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Changes in China: Koppel investigates

NEW YORK (AP) — The image of Ted Koppel interviewing world leaders is so ingrained that it feels odd to see him wearing a hardhat for a nervous trip into a Chinese coal mine, or sitting in a Chongqing karaoke bar where teenage girls are hired to entertain male customers.

Good thing he did, since the field work is what makes his four-part Discovery Channel series, The People’s Republic of Capitalism, so valuable. It premieres 10 p.m. Wednesday, with three other installments at the same time on successive nights.

The series illustrates how dramatically China has changed in ways obvious and not-so-obvious, from the jumble of new skyscrapers in a city that barely existed two decades ago, to the drag bars that operate despite official disapproval.

The opening images drive home the point that the U.S. and China’s economic interests are intertwined. A woman laid off at a Briggs Stratton plant in Missouri, wondering if she has the skills to find new work, contrasts with the company’s thriving plant in China. Discovery traces an Ethan Allen sofa from its assemblage in China, the upholstery done in the U.S. to its purchase by a rich couple in China.

You may not think you care much about what is happening in China, Koppel told The Associated Press. Let me tell you, what happens over there is going to make quite a difference with what is going to happen over here.

What is happening in the auto industry shows the complexity. China is adding 25,000 new vehicles a day, many to first-time buyers, and the country is embarked on a road-building binge similar to what happened in the United States during the Eisenhower administration.

More Buicks were sold in China last year than in the U.S., and Ford increased its sales in China last year by 30 percent, the Discovery series says. Liberty Mutual insurance is setting down roots in a society where accident payoffs are often done in cash, on the spot. Now some Chinese automakers are looking to export their cars to the U.S.

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UAE to cancel all of Iraq’s $7B debt

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — Dubai has forgiven the nearly $7 billion Baghdad owes it, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced Sunday.

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan promised to put out these debts, appoint an ambassador to Baghdad, and help Iraq building the holy shrines that were targeted by the terrorists, al-Maliki said in a written statement.

Al-Maliki and the sheikh met Sunday, the first day of a two-day official visit. Al-Maliki was accompanied by the Iraqi ministers of Interior, Commerce and Industry.

Our biggest challenge is now the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the economic situation and to provide services to our citizens, al-Maliki said.

Debt relief is a major issue for Iraq, and the United States has urged other nations to forgive Iraqi debt, most of which is held by Arab states, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said in late May.

Also, the UAE Cabinet on Sunday nominated Abdullah Ibrahim al-Shehhi to be the country’s ambassador to Iraq.

Al-Shehhi, who previously served as the emirates’ ambassador to India, is to travel to Iraq after his nomination is confirmed. An official government source said the UAE intends to reopen its embassy in Baghdad by the end of the year.

The United States and other nations have urged Arab countries to post ambassadors to Iraq, reopen embassies and forge closer relationships with Iraq’s government.

The UAE mission in Iraq hasn’t been active since a UAE diplomat was kidnapped and released two years ago. The year before that, two Iraqis working for that mission were killed.

No ambassador from an Arab country has been stationed permanently in Iraq since July 2005, when Egypt’s ambassador, Dr. Ihab al-Sherif, was abducted from a Baghdad street and slain.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the assassination, saying it had killed al-Sherif — praise be to God — because of Egypt’s foreign policies and its alliances with the United States and Israel.

The UAE’s announcement Sunday came a month after its foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, visited Baghdad. During that visit, al-Nahyan extended the official invitation that brought al-Maliki to Dubai.

Iraq’s government said that al-Nahyan’s one-day visit was the first to Iraq by a Gulf Cooperation Council foreign minister since the 2003 U.S-led invasion that toppled the regime of President Saddam Hussein. The Gulf Cooperation Council also includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Prior to al-Nahyan’s visit, only Syria and Jordan had sent foreign ministers to Iraq in the post-Saddam era. The Arab League’s secretary-general has also visited.

War-time violence and the Sunni-Shiite rivalry in Iraq and the Muslim world have slowed the Arab world’s re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Iraq.

Iraq’s mixed population is mostly Arab with some Kurds and Turkmens, and mostly Shiite Muslim, with a Sunni Muslim minority. Most Arab countries — including the UAE — are Sunni-ruled.

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Bush: Olympic boycott would insult Chinese

TOYAKO, Japan (CNN) — President Bush on Sunday defended his decision to attend next month’s Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, saying that to boycott would be an affront to the Chinese people.

Speaking to reporters ahead of this week’s summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Japan, Bush said he did not need to skip the ceremony to show his position on religious freedom and human rights in China.

He said if he failed to attend the Games it would make it more difficult to be able to speak more frankly with the Chinese leadership.

Bush said he would raise concerns when he meets Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Olympics, but he was also looking forward to cheering the U.S. athletes. He said it was good for them to see their president waving that flag.

Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda also said he would attend the opening ceremony despite concerns about human rights in China that prompted some other European leaders to boycott the event.

Bush and Fukuda took questions from reporters at the picturesque lakeside resort of Toyako on the northern island of Hokkaido, where the G-8 summit will begin Monday. Watch Bush, first lady arrive in Japan

Bush said he and Fukuda discussed the United States’ recent decision to lift some sanctions against North Korea and remove the communist nation from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terror.

Bush assured Japan that the issue of North Korea’s past kidnappings of Japanese citizens will not be ignored by the United States. He told Fukuda that he was fully aware of the sensitivity of the issue in your country and that the United States will not abandon you on this issue.

North Korea has admitted to abducting 11 Japanese citizens — to teach its spies Japanese language and culture — but had insisted the abduction issue was resolved.

Holding a book about a young Japanese girl abducted by North Korea, Bush said as the father of two girls he can’t imagine what it would be like to have a daughter disappear.

Bush said North Korea’s recent destruction of a water-cooling tower at its now-defunct nuclear facility and its declaration outlining its plutonium program are positive steps, but there are more to be taken.

Lifting sanctions would not weaken the pressure on North Korea to be forthcoming on the abduction issue or in nuclear negotiations, the U.S. president said.

Bush said North Korea remains the most sanctioned nation in the world and that delisting did not get rid of their sanctions.

Fukuda, who is chairing the G-8 meetings, said global warming would be high on the agenda but that he could not predict what might result from this week’s talks.

Fukuda said he believes the United States has not lost its sense of direction on the issue.

Our views are gradually converging, he said.

Bush said the United States will be constructive in the global warming talks but if China and India do not share that same aspiration, we’re not going to solve the problem.

Bush said the United States and Japan leads the world in research on clean technologies. He said Japan’s advances in battery technology will some day mean that Americans will use batteries in cars that look like cars, not golf carts.

As world leaders began arriving for the summit, more than 1,000 people protested in northern Japan against the event. Demonstrators urged leaders to take urgent measures to stop global warming, grant indigenous people greater rights, combat world poverty and battle discrimination. Watch police tangle with protesters

Soaring oil and food prices and possible steps against Zimbabwe were also likely to be high on the agenda at the summit.

With fewer than 200 days left in his term, Bush says he will press other G-8 leaders to follow through on their commitments from earlier summits, but has warned there is nothing he or anyone else can do in the short term about oil prices.

Bush’s main economic goal at the summit may be defensive, said David Gergen, former adviser to presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

What’s essential in this summit for George W. Bush is to make sure the world economy does not spin downward, he said.

Bush has downplayed what he and other G-8 leaders can accomplish on the economic front. One thing we need to make clear when I’m with our partners is that we’re not going to become protectionists, that we believe in free trade and open markets, Bush said Wednesday.

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Steady Pernice seizes AT&T lead

BETHESDA, Maryland (AP) — Tom Pernice Jr. kept it steady and simple Saturday for a 1-under 69 Saturday in the ATT National that gave him a one-shot lead and a chance to win for the first time in seven years.

Pernice seized the lead, but not control, with a 7-iron that stopped just inside 3 feet at the 17th for only his second birdie on a steamy, calm afternoon that yielded plenty of low scores.

He was at 10-under 200 and was one shot ahead of Steve Stricker, the runner-up a year ago, who had a 66.

Pernice missed only three greens, but he didn’t take advantage of plenty of good birdie opportunities. The longest putt he made all day was from 7 feet at No. 8, one of his two birdies.

I gave myself chances, he said. And going forward, that’s what you need to do.

Stricker was among four players who had at least a share of the lead throughout the third round, but he hit a 7-iron over the 17th green and caught the lip with a 12-foot par putt from the fringe.

Overall, it’s two good, solid rounds that got me into a position with a chance for tomorrow, Stricker said.

They are not alone, with 10 players separated by four shots.

Jeff Overton, tied with Pernice to start the third round, was fortunate to still have a chance. His struggles began with a tee shot into the bunker on the par-3 10th hole to take bogey, then seemingly fell apart with consecutive double bogeys that left him four shots behind.

Overton rallied with birdies on his next two holes and salvaged at 71, leaving him at 8-under 202 with Tommy Armour III (66) and Nick O’Hern (67), the left-handed Aussie best known for twice beating Tiger Woods in match play.

The wildest day belonged to 23-year-old Anthony Kim.

Kim went six holes without a par in the middle of his round — three bogeys, three birdies — before a birdie on the 18th hole for a 69.

He was at 203, along with Tim Herron (65) and Cliff Kresge (69).

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