Foreign Policy | featured news

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney traded shots in high-profile interviews with Romney saying Obama hasn't supported Israel strongly enough and Obama asking if Romney was trying to start a war in the region.

A senior Palestinian official says Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is undermining hopes for peace and democracy in the Middle East. A senior Palestinian official says Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is undermining hopes for peace and democracy in the Middle East.

The man expected to become China's next leader, Vice-President Xi Jinping, appears in "good shape", US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said after talks in Beijing. The talks marked Mr Xi's first official meeting since he went missing two weeks ago without further explanation.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was the loser in a political fight over U.S. reaction to attacks last week on American diplomatic compounds in Libya and Egypt, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Tuesday.

President Obama's handling of China receives "somewhat mixed reviews from the public," a new poll says. The Pew Research Center reports that 45% say Obama is not being tough enough, while 39% say Obama's China policy is about right.

A new video clip of Republican US presidential challenger Mitt Romney shows him telling a private meeting of donors that the Palestinians have no interest in peace with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Iran would be on the brink of nuclear weapons capability in six to seven months, adding new urgency to his demand that President Barack Obama set a clear "red line" for Tehran in what could deepen the worst U.S.-Israeli rift in decades.

Just a day after Romney went after Mr. Obama for allegedly not cracking down on China's economic "cheating," the president's re-election campaign is rehashing is attempting to cast doubt on his credibility on the subject. "Mitt Romney? Tough on China? Romney's companies were called pioneers in shipping U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas," says a narrator in the thirty-second spot, entitled "The Cheaters," which is set to air on television in nine battleground states.

... Romney has falsely accused Obama of “apologizing for America” many times before. The line has been a dependable applause-getter with conservative audiences. But we found no basis for this claim in Obama’s previous speeches and remarks. And other fact-checkers came to similar conclusions.

For all the harrowing images of the deadly attack on the American mission in Benghazi, the Obama administration is grappling with the possibility that its far bigger long-term problem lies in Egypt, not Libya.