios, assistant to lawyer Joshua Koskoff who is representing nine of the families involved, told AFP.

The lawsuits accused Lanza of negligence for leaving a rifle unguarded in her home, within the reach of her son who had a history of mental illness, media reported.

Authorities in Newtown last March demolished the Lanzas' house in a residential part of town, after neighbors complained that it was triggering painful memories of the massacre.

Sandy Hook elementary was knocked down in 2013, making way for a new school that is set to be inaugurated next year.

President Barack Obama vowed on the anniversary of the massacre not to give up on vexed efforts to tighten US gun laws, assailing the Republican-controlled Congress for failing to pass reforms tightening background checks on gun buyers.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama: faster progress needed against Islamic State

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday progress needs to speed up against Islamic State militants, calling on allies to increase their military contributions to coalition efforts to destroy the group in Iraq and Syria.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Obama said he was sending Defense Secretary Ash Carter to the Middle East to secure more military help from partner nations in the fight against the group.

"This continues to be a difficult fight," Obama said. "We recognize that progress needs to keep coming faster."

The president ticked off a list of accomplishments by the United States and its allies against the group: Islamic State had lost significant swaths of territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, and leaders were being targeted one by one.

"ISIL leaders cannot hide and our next message to them is simple: 'you are next,'" he said, using an acronym for the group.

The coalition was also targeting Islamic State's oil tanker trucks, wells and refineries.

"We are hitting ISIL harder than ever," he said.

Obama, a Democrat, has come under criticism by Republicans for not doing enough to counter Islamic State, in particular since the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and were claimed by Islamic State, and the Dec. 2 shooting in San Bernardino, California. Authorities believe the couple who killed 14 people in that attack were inspired by Islamist militants.

The White House has sought to counter those critics by outlining progress made since Islamic State's rapid rise in Iraq and Syria more than a year ago.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Jeff Mason; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Frances Kerry)

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Obama says US is safe as millions set off on Thanksgiving travel

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - President Barack Obama sought to reassure Americans they were safe as millions of travelers set off for the long Thanksgiving weekend on Wednesday and authorities stepped up security at airports in response to the attacks in Paris two weeks ago.

In New York City, record-breaking crowds were expected on Thursday for the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and Police Commissioner William Bratton said the city was deploying more officers at the annual event than ever before.

"Right now, we know of no specific and credible intelligence indicating a plot on the homeland," Obama told reporters at the White House, two weeks after suspected Islamist militants killed 130 people in a series of coordinated attacks in the French capital.

"We are taking every possible step to keep our homeland safe," he said, flanked by his FBI director and other top security officials on the day before Thanksgiving, when many Americans travel to be with their extended families for a traditional turkey dinner.

Nearly 46.9 million Americans will travel over the long Thanksgiving weekend - the busiest U.S. travel holiday of the year - with 3.6 million going by plane, according to the AAA, a motorist advocacy group.

Most U.S. airports reported flights delays of less than 15 minutes, according to tracking websites. Passengers at airports from Washington to New York said they saw heavier than normal security, but that travel was flowing smoothly.

Americans have become more concerned about threats since the Paris attacks and now identify terrorism as the most important problem facing the nation, Reuters-Ipsos polling shows.

"We have to live our lives right? We're having a good time. We did a cruise and now we're doing New York City," said Karen Damaschino, 47, of San Francisco after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport to spend the holiday in New York.

The U.S. response to Islamic State has become a top issue in the race to succeed Obama in the November 2016 presidential election. In his statement, Obama tried to allay Americans' concerns.

"I know that families have discussed their fears about the threat of terrorism around the dinner table, many for the first time since September 11th," he said, referring to the 2001 attacks by al Qaeda on New York and Washington.

But he told Americans they should "go about their usual Thanksgiving weekend activities" while remaining vigilant to any suspicious activities.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio echoed that sentiment at a news conference on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where crews were inflating the giant balloons that highlight the Macy's parade, the traditional start to the holiday shopping season.

"One thing I always say, there are some people trying to intimidate New Yorkers. Well, New Yorkers don't get intimidated," he said. "They'll be out tomorrow in droves."

STAY VIGILANT

To underscore Obama's message, his Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson held a photo op at Washington's Union Station just before boarding an Amtrak train to Newark, N.J., on the heavily traveled Northeast corridor, en route home for the holiday

"It should be obvious to the public that there is a heightened presence" of law enforcement officers at train stations, airports and other public places, Johnson said. "We are working overtime to protect the homeland."

Some travel analysts expected airport delays as a result of heightened security.

But at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the country's busiest, Kirsten Bohling, 27, said she was pleasantly surprised by how painless her check-in went.

"Lines are way shorter than I thought they would be and moving 10 times faster than I thought," she said. "I think they were really really prepared."

The FBI sent a bulletin earlier this week to police departments across the country warning of possible copycat incidents after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks and sharing intelligence on how the attacks were carried out.

The U.S. State Department also issued a worldwide travel alert on Monday warning American travelers to remain vigilant, particularly when visiting foreign countries.

As many as 3.5 million people were expected to line the 2.5-mile (4 km) route of the Macy's parade in New York, according to organizers. City officials have made numerous public appearances in recent days seeking to reassure New Yorkers and tourists.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Katy Perry set to roar for Hillary

NEW YOK -- Hillary Clinton will enjoy a roar of support from pop superstar Katy Perry, who has signed on to rally for her presidential campaign.

Perry -- one of the top-selling pop stars of recent years who, at 76.3 million, has more Twitter followers than anyone, including President Barack Obama -- will join Clinton in Iowa, the critical first state in the presidential nomination contest.

Clinton's campaign said, without further detail, that Perry would appear with Clinton on October 24 before the Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Des Moines, the Midwestern state's capital.

Perry's support of Clinton, who is vying to be the first female US president, is already well-known.

Last year, Perry posted a picture of herself with the former secretary of state and senator and offered to write her campaign theme song.

She also performed at Obama's second inauguration and has used her social media power to spread the word on the president's signature reform expanding health care coverage.

The 30-year-old singer -- who has released a string of blockbuster hits including "Roar," "Firework" and "Teenage Dream" -- was raised in a conservative Christian household and does not generally bring politics into her music.

An exception is gay rights, of which Perry has been an outspoken proponent, and which she touched upon in her hit song "I Kissed a Girl."

Perry has been touring Latin America on the final leg of her year-and-a-half long tour to promote the album "Prism," with the final date scheduled for October 18 in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Clinton is the front-runner to secure the Democratic nomination but has faced rising pressure on the left from Senator Bernie Sanders.

Sanders has won endorsements of a number of musicians, although none with Perry's star power. These include Flea of alternative rockers the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Belinda Carisle of all-female New Wave band The Go-Go's, and folk rockers Jackson Browne, Steve Earle and Loudon Wainwright III.

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In familiar ritual, Obama consoles victims in Oregon mass shooting

ROSEBURG, Oregon - President Barack Obama, in a ritual that has become both familiar and frustrating to him, traveled to Oregon on Friday to console families of the victims of a community college shooting that once again sparked a push for U.S. gun reform.

The president, a Democrat who tried but failed to tighten firearms laws after previous mass shootings, arrived in a community where support for gun rights remains strong despite the massacre in which nine victims died in the deadliest massacre on U.S. soil in two years.

As his motorcade drove into town, supporters and protesters lined the streets with signs such as "Not giving up our rights," "Please leave us in Peace" and "Gun-free zones are for sitting ducks."

Obama met privately for about an hour with the families at a local high school.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said he had "strong feelings" about the issue of gun control and said the country needed to come together to prevent such shootings from happening in the future. But he did not show the same anger he has previously, saying the day was about the families.

Last week the president furiously denounced the killings as a symptom of a political choice by U.S. lawmakers to bow to pressure from the powerful National Rifle Association lobby group instead of reforming gun laws.

"I will politicize it, because our inaction is a political decision that we are making," he said at a White House news conference.

Obama has made regular trips to funerals and memorial services for victims of mass shootings during the past seven years as president. He has said the December 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut was his toughest day as president.

About 250 people gathered in Roseburg, some driving for hours, to protest his visit.

"The way things played out with Sandy Hook and the president parading those families across the country to take away my gun rights - that is why I'm here," said Jason Harju, 40, who was wearing a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun on his belt and a sweatshirt that said "OREGUN."

"He's using us to politicize this shooting. He's trying to get guns taken away," said Willie Windon, 56, a retired U.S. Army veteran.

Obama has tasked White House lawyers and advisers to look for new ways he could use his executive powers to enforce existing gun regulations.

One of those options is a regulatory change to require more dealers to get a license to sell guns, which would lead to more background checks on buyers - an action that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would take if elected in November 2016.

The White House had drafted a proposal on that issue in 2013, but was concerned it could be challenged in court and would be hard to enforce.

But officials are now hopeful that they can find a way to advance the plan, a White House official said on Friday.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama apologizes for Kunduz attack, MSF demands independent probe

WASHINGTON/GENEVA - U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday apologized to Medecins Sans Frontieres for the deadly bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, while the medical charity pressed its demand for an international commission to investigate what it calls a war crime.

MSF said that an independent humanitarian commission created under the Geneva Conventions in 1991 should be activated for the first time to handle the inquiry. Three investigations have already begun into Saturday's air strike that killed 22 people, including 12 MSF staff.

Obama telephoned MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, International President Joanne Liu to apologize and express his condolences, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Asked whether Obama offered some explanation to Liu, Earnest said no.

"He merely offered his heartfelt apology" and a commitment to find out what went wrong, he said.

Earnest said Obama told Liu that a U.S. investigation would "provide a transparent, thorough and objective accounting of the facts and circumstances of the incident. And that, if necessary, the president would implement changes to make tragedies like this one less likely to occur in the future."

MSF said that the commission's inquiry would gather facts and evidence from the United States, NATO and Afghanistan, as well as testimony from MSF staff and patients who survived.

Only then would MSF consider whether to bring criminal charges for loss of life and partial destruction of its trauma hospital, which has left tens of thousands of Afghans without access to health care, it said.

"If we let this go, as if it was a non-event, we are basically giving a blank cheque to any countries who are at war," Liu told a news briefing in Geneva. "If we don't safeguard that medical space for us to do our activities, then it is impossible to work in other contexts like Syria, South Sudan, like Yemen."

Neither the United States nor Afghanistan were signatories to the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) but Jason Cone, executive director of MSF in the United States, called on Obama to consent to the commission.

"Doing so will send a powerful signal of the U.S. government's commitment to and respect for international humanitarian law under rules of war," Cone said at a news conference in New York.

The White House said Obama had also called Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to express his condolences. The United States military took responsibility on Tuesday for the air strike, calling it a mistake.

Earnest said "there is no evidence that ... I've seen or that anybody else has presented that indicate that this was anything other than a terrible, tragic accident."

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking to reporters in Rome on Wednesday, said the investigation would "hold accountable anyone responsible for conduct that was improper."

HOSPITAL CHAOS

Liu spoke of the chaos as the bombs fell for an hour.

"Our patients burned in their beds, MSF doctors nurses, and other staff were killed as they worked. Our colleagues had to operate on each other," she said.

The Afghan Ministry of Defence said on Sunday Taliban fighters had attacked the hospital and were using the building "as a human shield", which the medical group denied, while pointing out it would be a war crime not to treat the wounded.

Liu said an impartial commission, which can be set up at the request of a single state under the Geneva Conventions that establish international standards for conducting war, was needed due to "inconsistencies between the U.S. and Afghan accounts".

The United Nations has condemned the attack but said it would wait for the results of U.S., NATO and Afghan investigations before deciding whether to support an independent probe.

MSF's hospital in Kunduz had treated nearly 400 people, including some Taliban, wounded in heavy fighting in the days before the attack, MSF's Bruno Jochum said.

Its GSP coordinates had been shared with all authorities.

"We had eight ICU (intensive care unit) beds with ventilators, this was high-tech medicine. This was not the little bush hospital. You could not miss it," Liu said.

"Today we say enough, even war has rules."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Record-setting rains submerge parts of US Southeast

CHARLESTON, United States - Record rainfall left large areas of the US southeast under water Sunday as roads were closed and residents were warned to stay indoors.

The states of North and South Carolina have been particularly hard hit by heavy flooding, but the driving rain in recent days has spared almost none of the US East Coast.

The wild weather was blamed for at least four deaths in the Carolinas since Thursday.

The storms are part of a weather system separate from Hurricane Joaquin, which was downgraded to a Category Two storm as it headed toward Bermuda.

"We haven't seen this level of rain in the low country in 1,000 years," South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said at a press briefing, urging people to stay inside to keep safe.

"This is not something to be out taking pictures of. This is not something that you want your kids playing in. The water is not safe.

"And a lot of areas across the state where you see this deep water, it's got bacteria in it. So stay inside and don't get in there," she stressed.

"This is an incident we've never had before."

President Barack Obama has issued an emergency declaration for the state, ordering federal aid for areas affected by flooding.

Historic Charleston submerged

Streets were submerged in the historic old town of Charleston, South Carolina, as non-stop rain battered the city, with flooding closing restaurants and bars.

"Right now, we are in life-saving mode," said Lieutenant Colonel Cindi King, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina National Guard.

"We are just focusing on helping our citizens."

The National Weather Service said the city had seen 14 inches (36 centimeters) of rain over the past three days, beating a previous record of 12 inches in 1973.

"It's the worst water I have seen in the 10 years I have lived here. Neighbors tell me it's the worst since Hurricane Hugo" in 1989, said 38-year-old Jamieson Clair, a resident of the city.

In hard-hit Columbia, the mayor ordered a curfew for the city from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am.

The Red Cross has opened 26 shelters across the state.

The University of South Carolina, based in Columbia, canceled all Monday classes.

More than 200 swift-water rescues have been reported since Saturday night, while the state's Department of Transportation said at least 211 state roads and 43 bridges were closed due to flooding.

The National Weather Service warned of "potentially historic and life-threatening flooding" across the southeastern United States.

Bermuda under threat

Forecasters said Joaquin now is closing in on tiny Bermuda, with a population of just 66,000, where the potential damage could rival what was seen in the Bahamas.

The storm still has winds of 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour, and is dumping heavy rain.

In the Bahamas, a low-lying archipelago, residents surveyed the damage after Joaquin destroyed homes and left some without power or phone services.

The Bahamas is home to 385,000 people and visited by far more tourists every year -- about 1.3 million.

Search for cargo ship

Rescuers were still frantically searching for the El Faro cargo vessel, with which contact was lost early Thursday as the dangerous weather system approached the Bahamas.

Coast Guard troops turned up "a number of different objects in the water" via an aerial search but were unable to confirm whether they were from the vessel.

"We found a few life rings, life jackets and there's been a report of possible oil sheen," Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss told AFP.

"We have boats in the water... they will be able to get to some of that stuff soon" he said, adding that it was "the first day of good weather and the seas are down one or two feet (one-third to one meter)."

Tim Nolan, president of the company that owns the El Faro, said it had sent its only other ship plus a tugboat in search of the missing vessel and had recovered "a container, which appears to be from the El Faro, and observed what appears to be an oil sheen."

En route from Florida to Puerto Rico, the 735-foot cargo ship was reported to be caught in the storm near Crooked Island, part of the Bahamas island chain.

It was from there that it sent a satellite notification stating the ship had lost propulsion and had a 15-degree list.

Twenty-eight Americans and five Poles were on board.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com