Clinton: US must stick by Arab world's democracies

WASHINGTON (AP) Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the United States must continue sending diplomats and aid workers to the Arab world's emerging democracies, despite last month's deadly attack in Libya.

Speaking to a Washington think tank, Clinton says the U.S. cannot retreat from dangerous countries and that Americans remain leaders in "hard places where America's interests and values are at stake."

She called support for the Muslim world's democratic transitions a "strategic necessity."

Clinton's address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies comes as Republicans are criticizing the Obama administration for the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.