New Friction and Vast Agenda Await Obama on China Trip

BEIJING:  When President Barack Obama arrives in Shanghai for a four-day China visit, he will be accorded all the normal pomp and circumstance: He'll mingle with top leaders and ordinary people, local media will be filled with stories, and speeches will be rife with words like "vision" and "partnership."

But the greeting won't be as warm as those he has received in other parts of the world, where he frequently has been seen as a transformative figure.

That is because Mr. Obama -- who arrives Nov. 15 during an eight-day tour of the region -- will be largely continuing previous administrations' policies on China. He will also face new friction over long-term problems, and he and his hosts will have to contend with a range of global issues that have overtaken the summit agenda.

Mr. Obama follows an administration that is widely credited with success here. The Bush team -- building on progress made during the Clinton administration -- deepened trade, expanded exchanges and resolved conflicts peacefully. "Little Bush," as the Chinese call the 43rd U.S. president, was widely liked.

 "China was about the only thing [the Bush administration] did in international affairs that was a true success story," says David Shambaugh, a professor of international relations at George Washington University. "So Obama comes in and he inherits a very solid working relationship."

Since taking office, however, the Obama administration has limited some Chinese imports to the U.S., leading to what appears to be tit-for-tat responses from Beijing. China is especially sensitive to trade spats because it relies on exports for much of its economic growth.

That has dented Mr. Obama's popularity here, as has the view that Mr. Obama has failed to do enough to overhaul the U.S. financial system -- a concern for China because it is the largest holder of U.S. government debt.

A decade ago, most issues discussed at China-U.S. summits were limited to three issues: human rights, nuclear nonproliferation and trade. Now, the list of topics has grown to include almost every problem facing the world, from clean energy and the war in Afghanistan to African development and fixing the world economy -- all of which are expected to have a place in talks between Mr. Obama and his Chinese counterpart, President Hu Jintao.

"For the first time in the history of our relationship, global issues are at the top of the agenda," says Kenneth Lieberthal, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington who was a special assistant on Asian affairs to former President Bill Clinton. "This is new territory for us."

It is a change that analysts on both sides see as potentially problematic. Chinese officials and analysts note that the U.S. still has an arms and high-tech embargo on China -- hardly something one does with a true partner, they say. "Obama wants us to become strategic partners or friends but we aren't either of those," says Yan Xuetong, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University. "We are business partners who share material interests rather than common values."

Mr. Shambaugh of George Washington University says the recent push to make China a global partner may be part of a 30-year pattern of unrealistic expectations followed by disappointment. "We are hoping for too much out of China," Mr. Shambaugh says. "We have very different political systems and value systems."

That is reflected in the fact that although relations are arguably better than ever, most of the issues on the table are also as intractable as ever.

The U.S., for example, is likely to at least hint that China should revalue upward its currency, the yuan. China is likely to politely decline. Both sides will agree that nuclear weapons shouldn't spread, but are unlikely to agree on concrete measures to deal with North Korea, Iran or Pakistan. And as for a climate deal, both will want to wait for next month's summit in Copenhagen before committing to anything.

All of this will make Mr. Obama's trip less than epochal. Shi Yinhong, a professor at People's University in Beijing and longtime observer of U.S.-China ties, adds another factor is at work too: size. China, like the U.S., is a continent-sized country that is relatively insular.

"China is different," Mr. Shi says. "Foreigners rarely make a big impact here."

7 Afghan security forces killed in NATO air strike

KABUL: Seven members of the Afghan security forces were killed in a NATO air strike that also injured international forces in remote western Afghanistan, the Afghan defence ministry said on Saturday.

The Afghan statement comes as NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was investigating an incident in Badghis province Friday in which more than 25 international and Afghan forces were wounded.

Five of the 25 wounded were US soldiers injured in what a Western military official, speaking anonymously, said was friendly fire.

However, ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician, of the US Air Force, told a foreign news agency: "We have nothing to confirm friendly fire."

"No ISAF members were killed," he said, confirming only that five ISAF soldiers injured in the Badghis incident were Americans.

Investigations into the incident were ongoing and no further details were available, Vician said.

Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said that the seven Afghan soldiers were killed in the same incident, in Badghis's Bala Murghab district, in which the Americans were injured.

"It was erroneous air strike which caused casualties to friendly forces," he said.

"We can confirm that four Afghan army soldiers and three police were martyred," he said.

An earlier statement from the ministry said: "The commando brigade informs us that foreign forces also sustained some casualties."

The incident is believed to have taken place during a clash involving ISAF and Afghan soldiers searching for two paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division who went missing Wednesday during a routine supply mission.

Local police said a party looking for the two missing soldiers clashed with Taliban and that alliance aircraft were called in to provide support.

The defence ministry made no reference to a clash between the joint forces and Taliban militants.

Police said the casualties occurred when the air strike mistakenly targeted international troops.

Chinese PM reaches out to Muslims in Cairo

CAIRO:  Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao sought to reassure the world's Muslims about his country's goodwill towards them in Cairo on Saturday, at a time when Beijing is criticized for the treatment of its own Muslim minority.

"The relationship between Chinese civilization and Islamic civilization goes back years," Wen said in a speech delivered at the Cairo-based headquarters of the 22-member Arab League.

"China is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country. The basic policy of the Chinese government is to ensure equality among all ethnic groups and speed up the economic development of all regions," he said.

In July, violence erupted in China's Xinjiang region pitting mainly Muslim minority Uighurs against members of China's dominant Han group, leaving 197 dead and more than 1,600 injured, according to official figures.

Han vigilantes then went on a rampage against Uighurs two days later, but the exact number of casualties from that day has never been divulged.

Hundreds of people were detained as China vowed to come down hard on those found guilty, with President Hu Jintao and other top leaders saying those responsible must be "severely punished."

Babies are found to cry in their mother tongue

Just days after birth, German and French infants' wails mimicked the patterns of their native languages. Researchers believe they started to pick up on the melodies in the third trimester.

They may not be old enough to talk, but babies less than a week old know how to cry in their native language.

Researchers have known that infants have the ability to mimic speech starting around 12 weeks of age. Babies also show a preference for spoken language that mirrors the rhythm, melody and intensity patterns of their mother tongue.

But when they're too young to control their vocal cords or the muscles that shape the mouth to make specific sounds, how can babies demonstrate that they're tuned in to the chatter around them? Through their cries, suggests a team of European scientists.

The researchers recorded the cries uttered by 30 French and 30 German newborns when they were hungry, having their diapers changed or generally out of sorts. Though the babies were only 2 to 5 days old, they cried in distinct patterns.

The wails of the French babies started out low and rose to a higher pitch, whereas those of their German counterparts started out high and fell to a lower pitch. The German babies also cried with more intensity than the French babies, the researchers found. These patterns matched the intonation patterns of spoken French (in which the pitch tends to rise over the course of several words) and German (in which the opposite occurs).

The scientists said that fetuses start to pick up on the melody of ambient language during their third trimester in the womb. They can't hear all of the phonetic details of their mothers' speech, but they can perceive the overall patterns or phrases and sentences. Imitating those patterns probably helps newborns endear themselves to their mothers, the researchers theorized.

The findings, by scientists at the University of Wurzburg and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany and the Ecole Normale Superieure/National Center for Scientific Research in France, were published online in the journal Current Biology.

Terror at home

As the shootings in Ft. Hood, Texas, and Orlando show, violence is always with us.

In a 2005 speech at Ft. Bragg, N.C., President George W. Bush laid out his latest justification for the war in Iraq: "There is only one course of action against [terrorists]: to defeat them abroad before they attack us at home. The commander in charge of coalition operations in Iraq -- who is also senior commander at this base -- Gen. John Vines, put it well the other day. He said, 'We either deal with terrorism and this extremism abroad, or we deal with it when it comes to us.' "

But of course, fighting the enemy overseas doesn't mean we're not still fighting him here at home too. He struck Thursday in Ft. Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 30. With the nation still mourning those deaths, he hit us again Friday in Florida, shooting six in an Orlando office building.

Sometimes, the enemy we're fighting is a radical Muslim fundamentalist. The suspect in the Ft. Hood slayings may have been that kind of terrorist; he was certainly Muslim, and allegedly shouted "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," before opening fire. Sometimes he's a communist maniac, such as Lee Harvey Oswald. Or he's a government-loathing, right-wing conspiracy theorist, such as Timothy McVeigh.

Domestic terrorists tend to be loners, not organized militias like the ones we're fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Organized or not, terrorists think it's heroic to murder unarmed and unsuspecting people. They nurse bitter resentments in the dark against those who live in the light. They are driven by a kind of messianic zeal that, to them, justifies even the most heinous acts. They are so blinded by hatred that they will believe virtually anything about their enemies -- us -- no matter how farfetched. They are an unstable compound made up of ignorance and anger, often mixed with religion or political extremism. They could go off at any time.

Not all killers, of course, are terrorists. The suspect in the Orlando killings may have been a copycat emboldened by the previous day's blood bath, or he may have been just a disgruntled worker with a grudge and a gun. Terrorists use violence against ordinary people to further a cause. What they hold in common is self-righteousness -- an unshakable conviction that their actions are universally correct, even divinely sanctioned. They are always wrong.

Even if we "win" the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and at this point it's hard to picture what "victory" would look like -- it won't keep us safe from such people. The enemy may be weak, but he has always been with us and always will be.

The Los Angeles Times

2 dead in Orlando office attack

Police in the US city of Orlando say they have arrested a gunman who opened fire in an office building, killing 2 person and injuring 5 others.

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USA: Jason Rodriguez, a 40-year-old engineer who once worked in the building, surrendered to police at his mother's house, police chief Val Demings said.

The attack took place at the offices of an engineering firm at the Gateway Center building at 1130 (1630 GMT).

It comes one day after a gunman killed 13 people at an army base in Texas.

Workplace shooting

Officials said the five people who were wounded were in a stable condition in hospital.

They all worked for the engineering firm Reynolds Smith & Hill, which had fired Mr Rodriguez in June 2007 for performance issues, a company spokesman said.

Police first received a call that shots were being fired at the office building shortly before noon on Friday.

Local television broadcasts showed a police helicopter hovering over the scene, as dozens of police cars blocked off streets and Swat teams searched the area.

Panicked office workers rushed out of the building, although reports said some had barricaded themselves inside.

Ms Demings said police arrested Mr Rodriguez about three hours later after receiving reports that he was at his mother's home.

"This is a tragedy no doubt about it, especially on the heels of the tragedy in Fort Hood that is on our minds," Ms Demings said.

"I'm just glad we don't have any more fatalities or any more injuries than we currently have."