United States: US State Department Rejects 'Unfair' Criticism of Clinton.

Section: General News - The U.S. State Department has rejected as unfair and inaccurate newspaper editorial criticism that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton downplayed human rights issues on her first two trips abroad. Clinton is to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Wednesday for talks likely to include the issue of Tibet.

The State Department is rejecting, in unusually blunt terms, editorial criticism that Secretary Clinton has soft-pedaled human rights issues in her initial trips abroad in her new post.

In an editorial on Tuesday, The Washington Post newspaper accused Clinton of undermining and devaluing the U.S. diplomatic tradition of human …