1st 'baby-boomer' starts collecting Social Security; Hillary's foreign policy expected to "Use both hard and soft power"...

16 October :: 1st official 'baby-boomer' begins collecting Social Security; as many as 80 million Americans from her generation will eventually collect the government pension payments... NY Times 'The Caucus' blog reports Hillary Clinton's foreign policy would "Use both hard power and soft power; talk to your enemies and strengthen alliances with your friends; deal with systemic destabilizing issues such as poverty and disease; elevate pragmatism over ideology; use international institutions such as the United Nations as tools for progress; make the military a part of comprehensive solutions, not as the solution itself; and encourage the spread of “our values” and the rule of law"; she had said in previous debates she would hesitate to engage in direct talks with hostile states... Critics complain actions like her vote to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard a foreign "terrorist organization" makes her too hawkish, moreso even than many in current administration, could risk intensified hostilities with Iran... Putin in Iran says Caspian nations should agree "that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state"; declaration comes amid mounting tensions between Iran and western powers —namely France and US—, which suspect it is illegally developing nuclear weapons... China's Communist party has said it is "furious" at the US awarding the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal; Tibet's party boss is quoted as saying "If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world"; China has withdrawn from a planned meeting to discuss UN policy regarding Iran, as a matter of protest against the US award; Liu Jianchao, speaking for China's foreign ministry, has said the award would have "extremely serious impact" on US-China relations... Fmr US pres. Bill Clinton's Climate Initiative (CCI) is partnering with the City of Paris to overhaul energy consumption of 600 schools to make them more environmentally sustainable; the program will retrofit schools to reduce their consumption of greenhouse gases; Paris' new Climate Strategy aims to bring emissions, energy consumption to 30% below 2004 levels city-wide by the year 2020...