hChina protests Obama’s meeting with Dalai Lama

China protests Obama’s meeting with Dalai Lama

BEIJING — China is protesting President Barack Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama.

The meeting Thursday at the White House is another test of rocky ties between Beijing and Washington, strained in recent weeks by issues from Taiwan arms sales to cyber-spying allegations.

However, the language of the protest issued by the Foreign Ministry was relatively constrained, a reflection of the White House’s low-key treatment of the meeting with the exiled Tibetan leader and Beijing’s own desire to maintain healthy China-U.S. relations.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a Web site statement that China expressed “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the meeting.

Dems finishing efforts on health-care bills

WASHINGTON — The White House signaled Thursday that an aggressive, all-Democratic strategy for overhauling the nation’s health-care system remains a serious option, even as President Barack Obama invites Republicans to next week’s televised summit to seek possible compromises.

The administration’s stance could set the stage for a political showdown, with Democrats struggling to enact the president’s top domestic priority and Republicans trying to block what many conservatives see as government overreach.

A senior administration official said Democratic congressional leaders have nearly finished efforts to reconcile two health bills, which the House and Senate passed separately last year with practically no Republican help. Obama will use their legislation to expand coverage to some 30 million and require most Americans to carry insurance as the basis for a proposal that the White House will post online by Monday, three days before the Thursday summit, said the official.

UN nuclear agency worried Iran is working on warhead

VIENNA — The U.N. nuclear agency on Thursday said it was worried Iran may currently be working on making a nuclear warhead, suggesting for the first time that Tehran had either resumed such work or never stopped at the time U.S. intelligence thought it did.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency appeared to put the U.N. nuclear monitor on the side of Germany, France, Britain and Israel. These nations and other U.S. allies have disputed the conclusions of a U.S. intelligence assessment published three years ago that said Tehran appeared to have suspended such work in 2003.

The U.S. assessment itself may be revised and is being looked at again by American intelligence agencies. Though U.S. officials continue to say the 2007 conclusion was valid at the time, they have not ruled out the possibility that Tehran resumed such work some time after that.

Finchem letter: Woods to return to therapy

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods is to return to therapy after he speaks publicly for the first time about his infidelity, according to a letter from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem that was obtained by The Associated Press.

Finchem’s letter to the PGA Tour policy board and other officials explained why Woods chose today to make his first public comments, which are to be televised live by all the major networks.

Woods’ statement comes during the Match Play Championship, sponsored by Accenture, the first company to drop Woods as a pitchman.

“As we understand it, Tiger’s therapy called for a week’s break at this time during which he has spent a few days with his children and then will make his statement before returning,” Finchem said in a letter Thursday. “Accordingly, there was very little flexibility in the date for the announcement.”

Woods is to speak at 11 a.m. from the clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass, home of the PGA Tour.

Associated Press