RUMSFELD WILL MAKE HIS FIRST CHINA VISIT

Rumsfeld will makehis first China visit
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is hoping China will reveal more about a massive military that the Bush administration sees as a potential near-term threat to U.S. interests in Asia and a possible global rival in the future. Rumsfeld departs Monday on his first trip to China as defense secretary, marking a new opening to the country. China's military, with about 2.5 million people under arms, is the largest in the world, and Rumsfeld wants Beijing to detail more about the scope of its budget and the intentions of its leaders. As a nod to the Americans, China agreed to allow Rumsfeld to visit 2nd Artillery Corps headquarters at Qinghe, which runs its strategic missile forces. Rumsfeld would be the first U.S. official to see the complex, according to Pentagon officials speaking on condition of anonymity who briefed reporters on the trip.
Rice fails to win Russia support
MOSCOW -- Condoleezza Rice could not win new support from Russia for hauling Iran before the U.N. Security Council, but the U.S. secretary of state said Saturday that option remains open "at a time of our choosing." Washington and its European allies are waiting to see if a defiant Iran will return to diplomatic talks over its disputed nuclear program. If not, they say they will invoke the threat of economic penalties or other punishment from the Security Council. After hastily arranged and unexpectedly lengthy meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Rice said Moscow is trying to push its ally Iran back to the bargaining table. But there was no sign that Russia was prepared to back an effort to have the International Atomic Energy Agency refer Iran's case to the Security Council. Even so, Rice tried putting the best face on Russia's preference to keep negotiating.
Pope tells childrenof his First Communion
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI offered a rare glimpse into his past Saturday and gave a small lesson in Catholicism to children who attended his first youth rally at St. Peter's Square -- an event that was reminiscent of the gatherings inspired by Pope John Paul II. Benedict recalled the sunny, "beautiful Sunday" in 1939 that he made his First Communion at the age of 9, telling an estimated 150,000 children and their parents he had begun a "lifelong friendship with Jesus" that he hoped the children would also enjoy. "So I went forward in my life, and thanks to God, the Lord has always taken me by the hand, guided me even in difficult situations," Benedict said. Benedict was responding to a question about his own First Communion posed to him by a little girl who had received the sacrament for the first time this year. Communion is the sacrament in which Catholics receive bread and wine that they believe is the body and blood of Christ.
Tanker car derails,explodes; one killed
TEXARKANA, Ark. -- A tanker car transporting flammable gas derailed in a switchyard and exploded in a ball of fire Saturday, killing one person and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes. A plume of smoke covered the south end of the city, and at least seven people went to hospital emergency rooms with complaints of respiratory problems. At least two homes were destroyed -- including one where the victim died -- and several vehicles were totaled in the quarter-mile area surrounding the accident, police spokesman Chris Rankin said. A 209-foot-long railroad bridge also caught fire and was destroyed, a Union Pacific spokesman said. The propylene tank was still burning Saturday evening, but the fire was under control and the smoke had thinned out, Rankin said. Union Pacific officials planned to let the tank burn out and estimated it would take until early today. Police canceled the evacuation order Saturday afternoon, about 10 hours after the derailment.
Candidate defends self
WARSAW, Poland -- The front-runner in Poland's presidential race sought Saturday to defend himself against charges that he lied about his grandfather's service in Nazi Germany's army, arguing that raising allegations about a relative's past was a dirty political trick. Donald Tusk, a pro-business lawmaker, told supporters at a rally in southern Poland that it was "despicable" that the months his grandfather spent in a reserve unit in the German army should become a campaign issue. "Poland does not need rulers who would divide Poles into the good and the bad depending on the ... ideology or the past of their grandfathers," he said. Earlier this week, Tusk dismissed a claim by an aide of his conservative election rival, Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, that Tusk's grandfather might have volunteered for the German army.
Associated Press
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