Holbrooke ill

US president Barack Obama said yesterday he was praying for critically-ill diplomat Richard Holbrooke, calling him “a towering figure in American foreign policy”.

Mr Holbrooke, 69, the president’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is in a critical condition after undergoing surgery on a torn aorta.

The veteran diplomat was meeting secretary of state Hillary Clinton at the US State Department on Friday when he collapsed and was rushed to George Washington University Hospital. Mrs Clinton joined his family and other senior administration officials at the hospital.