YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Despite Colombia prostitution scandal, Obama has confidence in Secret Service chief

    Click image to see more photos. (AFP/Alex Ogle)Click image to see more photos. (AFP/Alex Ogle)

    President Barack Obama still has confidence in Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan despite a widening scandal over agents allegedly cavorting with prostitutes on the margins of an international summit in Cartagena, Colombia, the White House said Tuesday.

    "Director Sullivan acted quickly in response to this incident and is overseeing an investigation, as we speak, into the matter," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at his daily briefing.

    The agency announced Monday that it had stripped 11 agents tied to the scandal of their "top secret" clearance and seized their official identification and firearms.

    The president made clear "he believes that all of us who travel abroad represent our country and the people of the United States and we need to behave with the utmost, the highest level of integrity and probity," Carney said.

    "If in fact it turns out that some of the reported allegations are true he will be angry about that," Carney said, echoing Obama's own comments in Colombia.

    Asked whether the Secret Service scandal and the controversy over the General Services Administration's lavish party on the taxpayer dime in Las Vegas threatened to erode further Americans' trust in their government, Carney demurred but said Obama expects that "everyone who serves the American people by working for this government needs to hold themselves to the highest standards of public service" and prove themselves "careful stewards of taxpayer dollars."

    More popular Yahoo! News stories:

    The GSA scandal's powerful and powerless players

    How Hilary Rosen saved Barack Obama from a more damaging episode

    Romney's budget plan shouldn't be a secret reserved for wealthy donors

    Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add us on Tumblr. Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.

    Loading...
    • 10 gut-wrenching images from the devastating Oklahoma tornado

      Entire neighborhoods and two elementary schools were obliterated

    • Why We Can't Forget That Oklahoma's Senators Voted Against Sandy Relief

      Nearly four months ago, Oklahoma Senators Tom Coburn and James Inhofe both voted against H.R.152, the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act that eventually sent $50.5 billion in relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy. And in the flurry of last night's devastation in Moore, Oklahoma. it was impossible not to forget that fact, knowing the federal government would soon rally to the cause.

    • With the Xbox One, Microsoft’s vision for conquering the living room takes shape

      It’s taken a while, but Microsoft’s big plan for conquering consumers’ living rooms is now finally coming together. For years, major tech companies have been obsessed with getting their software and applications onto television screens and have mostly employed a series of set-top boxes that have done little to spark consumer interest. But unlike Apple and Google, Microsoft has always had a secret weapon that it’s been waiting to deploy to make sure that its software becomes entrenched on users’ television sets: Namely, the Xbox. For years now the Xbox has been the MVP of Microsoft’s consumer electronics division. While the company has badly lagged behind in both the smartphone and tablet realms, it has stayed strong in the gaming

    • Boyfriend espaces out window as husband confronts cheating wife [VIDEO]

      As part of perhaps the most spectacular walk-of-shame ever, an underwear-clad lover escaped from a third floor bedroom as the returning husband confronted his cheating wife on a balcony.

    • Dog found, on live TV, in tornado rubble

      Amid the devastation of Moore, Okla., TV viewers of a CBS affiliate were able to witness a woman's prayers answered.

    • BREAKING: Subway Just as Unhealthy as McDonald’s!

      If you watched the London Olympics last summer, you saw a parade of top athletes touting the nutritional qualities of their favorite eatery: Subway. Watching Apolo Ohno or Robert Griffin III bite into a veggie footlong with avocado or hearing that Subway is “the official training restaurant of athletes everywhere,” you might get the idea that the food served at the chain isn’t that bad for you—that it’s even healthy.

    • Kids rescued from rubble at Okla. elementary

      MOORE, Okla. (AP) — Several children have been pulled out of the rubble alive at a school in an Oklahoma City suburb.

    Loading...

    Follow Yahoo! News