News Brief

Signs U.S.-China military exchanges may resume

Senior U.S. officials concluded a three-day visit to Beijing on Wednesday with both sides declaring that the talks have helped to steady the recently rocky U.S.-China relationship.

Among the most tangible outcomes of this week's talks are signs that exchanges between the two countries' militaries may resume soon. China suspended most military exchanges at the beginning of this year after the United States sold arms to Taiwan.

Both sides issued statements Wednesday that indicate a thaw in the silence leading up to President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington at the beginning of next year.

Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, met with deputy national security adviser Thomas Donilon on Wednesday and said that China values its military relations with the United States and that he hopes to keep dialogue open and improve exchanges with the U.S. military.

Quoting an unidentified Chinese diplomat, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said that officials on both sides have finalized an agreement to work toward restoring military exchanges ahead of Hu's planned visit to Washington in January.

The two countries' ties have been strained by differences on several fronts, including trade surplus and currency valuations, U.S.-South Korea military exercises near the coast of China and President Barack Obama's meeting earlier in the year with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Afghan police beat back mob of workers at bank

Fears over the future of ailing Kabul Bank grew violent Wednesday as state police beat back crowds of frustrated Afghan government workers attempting to withdraw their salaries on the final day before a four-day national holiday.

More than 500 government employees, including local police officers, Afghan National Army soldiers and teachers, mobbed the sole Kabul Bank branch that remained open, only to be kept at bay by armed police from the country's National Directorate of Security. The crowds pressed in so closely that the NDS police started punching and shoving people to keep them back.

The standoff was the latest setback for attempts by President Hamid Karzai's administration to control public fears about the future of Kabul Bank, whose top two executives were forced to resign last week after the discovery of a series of risky off-the-books loans and property investments in Dubai.

Since then, panicked Afghans have removed well more than half of the bank's $500 million in liquid cash, despite assurances from the Karzai administration and Afghanistan's Central Bank that Kabul Bank is solvent and not in need of a government bailout.

Most Americans object to planned Islamic Center near Ground Zero, poll finds

Most Americans say the planned Muslim community center and place of worship should not be built in Lower Manhattan, with the sensitive locale being their overwhelming objection, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Two-thirds of those polled object to the prospective Cordoba House complex near the site of the former twin towers, including a slim majority who express strongly negative views. Eighty-two percent of those who oppose the construction say it's because of the location, although 14 percent (9 percent of all Americans) say they would oppose such building anywhere in the country.

The new results come alongside increasingly critical public views of Islam: 49 percent of all Americans say they have generally unfavorable opinions of Islam, compared with 37 percent who say they have favorable ones. That's the most negative split on the question in Post-ABC polls dating to October 2001.

Nearly a third of all Americans see mainstream Islam as encouraging violence, little changed from recent years. More, a slim majority, say it's a peaceful religion.