WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Most of the cadets who graduated on Saturday from West Point were in elementary school when hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and enrolled in the U.S. military academy with wars raging in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Vice President Joe Biden lauded the brave choices of the Class of 2012 – and their so-called “9/11 generation” – with a commencement address focused on the United States’ new foreign policy challenges including cyber threats and a rising China.

He noted that nearly 3 million young Americans joined the military after the al Qaeda attacks, knowing they were likely to be sent into battle in remote parts of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Hundreds of thousands of you have laced up those combat boots and walked across those barren deserts and snow-capped mountains,” he said in remarks that were also beamed live to the U.S. Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan as well as the White House press room.

But Biden, whose eldest son Beau served in Iraq as a captain in the Delaware National Guard and was in the audience at West Point, said Saturday’s graduates would have to focus on a new set of threats, with the Iraq war over and Afghanistan’s ending.

“Winding down these long wars is enabling us to replace and rebalance our foreign policy, to take on the full range of challenges that will shape the 21st century, challenges different than those of the 20th century,” he said.

ASIA PIVOT

CHICAGO/DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – After weeks of painting Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney as a job-slashing corporate raider, President Barack Obama and his re-election campaign are broadening their attack to include Romney’s record as Massachusetts governor, arguing his policies hurt the state.

Obama, in an impassioned campaign speech in the battleground state of Iowa on Thursday night, foreshadowed that shift in strategy when he said Romney had made his business experience the centerpiece of his candidacy but “doesn’t really talk about what he did in Massachusetts.”

The move, described by campaign officials, marks a change from the campaign’s recent main focus on Romney’s time as a private equity executive at Bain Capital aimed at casting him as more concerned with the wealthy than the middle class.

The Obama team’s approach on Romney’s work at Bain has faced some criticism. Some saw it as hypocritical at a time when the campaign was seeking donations from private equity executives.

And while the attacks have been part of a strategy to define Romney as out of touch with most Americans, the presumptive Republican nominee has been rising in recent polls, most of which show the race in a dead heat.

Despite that, Obama pressed his assault on Romney’s business background in his toughest terms so far and mocked him for saying “corporations are people,” a comment he made last August while campaigning in Iowa.

Obama also rebutted Romney’s recent claim that the president had created a “prairie fire of debt” since taking office, dismissing that as a “cow pie of distortion.”

, May 23 (Reuters) - R epublican presidential candidate Mitt Romney opened a new front on Wednesday in his fight against President Barack Obama, accusing him of presiding over a failing U.S. education system in the grip of union bosses who refuse to accept reforms.

In a rare diversion from his campaign focus on the weak U.S. economy, Romney laid out an education plan in a speech that represented his most overt appeal to date to Hispanic voters who have largely sided with the Democratic incumbent.

Although he trails Obama by a huge margin among Hispanics, Romney’s address to a Hispanic business group avoided mentioning a top priority for them: how to overhaul the country’s immigration system.

Romney said millions of American children are getting a “third-world education” and offered proposals that he said would reward teachers for their results instead of their seniority. And he would give parents greater choice of where to send their children to school and take other steps to reduce the influence of powerful teachers’ unions.

“I believe the president must be troubled by the lack of progress since he took office. Most likely, he would have liked to do more. But the teachers unions are one of the Democrats’ biggest donors – and one of the president’s biggest campaign supporters. So, President Obama has been unable to stand up to union bosses – and unwilling to stand up for kids,” Romney said.

Meanwhile, at a series of fundraisers , Obama kept hitting at his opponent’s record as a job-cutting private equity executive - a prime target for his re-election campaign – and touted his own economic plans to “move the country forward.”

“I think he has learned the wrong lessons,” Obama told 550 supporters in a hotel ballroom in Denver, taking aim at what he called Romney’s bad ideas for the U.S. economy while anti-Obama protesters outside held signs reading “Out of Hope, Ready for Change” and “Bye Bye on Nov. 6th.”

By Laura MacInnis

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday staunchly defended his foreign policy record against Republican election-year criticism that he has overseen a decline in American power in the world.

Addressing graduates of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Obama touted his decisions to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq, wind down the war in Afghanistan and order the raid that killed Osama bin Laden – a record his campaign hopes will temper voter discontent about a still fragile economy.

“For a decade, we have labored under the dark cloud of war. Now, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon. The end of these wars will shape your service and it will make our military stronger,” he told the class of 1,073 uniformed cadets, including 234 women, on the military school’s football field.

Mitt Romney, Obama’s presumptive challenger in the November 6 election, has accused the Democratic president of weakening America on the world stage, calling last year’s exit from Iraq premature and the timeline to leave Afghanistan ill-conceived.

Last weekend at a NATO summit in Chicago, Obama acknowledged there were risks in withdrawing U.S. and allied forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

But at the Air Force Academy he pushed back against Romney’s charge that America had lost ground under his leadership.

By Laura MacInnis

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Wednesday staunchly defended his foreign policy record against Republican election-year criticism that he has overseen a decline in American power in the world.

Addressing graduating cadets of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Obama touted his decisions on pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq, winding down the unpopular war in Afghanistan, and the raid that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden – a record aides hope will counter voter discontent over a fragile economy and high unemployment.

“For a decade, we have labored under the dark cloud of war. Now, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon. The end of these wars will shape your service and it will make our military stronger,” he said in Colorado Springs.

Mitt Romney, Obama’s presumptive Republican challenger in the November 6 election, has accused the Democratic president of weakening America on the world stage.

Romney has chided Obama for setting a timeline for leaving Afghanistan and has called the Iraq withdrawal last year a premature move. The Iraq pullout followed a timetable put in place by former President George W. Bush.

Obama, in a weekend NATO summit in Chicago, acknowledged there were risks in withdrawing U.S. and allied forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. But at the Air Force Academy he pushed back hard against Romney’s claim that America had lost ground under his leadership.

CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) – World leaders backed keeping Greece in the euro zone on Saturday and vowed to take all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while revitalizing a global economy increasingly threatened by Europe’s debt crisis.

A summit of the G8 leading industrialized nations came down solidly in favor of a push to balance European austerity – an approach long driven by German Chancellor Angela Merkel – with a new dose of U.S.-style stimulus seen as vital to healing ailing euro-zone economies. But it was clear that divisions remained.

“We commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognizing that the right measures are not the same for each of us,” the leaders said in a joint statement issued at their meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

The overarching message from the summit hosted by President Barack Obama reflected his own concerns that the euro-zone contagion, which threatens the future of Europe’s 17-country single currency bloc, could hurt the fragile U.S. recovery and his re-election chances in November.

With Greece’s political and economic upheaval high on the summit’s agenda and stoking concerns over instability in Spain and Italy, Group of Eight leaders sought to calm the situation.

In the first line of their final economic communique, they essentially endorsed calls to broaden Europe’s focus beyond German-backed belt-tightening, calling it “our imperative” to promote growth.

Anxious to quell investor fears, the G8 said: “We reaffirm our interest in Greece remaining in the euro zone while respecting its commitments.” But leaders offered no specific prescription for extracting Athens from its worsening crisis.

CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) – World leaders backed keeping Greece in the euro zone on Saturday and vowed to take all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while revitalizing their economies, which are increasingly threatened by Europe’s debt crisis.

In a bold statement of support for Europe, the Group of Eight leaders of the world’s major economies meeting at the wooded Camp David in the Cactoctin Mountains of Maryland said the global economic recovery shows promising signs but “significant headwinds persist.”

“Against this backdrop, we commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognizing that the right measures are not the same for each of us,” it said in a communique.

The leaders said they welcomed discussions in Europe to balance debt reduction with measures to support growth and added: “We reaffirm our interest in Greece remaining in the euro zone while respecting its commitments.”

It was unusual for the often-bland G8 communique to single out a small nation. But fears that a political stalemate in Greece would lead to the tiny Mediterranean country leaving Europe’s monetary union at unknown costs to the financial system have spooked global markets.

U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders from other major economic powers met to discuss the global economy and seek ways to soothe markets after worries about Spain’s banking problems also played a role in sending world stock prices to their lowest levels this year.

Earlier, a shirt-sleeved Obama opened the morning session, promising to seek ways to restore healthy growth and jobs and address concerns in Europe.

, May 19 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama will press European leaders to ease up on fiscal austerity and focus on economic growth at a summit on Saturday that will discuss ways to stem turmoil in the euro zone and head off the risk of global contagion.

At the wooded Camp David retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains, Obama and leaders from other large economic powers will try to forge a common approach to tackling a crisis that threatens the future of Europe’s 17-nation single currency.

Though no major policy decisions are expected from the Group of Eight summit, leaders hope they can bridge enough of their differences to soothe rattled financial markets after worries about the risk of a Greek exit from the euro zone sent European stock prices to their lowest level since December.

“Hopefully we’ll get some stuff done,” Obama told Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti as he and other summit participants arrived for Friday evening dinner at a lodge at the secluded presidential retreat.

Obama earlier in the day aligned himself with Monti and new French President Francois Hollande by urging a solution to the euro zone crisis that combines fiscal belt-tightening measures with a “strong growth agenda.”

On the other side of the debate is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has pushed fiscal austerity as a means of bringing down huge debt levels that are burdening European economies.

Voters in euro zone countries have shown frustration with that approach, ejecting governments such as that of Nicolas Sarkozy, who was defeated by Hollande, a socialist, in the May 6 French presidential election.

CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) – Eight of the world’s most powerful people spent Friday night in the woods.

In a sort of VIP sleepover, G8 leaders bedded down in rustic cabins in rural Maryland, where the U.S. presidential retreat known as Camp David is hosting by far the largest international summit in its 70-year history.

President Barack Obama welcomed his peers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Canada to the verdant compound on Friday evening, describing the weather as “perfect” with clear skies visible through tall oak and poplar trees.

The G8 summit was first set to be held in Chicago, where Obama is hosting a Sunday-Monday NATO summit, but he moved them to the retreat 60 miles north of Washington to give the talks a more informal flavor.

“The thinking was that people would enjoy being in a more casual backdrop,” Obama told reporters in March after the White House announced the change of venue, widely seen as a way to reduce exposure to potential protests in Chicago.

Camp David, which opened in 1942, has traditionally been a place for U.S. presidents to relax away from the bustle of the White House, and to host foreign dignitaries, typically one at a time.

Its two prior international summits included only a pair of visiting leaders at once: Bill Clinton’s peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in 2000, and the 1978 negotiations Jimmy Carter hosted between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat yielding the historic Camp David peace accords.

CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) – Group of Eight leaders agreed in their initial discussions at Camp David on Friday that Iran needs to disclose more about its nuclear ambitions and that it was time to focus on a political transition in Syria, a U.S. official said.

The leaders also stressed the importance of having North Korea adhere to international norms with its nuclear program and said it would face more isolation if it “continues down the path of provocation,” the official said.

The Friday evening dinner, hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama, was the first opportunity for the G8 leaders to discuss global security concerns. They will talk about the euro zone crisis and other economic issues, including oil market pressures at the summit on Saturday.

The U.S. official also described “a sense of optimism” about conditions in Myanmar, and said the leaders gathered at Camp David, in the Maryland countryside, pledged to cooperate on providing aid to the former Burma.

New French President Francois Hollande, participating at the G8 summit for the first time, demonstrated “good unity” related to Iran, as did Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, according to the official.

The Camp David summit comes days before the next round of Iran talks, to be held in Baghdad. The G8 leaders “affirmed the importance of having a uniform effort in approaching those Baghdad talks next week,” the U.S. official said.

“Each of the leaders noted the urgency for Iran to take concrete steps to assure the international community of the peaceful purpose of its (nuclear) program,” the official said.