Tuesday, September 06, 2016

US Bins Meeting With Cussing Duterte
2016 Wednesday 7TH
by Morning Star in World

PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday that he regretted that his reference to US President Barack Obama as a “son of a bitch” had “come across as a personal attack.”

Mr Duterte has faced criticism from the US as well as the United Nations over his war on drugs, in which hundreds of suspected users and dealers have been killed in summary executions by police officers and many more lynched by vigilantes with his explicit approval.

In response, he has threatened to withdraw from the UN and sought to deflect criticism by highlighting the US’s record of police killing black citizens with impunity.

He referred to Mr Obama as a “son of a bitch” when asked by a reporter how he intended to explain extrajudicial killings to the US president, adding that “we have long ceased to be a colony.”

But he appeared to regret the remarks after the US leader cancelled a planned bilateral meeting in Laos.

“I do not want to quarrel with the most powerful country on the planet,” he said. “We look forward to ironing out differences.”

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