As Senator Hillary Clinton collected the endorsement yesterday from former vice president Walter Mondale, one of her Democratic rivals intensified his criticism of her candidacy, saying she had not been forthcoming with voters who will open the nominating contest here in less than two months.
The rival, former senator John Edwards, said he would draw new distinctions with Clinton in a speech he was due to make yesterday, raising questions with Democrats over Iraq and Iran.
"Senator Clinton is voting like a hawk in Washington, while talking like a dove in Iowa and New Hampshire," Edwards was planning to say, according to excerpts provided by his campaign. "We only need one mode from our president -- tell-the-truth mode all the time."
Edwards, of North Carolina, and Clinton, of New York, campaigned across eastern Iowa on Sunday, exactly one year before election day. At each of his stops, Edwards has focused his attention on Clinton and in a speech yesterday he said he would outline a plan for Iran and call on her to present a specific plan for how she would end the war, including how many troops would remain in Iraq.
"With less than 60 days to the caucus, Senator Clinton has still not given specific answers to specific questions," Edwards was to say, according to the excerpts. "How many troops will she withdraw and when will she withdraw them?"
Clinton did not focus on any of her rivals on Sunday.
In a statement, Mondale said Clinton was "uniquely qualified to rebuild America's standing in the world and lead this nation from her first day in the White House."
Also on Sunday, Fred Thompson said he had been unaware that one of his early fundraisers, who frequently provided him with the use of his private airplane over the summer, had a criminal record for dealing drugs.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the man, Philip Martin, entered a guilty plea in 1979 to the sale of 5kg of marijuana and pleaded no contest to 1983 charges of cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy.
Thompson, the actor and former senator from Tennessee who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said on NBC's Meet the Press that he had not known of Martin's criminal record and that his use of Martin's plane had abided by campaign finance laws.
"I know Phil is a good man," Thompson said. "He is my friend. He is going to remain my friend. He didn't go to jail, he got probation, he's paid his debt to society and turned himself around and become a good, productive, successful citizen."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not