USA, Russia, China

New York TIMES President Obama defended his restrained response to hacking before the election but says he warned Russia, "We can do stuff to you" Friday, December 16, 2016 4:08 PM EST President Obama said on Friday that he refrained from taking aggressive public action in retaliation for Russian hacking of Democratic Party institutions before the presidential election because he was concerned that such moves might be interpreted as unfair meddling in the campaign.In a news conference before leaving for a two-week vacation in Hawaii, Mr. Obama said that he told President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in September to “cut it out,” but that the United States government did not retaliate in a public way before the Nov. 8 election. The Pentagon has demanded that China return an underwater drone seized by its warship in open waters in the South China Sea Friday, December 16, 2016 1:12 PM EST The Pentagon said on Friday it had issued a formal protest to Beijing demanding the return of an underwater drone seized by a Chinese warship in the South China Sea, an incident that risked increasing tensions in a region already fraught with great-power rivalries.