In her first visit to the Philippines as US secretary of state, she also highlighted the US military’s role in relief work after devastating typhoons.

About 600 US troops are in the country providing training and intelligence for the Philippine army fighting the separatist rebels.

She also visited a badly damaged high school and pledged $5m (£3m) in aid.

“I would just reiterate that the United States stands ready to assist our friends in the Philippines who are seeking to counter terrorism and the threat of extremism and we will be willing to support them in any way that is appropriate that they request,” Mrs Clinton said after meeting Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo at the beginning of her two-day visit.

“We were very pleased that we can respond quickly with our military assets,” she said, referring to joint US-Philippine rescue work during widespread floods caused by several back-to-back typhoons.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8356092.stm

The two-day visit comes as US Special Forces advisers are in the southern Philippines to train and equip Filipino soldiers in combatting the Abu Sayyaf group that is blamed for the Southeast Asian nation’s worst terrorist attacks.

Clinton is likely to hear “strong support” from President Gloria Arroyo and her defence officials for the Visiting Forces Agreement, a 1999 treaty which governs the deployment of US troops in the Philippines, Arroyo’s aides said.

On the eve of Clinton’s visit, Philippines police broke up a protest by 70 left-leaning students in Manila who demanded the pullout of the US military advisers, saying they are an affront to the nation’s sovereignty.

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A plane carrying Clinton and her aides took off from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington at about 00:15 am (0515 GMT).

The chief US diplomat was to give a speech in Berlin on Sunday before joining German Chancelor Angela Merkel and other world leaders in celebrations on Monday to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

-AFP

“The U.S. will gradually strengthen its efforts to make a world without nuclear weapons while strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime and removing latent threats posed by nuclear terrorism,” she said.

“Regardless of its effort to eliminate nuclear weapons, the U.S. will strengthen its attempt to defend the homeland and keep its security promises to alliances. It should be remembered by all enemies.”

http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=060000&biid=2009102230548

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Clinton ordered an investigation on Tuesday into the Animal House revels of private guards at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan – including booze, hookers and other “deviant behavior.”

“These are very serious allegations, and we are treating them that way,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said of photo and e-mail evidence of the “climate of fear and coercion” at the living quarters of ArmorGroup guards.

The investigation by the State Department’s inspector general follows a shocking report to Clinton by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight detailing a “Lord of the Flies environment” at the Camp Sullivan compound a few miles from the embassy in Kabul. Prostitutes allegedly were brought in for birthday parties, drunken guards engaged in brawls and boozy lawn parties turned into naked affairs where guests urinated on one another, according to photos and videos obtained by the nonprofit group.

Clinton has “zero tolerance” for the behavior described and has directed a “review of the whole system” for farming out security to private contractors that may have threatened the safety of embassy personnel, Kelly said.

Earlier, hearings in June by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), head of the subcommittee on contractor oversight, questioned whether the contract with ArmorGroup, now owned by Wackenhut Services Inc., should be renewed.

In a separate letter to Clinton, McCaskill said the Project on Government Oversight report “calls into question the ability of the contractor to provide sufficient security for the embassy.”

Wackenhut did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/02/2009-09-02_afghan_embassy_patrol_in_deviant_parties_report.html#ixzz0PxYFGmOk