BREAKING NEWS

Obama to skip Asia-Pacific summit in Russia in September

NEW YORK - US President Barack Obama will skip an Asia-Pacific summit in Russia hosted by President Vladimir Putin in early September, the White House said on Monday.
The White House made official what had been widely assumed, since the APEC gathering will take place the same week as the Democratic national convention in North Carolina, where Obama will accept his party's nomination for re-election on Sept. 6.
Both countries have denied using summit decisions to snub the other.
The White House announcement followed Putin's decision, after his return to the Kremlin last week, to pull out of a summit of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations to be hosted this weekend by Obama at the Camp David presidential retreat.