Bill Clinton to Spend Another Night in Hospital

Hillary Clinton leaves after it was announced that former US President Bill Clinton was admitted to the University of California Irvine Medical Center in Orange, California, US October 14, 2021. REUTERS/David Swanson
Hillary Clinton leaves after it was announced that former US President Bill Clinton was admitted to the University of California Irvine Medical Center in Orange, California, US October 14, 2021. REUTERS/David Swanson
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Bill Clinton to Spend Another Night in Hospital

Hillary Clinton leaves after it was announced that former US President Bill Clinton was admitted to the University of California Irvine Medical Center in Orange, California, US October 14, 2021. REUTERS/David Swanson
Hillary Clinton leaves after it was announced that former US President Bill Clinton was admitted to the University of California Irvine Medical Center in Orange, California, US October 14, 2021. REUTERS/David Swanson

Former US president Bill Clinton’s health is improving but will spend another night in hospital, a spokesman said Friday, as he undergoes treatment for a reported case of sepsis.

"All health indicators are trending in the right direction, including his white blood count which has decreased significantly. In order to receive further IV antibiotics he will remain in hospital overnight," said Clinton spokesman Angel Urena.

Clinton, who led the United States from 1993 to 2001, was admitted Tuesday evening to the UCI Medical Center in Irvine, south of Los Angeles.

Urena said that Clinton, 75, was responding well to treatment for a non-Covid-related blood infection.

The New York Times, quoting an aide, said the former president had been hospitalized after a urological infection developed into sepsis.

Sepsis is an extreme bodily reaction to infection that affects 1.7 million people in America every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It kills 270,000 of those infected every year.

"Infections that lead to sepsis most often start in the lung, urinary tract, skin, or gastrointestinal tract," the CDC says on its website.

"Without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death."

Photographs in US media showed his wife, former secretary of state and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, visiting the hospital.

President Joe Biden said he had spoken to Clinton.

"He is getting out shortly. ... Whether that's tomorrow or the next day, I don't know," Biden told reporters in Connecticut.

"He seems to be, God willing, doing well," Biden said.

At the hospital on Friday there was a small visible police presence, and a large group of reporters.



Türkiye's Opposition to Name Presidential Candidate in Coming Months

A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Türkiye September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Türkiye September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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Türkiye's Opposition to Name Presidential Candidate in Coming Months

A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Türkiye September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Türkiye September 30, 2020. (Reuters)

Türkiye's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) will name its presidential candidate for the next election in coming months, its leader said on Tuesday in what he called a move to counter a judicial crackdown on his party.

The next presidential and parliamentary elections are not scheduled until 2028, but the opposition has repeatedly called for an early vote after recent detentions and investigations into CHP-run municipalities.

"Today, ... by completing all the preparations ... in February, March and April, we are starting today to say that we are ready to (counter) this evil," Ozgur Ozel said in an address to CHP parliamentarians, alluding to the investigations.

Some 1.6 million CHP members will choose the party's presidential candidate in an internal vote, he added, Reuters reported.

On Monday, an Istanbul prosecutor launched another judicial investigation into the city's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a CHP member, for allegedly trying to influence the judiciary after he criticised legal inquiries into opposition-run municipalities.

Imamoglu, seen as a likely future presidential challenger to Tayyip Erdogan, accused Erdogan's government of using the judiciary as a political tool to pressure the opposition.

Ozel said the investigations into Imamoglu showed how Erdogan's AK Party was afraid of him.

The government denies accusations of political interference in the cases and says the judiciary is independent.

Erdogan, re-elected last year, is serving his last term as president permitted by the constitution, unless parliament calls an early election. He has ruled Türkiye for more than 21 years, first as prime minister and then as president.

An early election needs the support of 360 MPs in the 600-seat parliament. AKP and its allies command 321 seats.

The AKP spokesperson recently said that a formula for a new term for Erdogan was "on the party's agenda," hinting at a move to enact a constitutional amendment to make that possible.

A constitutional amendment could also be put to a referendum if 360 lawmakers endorsed it.