President Barack Obama called off a planned meeting on Monday with new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, seeking distance from a US ally's leader during a diplomatic tour that's put Obama in close quarters with a cast of contentious world figures. It's unusual for one president to tell another what to say or not say, and much rarer to call the other a "son of a bitch." Duterte managed to do both just before flying to Laos for a regional summit, warning Obama not to challenge him over extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. Early Monday, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the meeting with Duterte was off. Obama had said he planned to raise the issue in his first meeting with Duterte, but the Philippine leader insisted he was only listening to his own country's people.

Source: dna September 06, 2016 01:49 UTC