Chelsea Clinton Weds at Exclusive NY Estate-America's 'Royal' Wedding-Clintons on Eve of Chelsea's Wedding

Bill and Hillary Clinton 'so happy' as they see their daughter Chelsea marry in front of 500 guests

Happy family: (left to right) Marc Mezvinsky with Hillary Clinton, his bride Chelsea and father-in-law Bill Clinton after the couple's wedding

Chelsea Clinton has finally become a married woman, saying her vows in an idyllic gazebo decked with white roses under the late afternoon summer sun.

The groom was ‘a bundle of nerves’ and the father of the bride ‘so emotional’ he considered just getting his daughter down the aisle was ‘a major accomplishment’. As for the bride, she had, she told friends jokingly, rather hoped for a small wedding.

But it’s hard to be low-key when your big day is hailed as America’s ‘Royal wedding’, and last-minute preparations include shutting down a chunk of federal airspace, with the secret service making sure access roads to the venue are secure.

Putin Criticizes U.S. for Arrests of Espionage Suspects

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin criticized American law enforcement agencies on Tuesday for breaking up an what they described as a Russian espionage ring in the United States, as other Russian officials questioned whether the arrests were intended to damage relations between the countries.

Mr. Putin, at a meeting with former President Bill Clinton, brought up the subject.

“You have come to Moscow at the exact right time,” Mr. Putin told Mr. Clinton. “Your police have gotten carried away, putting people in jail.”

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton rushed to hospital for emergency heart surgery

Mrs Clinton had been in a meeting with President Obama when she heard her husband had been taken ill

Three Presidents: Clinton with George W. Bush and Barack Obama last month

Clinton was rushed to the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York

The world's media gather to hear about Mr Clinton's progress

The view of the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital tonight, where Mr Clinton is recovering following his stent operation

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is flanked by secret service agents as arrives at the hospital to see her husband

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, seen here helping the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti on January 18, was rushed to hospital last night

Bill Clinton is today recovering after major heart surgery after being taken to hospital in New York with chest pains last night.

The fast food-loving ex-President was said to be in 'good spirits' after an emergency operation to clear a blocked coronary artery by implanting two surgical stents.

A stent is a small mesh tube inserted into a narrowed or weakened artery to support it and allow blood to flow through.
His wife, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left the Oval Office after a meeting with President Obama in snowbound Washington to be at her 63-year-old husband's bedside at the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.

An eye witness outside the hospital said he had seen Mr Clinton being wheeled in.

'We saw eight men wheeling a gurney and when we saw closer we saw Mr Clinton with an oxygen mask on his face being wheeled into hospital,' he said.

The former President had been taken to the hospital after feeling 'discomfort', an aide said, adding: 'He knew that something was wrong. He didn't feel right. He didn't collapse, but he knew he should head to see his cardiologist right away.'

The operation was carried out by Craig Smith, the heart surgeon who performed a 2004 heart bypass on Mr Clinton.
In 2004, he had a quadruple heart bypass at the same hospital. Doctors then found four major blood vessels that supply oxygen to the heart were blocked, some by as much as 90%.

High cholesterol and a love of fast food like McDonald's hamburgers were regarded as the likely culprits.

Since the surgery, he went back to his active life, campaigning for his wife's presidential campaign and remaining heavily involved in his charity and humanitarian efforts.

It is understood that one of the bypass grafts from the 2004 operation had become obstructed, making it necessary for two stents to clear the artery.
In a statement, Mr Clinton's spokesman Douglas Band said: 'Following a visit to his cardiologist, he underwent a procedure to place two stents in one of his coronary arteries.

'President Clinton is in good spirits, and will continue to focus on the work of his Foundation and Haiti's relief and long-term recovery efforts.'

It is understood that one of the bypass grafts from the 2004 operation had become obstructed, making it necessary for two stents to clear the artery.

Health experts described the procedure as 'relatively routine'. Mr Clinton was expected to return to his home in Chappaqua in upstate New York to rest soon after the procedure.

There was speculation last night that Mr Clinton's work as a special U.S. ambassador to Haiti may have exacerbated his heart problem.


Since the surgery he had returned to his active life, campaigning for his wife's presidential bid and remaining heavily involved in his charity and humanitarian efforts.

In a statement last night, Mr Clinton's spokesman Douglas Band said: 'Following a visit to his cardiologist, he underwent a procedure to place two stents in one of his coronary arteries.

'President Clinton is in good spirits, and will continue to focus on the work of his Foundation and Haiti's relief and long-term recovery efforts.'

Mrs Clinton was expected to cancel or delay a planned diplomatic trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

In 2001, shortly after his presidency ended, Mr Clinton had a cancerous growth removed from his back.

A pre-cancerous lesion was removed from his nose, and a year before that had a benign cyst taken off his chest.

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The long history of troubled ties between Haiti and the US

President Obama said he would make the relief efforts in Haiti a priority



President Jean-Bertrand Aristide accused the US of ousting him in 2004



The Clinton Administration intervened to restore President Aristide to power


Toussaint L'Ouverture became an icon for the abolitionist movement




When US President Barack Obama announced that one of the biggest relief efforts in US history would be heading for Haiti, he highlighted the close ties between the two nations.

"With just a few hundred miles of ocean between us and a long history that binds us together, Haitians are our neighbours in the Americas and here at home," he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have indeed become neighbours of Americans.

Some 420,000 live in the US legally, according to census figures. Estimates of the number of Haitians in the country illegally vary wildly, from some 30,000 to 125,000.

It is a sizeable diaspora which wants to see quick and decisive action from its adopted homeland.

Desperate to see aid getting through to friends and relatives, many expatriate Haitians have welcomed President Obama's decision to send up to 10,000 troops to help rescue efforts.

Historically though, US military deployments to Haiti have been controversial to say the least, and ties have often suffered.


Shared history

Both countries were born out of a struggle against European colonisers.

The US declared independence from Britain in 1776 - the first to do so in the Western Hemisphere - followed by Haiti, which broke away from France in 1804.

But there the similarities end. While the American War of Independence was driven by a white elite unwilling to continue paying taxes to its colonial masters, the Haitian revolution was led by a freed slave, Toussaint Louverture.

The existence of a nation of freed slaves to the south became an inspiration for slaves in the US, and a thorn in the side of many Southerners who relied on slavery for their economy.

During the Civil War in the 1860s, the animosity of the Confederate States towards Haiti would sour relations between the two nations for decades to come.

But Haiti's geographical proximity to the US and its strategic location in the Caribbean sparked the interest of American administrations.

Strategic interest

In the 19th Century, it was eyed as the location for a potential naval base.

US leaders also feared foreign occupation of the island at a time when European powers were trying to expand their sphere of influence.

In 1868, President Andrew Johnson suggested the annexation of the whole island of Hispaniola - present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic - to secure a US presence in the Caribbean.

His suggestion was not followed, but American warships were active in Haitian waters 17 times between 1862 - when the US finally recognised Haiti's independence - and 1915, when it occupied the country.

Assistant Secretary of State Alvey Adee summed up the US view of Haiti in 1888 when he called it "a public nuisance at our door".

Tumultuous history

In the following decades, Haiti would only become more of a headache to its big neighbour.

Between 1888 and 1915, no Haitian president completed his seven-year term.

Ten were killed or overthrown, including seven in the four years to the US invasion of 1915. Only one died of natural causes.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson took control of the Haitian National Bank by sending in marines, who removed $500,000 of its reserves "for safe-keeping" in New York.

The assassination of the Haitian president a year later finally prompted President Wilson to invade Haiti with the aim of protecting US assets and preventing the further strengthening of German influence in the region.

After failing to make the new Haitian legislature adopt a constitution which would allow foreign land ownership, the Wilson administration forced the legislature to dissolve in 1917. It would not meet again until 1929.

The US finally withdrew from Haiti in 1934 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's "Good Neighbour Policy", which stressed co-operation and trade over military force to maintain stability in the Americas.

Duvalier era

Many Haitians fled to the US during the political repression under Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

At first, the US government welcomed the refugees, but as the numbers swelled and boatloads of Haitians arrived on the South Florida coast in the 1970s and 1980s, this attitude changed to a policy of intercepting boats at sea and returning those on board to Haiti.

After decades dominated by dictatorships and coups, democracy was restored in 1990 when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected in a popular vote.

The ousting of President Aristide by a military regime in 1991 led to a new wave of Haitians headed for the US.

Military deployments

Faced with increasing chaos just south of its shores and an ever-growing stream of refugees arriving on - and often sinking off - Florida's shores, President Bill Clinton sent a US-led intervention force to Haiti in 1994.

A last-minute deal brokered by former President Jimmy Carter allowed the troops to go ashore unopposed by the Haitian military and police.

Constitutional government was restored and Mr Aristide returned to power.

US troops left after two years - too soon, some experts argue, to ensure the stability of Haiti's democratic institutions.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide stayed in power until 1996, and was re-elected in 2000.

While he enjoyed the support of the Clinton administration during his first term of office, allegations of corruption and links to the drugs trade during President Aristide's second term made for a rocky relationship with Washington.

After an uprising against President Aristide in 2004, US forces returned to Haiti, this time to airlift him out of the country.

Mr Aristide accused the US of forcing him out - an accusation the US rejected as "absurd".

With the crisis averted, US interest in Haiti lessened. A UN-led mission took over from US troops in June 2004 and continues to be present there.

'American leadership'

The election of President Obama and the nomination of Bill Clinton to the post of UN envoy to Haiti, combined with a period of relative political stability, led to a strengthening of US-Haitian ties.

Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who spent their honeymoon in Haiti, have long taken an interest in the country.

President Obama has enlisted their help, alongside that of former President George W Bush, to help drive fundraising for Haiti.

Speaking on Thursday, President Obama said that this was "one of those moments that calls out for American leadership".

This US intervention, he stressed, would be "for the sake of our common humanity".

Read more about Haiti.

More bad days to come for Haiti, Bill Clinton warns-Security fears in quake-hit Haiti

Former US president Bill Clinton warned Friday that more bad days were ahead for Haiti, as the impoverished Caribbean nation struggles to cope with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.
"You may see some things in the next seven or 10 days that don't just tug at your heart strings but upset you," Clinton told Fox News, as bodies piled up in the streets of Port-au-Prince were left rotting in the tropical sun and others were carted off into mass graves.
"You may see a lot of very angry people, you may see some people looting, you may see some people doing and saying some things you don't like."
Machete-wielding looters were bringing more terror to the Caribbean nation already long accustomed to violence and bloodshed, as anger and frustration mounted after Haitians were left mostly fending for themselves for three days.
Clinton, the United Nations special envoy for Haiti, made a fresh appeal for donations, saying he and aid agencies "can take your 10 dollars and put it with the 10 dollars of millions of other people and immediately turn it into food, medicine shelter and clean water, and distribute it."
US President Barack Obama has enlisted both Clinton and ex-president George W. Bush to lead private sector fund raising for Haiti. He said he would meet with them Saturday to discuss their efforts.

There are mounting security concerns in Haiti's earthquake-hit capital as distribution problems continue to hamper getting aid to survivors.

Days after the quake devastated Port-au-Prince, killing tens of thousands, there are some reports of gangs preying on residents and looting.

Officials say thousands of prisoners are unaccounted for after the main prison was destroyed.

Relief has been arriving, but little has moved beyond the jammed airport.

Damage to the seaport, roads and other infrastructure has prevented the speedy distribution of food, water and medical supplies.

US President Barack Obama met two of his predecessors in the White House, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, to seek their support.

After the talks, Mr Obama said the two men would lead the US' fundraising efforts through the Bush-Clinton Haiti Fund.

"America is moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in its history," Mr Obama said, warning that recovery would take a long time.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is travelling to Haiti on Saturday to assess the damage and convey to the Haitian people "our long term, unwavering support, solidarity and sympathies".

A spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said aid workers were dealing with a disaster "like no other" in UN memory because the country had been "decapitated".

"Government buildings have collapsed and we do not even have the support of the local infrastructure," Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva.

Ms Byrs said the situation was even worse than the devastation wrought by the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia's Aceh province.

"It's worse than the Indonesian earthquake where at least we could get the support of some local authorities," she said.

Desperation among survivors of Tuesday's earthquake has led to rising fears over security in Port-au-Prince.

"Men suddenly appeared with machetes to steal money," resident Evelyne Buino told AFP news agency.

Up to 4,000 prisoners are unaccounted for, with many believed to have escaped from the central prison.

"There are thieves coming out," Haitian police inspector-general Jean-Yonel Trecile told Reuters news agency.

"To make sure this does not spread, we have taken a number of these people off the streets. We have arrested about 50 people."

There is little police presence in the capital, although some Brazilian UN peacekeepers are patrolling the streets.

UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Alain Le Roy told the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network on Friday: "There have been some incidents where people were looting or fighting for food. They are desperate."

But he added that overall the situation remained under control so far.

First shipment

The BBC's Nick Davis in Port-au-Prince says the only convoys he has seen are people leaving the city, in search of food, water and medicine.

The UN is reporting a rise in the number of people trying to cross into the neighbouring Dominican Republic, and an influx into Haiti's northern cities.

Overnight the crippled port received its first supply ship since the earthquake, a boat carrying bananas and coal, AFP reports.

Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said 50,000 bodies had been collected, but the total number of dead could be "between 100,000 and 200,000".

The UN said about 300,000 people had been made homeless.

US authorities have taken temporary control of the airport to help distribute aid more quickly.

Meanwhile, details are emerging about the extent of the damage beyond Port-au-Prince. Up to 90% of the buildings have been damaged in Leogane, a town about 19km (18 miles) to the west, the UN said.

"According to the local police, between 5,000 to 10,000 people have been killed and most bodies are still in the collapsed buildings," Elisabeth Byrs said.

The UN has launched an appeal for $562m (£346m) intended to help three million people for six months.

A total of about $360m has been pledged so far for the relief effort, but only part of this sum will be included in the emergency appeal.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Haiti on Sunday, said distribution of food and medicine was under way.

The US has already sent an aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, to Haiti and the USS Bataan, carrying a marine expeditionary unit, is on its way.

A hospital ship and more helicopters are due to be sent in the coming days, carrying more troops and marines, with the total number of US troops to rise to between 9,000 and 10,000.

Aid groups say it is a race against time to find any more trapped survivors.

Plane-loads of rescuers and relief supplies have arrived or are due from the UK, China, the EU, Canada, Russia and Latin American nations.



Mass graves are being dug at outskirt of city for bodies unable claimed by their relatives and family.


Family carrying their injured family members in any means for treatment.



Rescues have to dugs for days to reach those trapped by fallen building.



This student was trapped for 72 hours before being rescued.



Survivors are traumatrised living in continuous fear , grief and suffering from Haiti worst earthquake in 200 years.Streets are choked with destruction and rotting corpses .




Clean water are in short supply.Residents struggle to get water in any other means for survivor.




Huge international relief aids are on the way.Human chains are formed to transport and unload the aids that arrived.



Tens of thousands may be too late to receive aids , even as aids require few days to come.The airport and port in Haiti are heavily damaged by the earthquake.Coordination will take days. Meanwhile injured victims received almost no treatment medicine for the first 24 hours in Haiti.




Many flee from the city destruction where many buildings have collapsed. All kind of transport are used from foot , scooter , car or bus.



Aid still are scared and wil take few days to reach the victim.




The Clintons are going to Haiti with more aids. Bill Clinton is the special UN representive to Haiti.While wife Hilary Clinton is the US Secretary of State.


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Monica Lewinsky is back with book to bite Bill Clinton-Said he lied.Hillary Clinton said marriage to Bill is a good investment.

Allegations: Monica Lewinsky says former President Bill Clinton lied about their relationship during an impeachment trial, according to Ken Gormley's book The Death of American Virtue

Monica Lewinsky says former President Bill Clinton lied under oath when he described their relationship during an impeachment trial, a new book claims.

The Death of American Virtue, by law professor Ken Gormley, is due to be published in February and also alleges that Clinton had a long-running affair with Susan McDougal, a key player in the Whitewater scandal.

Despite offering no concrete evidence of the affair, Gormley told Politico.com: ‘I feel very, very comfortable with that conclusion after having conducted extensive interviews and seen documents that were not generally accessible to the public.’

In an email to Gormley, Lewinsky made it clear she believes the president lied.

‘There was no leeway [there] on the veracity of his statements because they asked him detailed and specific questions to which he answered untruthfully,’ she wrote.

The book reportedly paints an unflattering portrait of Clinton and independent counsel Kenneth Starr who led the inquiry into the affair.

Clinton was impeached in 1998 but not thrown out of office.

According to Gormley, Starr’s successor, Robert Ray, was prepared to indict Clinton after he left office in January 2001 unless he admitted to lying under oath about the Lewinsky relationship, the New York Daily News reported.

Ray relented, but ‘President Clinton would never fully grasp how close he came,’ Gormley claims.

Clinton initially swore under oath that he ‘did not have sexual relations’ with Lewinsky but later admitted that he had misled the American public.

Lewinsky revealed her relationship with the president involved oral sex but not sexual intercourse.

She famously kept a blue dress which she claimed held DNA evidence of their affair.

Clinton has been dogged by headlines over his private life.

During his presidential campaign, nightclub singer Gennifer Flowers made claims of a 12-year affair with the former governor of Arkansas.

Clinton denied the affair, but later confessed to a single sexual encounter with her.

During his second year in the White House, a 27-year-old former Arkansas employee called Paula Jones claimed that Clinton had made an unwanted sexual advance to her in a hotel and asked her to engage in 'a type of sex' that was ‘humiliating’.

She sued the President, but the lawsuit was dismissed. On appeal however, Clinton entered an out-of-court settlement by agreeing to pay her $850,000.

In 1998 White House volunteer aide Kathleen Willey alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by the President during his first term. Clinton denied the allegation.

In 2007, Clinton's long-suffering wife Hilary gave an interview in which she said marriage to Bill was worth the investment.

She said: 'I know the truth of my life and of my marriage, my relationship and partnership, my deep abiding friendship with my husband. It's been enormously supportive to me through most of my life.

'Now obviously we've had challenges as everybody in the world knows,' she reportedly said.

'But I never doubted that it was a marriage worth investing in, even in the midst of those challenges, and I'm really happy that I made that decision.'

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Hillary Clinton getting touchy with new young British Foreign Secterary David Miliband.Almost like flirtation.

You scratch my back...: The duo give one another a friendly squeeze at the meeting in Brussels today

What IS he saying?: Hillary Clinton can't hold back the giggles as she listens to David Miliband at the Nato meeting in Brussels today

Mrs Clinton looks as though she's been bowled over completely by Mr Miliband's wit - although in reality she is just adjusting her seat

Walking the line: Something Mr Miliband says raises Mrs Clinton's eyebrows

Mrs Clinton and Mr Miliband share one final joke as they get ready to pose for a group photograph

It may be easy to see why Mr Miliband likes Mrs Clinton - as this group photo of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels today shows, she certainly stands out in a crowd

Perhaps David Miliband really is this funny.

Or, perhaps not - perhaps Hillary Clinton is, once again, taking the 'special relationship' a little too literally.

The U.S. Secretary of State collapsed in a fit of girlish giggles during a Nato meeting today at Mr Miliband's presumably witty comments.

Mrs Clinton owned up to an unlikely crush on the 'vibrant, vital, attractive, smart' British Foreign Secretary last month.

Speaking in Vogue magazine, Mrs Clinton, 62, joked with an interviewer about Mr Miliband's accent. 'Well, if you saw him it would be a BIG crush,' she said.

'I mean, he is so vibrant, vital, attractive, smart. He's really a good guy. And he's so young!'

Her remarks are an unlikely compliment for Mr Miliband, who has often been teased about his geeky image.

Former Labour spin doctor Allistair Campbell famously called him 'Brains' - not because of his formidable intellect, but for of his resemblance to the nerdish puppet character of the same name in the children's programme Thunderbirds.

Mr Miliband also seems taken with his American counterpart.

Today he seemed to take delight in teasing the former First Lady - and looked distinctly unimpressed when another man joined their tete-a-tete.

Last month he said Mrs Clinton was 'delightful to deal with one on one' and added: 'She's someone who laughs and can tease, and she's got perspective as well.'

The pair are not the first in their roles to exchange flirtatious remarks.

Mrs Clinton's remarks mirror the mutual compliments between Jack Straw and Condoleeza Rice in 2006

Mr Miliband and Mrs Clinton could perhaps be forgiven for seeking some comic relief during the meeting today.

The assembly of Nato foreign ministers were discussing the complex subject of Afghanistan - and facing calls from Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to help Barack Obama's latest surge by committing more troops.

Mr Miliband himself made an impassioned plea, telling reporters on arrival at the meeting that all alliance members must 'ask themselves whether they are doing the maximum possible ... to ensure success in Afghanistan.'

'We know the stakes are very high indeed. So this is the time for all of the international community to make sure it steps up to support the efforts of governance in Afghanistan and Pakistan to ensure stability in that crucial part of the world,' he added.

Mrs Clinton also said her piece, telling the meeting that she was looking forward to the expected support by the allies - whether military, financial or civilian - for the war effort.

Mrs Clinton sought to sell Mr Obama's revamped war strategy, which relies on major new allied contributions, not just to escalate the combat effort but also to bolster civilian functions and provide more development aid.

Allied governments need to be able to sell their publics on the idea of enlarging the war, and in particular countries in which political parties share power have to be sure 'the political stars are in alignment' before they announce new commitments, Mrs Clinton said.

The meeting came two days after Mr Obama agreed to send 30,000 more American troops to the country and asked other Nato members to also add military muscle.

Nato officials said pledges from other nations have exceeded 5,000 troops. More than 20 nations are expected to make firm commitments at a force-generation conference on Monday or following the international conference on Afghanistan in January.

However, the prospect of more German troops appeared slim.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said his country was 'ready to contribute to civilian reconstruction, especially police training (but) a debate that focuses only on 'how many troops' is in our view neither useful nor appropriate.'

Fogh Rasmussen said eight years into the Afghan mission 'it will still take more time, more commitment.'

'The fact remains that what happens in Afghanistan has a direct impact on our own security. If this international effort is to succeed - and it will - it must be a true team effort,' Fogh Rasmussen added.

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Chelsea Clinton engaged to marry boyfriend

n this Dec. 1996 file photo, Chelsea Clinton, right, sits with Marc Mezvinsky on the beach at Hilton Head Island, S.C.


In this Jan. 9, 2003 file photo, former Pennsylvaina Rep. Edward M. Mezvinsky, right, leaves the U.S. District Court building in Philadelphia with his lawyer Stephen R. Lacheen.


In this Jan. 5, 1993 file photo, then-House Speaker Thomas Foley administers the House oath, during a re-enactment, to Rep Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky D-Pa., accompanied by husband Edward, left, and family, on Capitol Hill in Washington.


Chelsea Clinton is the only child of Bill and Hillary Clinton



Chelsea Clinton, daughter of ex-US President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is engaged to marry her long-term boyfriend.

She is marrying Marc Mezvinsky, a banker at Goldman Sachs, with whom she became friends as a teenager.

A spokesman for former President Clinton confirmed that the couple got engaged over last week's Thanksgiving holiday.

Ms Clinton, 29, is attending Columbia University's School of Public Health.

The engagement was announced in an e-mail to friends.

Mr Mezvinsky's parents are Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and Ed Mezvinsky, both of whom served in Congress.

They are described as old friends of the Clintons.

Ed Mezvinsky served a prison term for bank and wire fraud after he pleaded guilty to charges in 2002. He was released last year.

Turns out those discredited rumors of a possible Chelsea Clinton wedding last summer were mostly just premature: The 29-year old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has become engaged to her longtime boyfriend, 31-year old investment banker Marc Mezvinsky.

The couple sent an e-mail to friends Friday announcing the news, saying they were looking at a possible wedding next summer. Matt McKenna, a spokesman for the former president, confirmed the engagement Monday.

Mezvinsky is a son of former Pennsylvania Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and former Iowa Rep. Ed Mezvinsky, longtime friends of the Clintons. Ed Mezvinsky was released from federal prison last year after serving a nearly five-year sentence for wire and bank fraud.

Margolies-Mezvinsky served just one term in Congress before losing her seat in 1994 after voting in favor of President Clinton's 1993 budget, which was controversial at the time.

At the State Department Monday, Hillary Clinton had one brief encounter with reporters but took no questions. Later, her spokesman, Ian C. Kelly, was asked about the reported engagement but said it would be inappropriate for him to comment.

"I have a daughter who's around, she's 22 years old. And the last thing I would want would be for the State Department spokesman to talk about the personal plans of my daughter, so I am going to decline any comment on that," Kelly said.

The former first daughter and her fiance became friends as teenagers in Washington and both attended Stanford University. They now live in New York, where Mezvinsky works at G3 Capital, a Manhattan hedge fund, and Clinton is pursuing a graduate degree at Columbia University's School of Public Health.

Before returning to graduate school, Clinton worked at Avenue Capital, a hedge fund run by prominent Democratic donor Marc Lasry. She also worked at McKinsey and Company, a management consulting firm.

Since her debut on the public stage as a curly haired 12-year-old during her father's 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton has maintained a fairly low public profile. That changed in 2008, when the press-shy Clinton stepped out on the campaign trail to help her mother's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Before beginning a relationship with Mezvinsky, Clinton dated Ian Klaus, a Rhodes Scholar she met while studying international relations at Oxford in 2002. Klaus dedicated his first book, "Elvis is Titanic," about his experience teaching in the Kurdistan province of Iraq, to Clinton.

Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton was forced to tamp down speculation that her daughter and Mezvinsky were already engaged and would marry in August on Martha's Vineyard. President Barack Obama, who was vacationing on the island at the time, was rumored to be on the guest list.

Aides to Hillary Clinton, citing Chelsea's privacy, declined to disclose whether she has received an engagement ring or any other details about wedding plans. It will be an interfaith marriage; Mezvinsky is Jewish, while Clinton grew up attending Methodist Church with her mother. Bill Clinton is Southern Baptist.

Word of the engagement was first reported by ABC News.


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