China in focus as Clinton heads to South Pacific

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will try to reassert American interests in the Asia-Pacific region in the face of China's growing influence as she kicks off a six-nation trip that will take her from the South Pacific to Russia's Far East.

Clinton left Washington on Thursday on a trip that will keep her half a world away from U.S. politics at the height of the presidential conventions. But her travels will put her at the center of rising tensions over territorial disputes involving China and its smaller neighbors in the South China Sea.