Hillary Clinton's Trip Extended **Updated with More Bits and Pieces**

It appears that Mme. Secretary's current trip will be extended into next weekend.  The original itinerary posted by DOS had her departing  South Africa for home on Friday August 10.  Last night I shared an article from a Liberian  source stating that HRC and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf would, on August 10, be in Ghana for the funeral of the late President John Atta Mills.



Now Voice of America is announcing that next Saturday,  Mme. Secretary will be in Istanbul over issues related to Syria.

Clinton to Turkey
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to visit Turkey next Saturday to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Malawi, Clinton's latest stop on her African tour, that the U.S. top diplomat is going to Istanbul "for bilateral consultations with the Turkish government on Syria, as well as to cover other timely issues."
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Will she ever get off that plane and have some summer vacation time?

EDITED TO ADD THIS:  In three-and-a-half years of  following Mme. Secretary's travels on this blog I have never encountered the level of intrigue and rumor engendered by this Africa trip.  Now there is this.

Hilary Clinton visits Nigeria on August 9

Sunday, 05 August 2012 12:38 Agency Reports

President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati has confirmed that the American Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, will be visiting  to Nigeria on Thursday.
Abati who urged Nigerians to disregard the rumour that Mrs. Clinton had excluded Nigeria from the list of African countries she was billed to visit, said the American Secretary of State is expected to meet President Jonathan.
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Well, yes, Nigeria was among the countries she was expected to visit, but was not on the itinerary released by DOS on July 30, and that itinerary has not been  updated officially.  The Turkish leg of the trip is reliably sourced by VOA, but this source is unverified.  Nothing from DOS or any other U.S. government source confirms this nor do we have any official announcement as to exactly why Nigeria was excluded in the first place - rumors swirl around that issue as well.  After a false report last night put her erroneously on the ground in South Africa, this also raises some skepticism.  Why, if she were going to visit Nigeria, would she not have stopped there on the east African leg of her trip?  Why double back?  (Unless President Jonathan indeed was himself on a trip when she was in the region last week.) 

It is highly unlikely that there will be another Africa trip in these  waning days of Mme. Secretary's tenure at State.  Apparently every African head of state would like to be able to host her before she steps down.