BEIJING
China opens national legislative session; forecasts record budget deficit
Associated Press
In an annual ritual of political pageantry, Premier Zhu Rongji launched China's legislative session yesterday, urging lawmakers to unite in facing internal and external threats to stability.
This year's 11-day legislative session comes at a time of transition, as Zhu and other top leaders in their 70s prepare to yield power to a younger generation of leadership.
"We are facing new difficulties and severe challenges," Zhu told the nearly 5,000 delegates, a human sea of business suits, olive military uniforms and ethnic costumes gathered in the cavernous Great Hall of the People. He cited the global economic slowdown and fierce international competition for markets as threats to economic and social stability.
With once-closed markets opening to foreign competition as China adapts to its three-month old membership in the World Trade Organization, nurturing job-creating economic growth headed Zhu's list of priorities.
He said China's accession to the WTO will help it develop economically. "But in the short term, less competitive industries and enterprises face significant challenges."
The National People's Congress is a largely powerless body that usually approves unchanged ruling Communist Party decisions. Decisions on the leadership lineup will come in closed-door conclaves in the summer and autumn, and Zhu and party leader and President Jiang Zemin are expected to retire from their current posts next March.
Meanwhile, delegates gathered to hear reports on the budget, the work of the courts and prosecutors and to learn about policies they will be backing.
Yesterday, Zhu made it clear that with trade slowing, farm incomes stagnating and unemployment rising, the government will continue to spend heavily on public building projects, farm subsidies and support to workers laid off in the restructuring of state industry - seeking to economic growth at a robust 7 percent.
A $170 billion budget report to be presented to lawmakers today by Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng calls for a record deficit. In the 13th straight year of double-digit increases, spending on the 2.5 million member People's Liberation Army will grow 17.6 percent to $20 billion, according to a copy of the report seen in advance by The Associated Press.
NEW YORK
Koppel criticizes those who question the relevance of 'Nightline'
Associated Press
With the future of "Nightline" threatened, host Ted Koppel fought back yesterday by saying it was malicious for an unidentified ABC executive to refer to the show as irrelevant.
Another veteran ABC News star, Barbara Walters, came to Koppel's defense.
Until penning an op-ed piece that ran in yesterday's edition of The New York Times, Koppel hadn't commented publicly on reports that ABC and its corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co., were courting David Letterman to replace "Nightline."
Letterman is trying to decide whether to jump to ABC or remain at CBS, where his show is a close third in the late-night ratings after "Nightline" (Jay Leno's "Tonight" show is first), but is considered more desirable than "Nightline" because it has a younger audience.
Koppel said it was understandable that in difficult economic times, Disney would consider replacing "Nightline" with Letterman's more profitable "Late Show."
But he complained about an anonymous executive who was quoted in the Times as referring to "Nightline" as irrelevant.
In the midst of the war on terrorism, when "the regular and thoughtful analysis of national and foreign policy is more essential than ever - it is, at best, inappropriate and, at worst, malicious to describe what my colleagues and I are doing as lacking relevance," Koppel wrote.
He said "Nightline" "ought to have a place in television's expanding universe, and I am confident that it will. I continue to hope that it will be at ABC, but that decision is beyond our control."
Walters, speaking on "The View" yesterday, said that apparently Koppel "was one of the last to know and I don't think that was right." Koppel reportedly learned about the Letterman discussions Thursday night, hours before news broke in The New York Times.
Walters drew a parallel to her own tiff with ABC entertainment executives who last spring decided to move her "20/20" newsmagazine from Friday night, where it had aired for 25 years.
To not be told about such decisions ahead of time, to not be asked for an opinion, "to be treated as dispensible and irrelevant is thoughtless and hurtful," she said.
"I have been here for 20 years, Ted for 39 years," Walters said. "We have seen ABC sold to two different owners. We have seen entertainment programs come and go. News used to be considered a public trust. It was, and perhaps still is, what gives the network its dignity and integrity. It deserves respect, and so do we."
Meanwhile, ABC News denied a USA Today report yesterday that George Stephanopoulos and Claire Shipman had been chosen to replace Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts as hosts of "This Week," the Sunday morning public affairs talk show.
The show has been faltering in the ratings behind NBC's "Meet the Press."
PHOENIX
Maricopa County deputy hurt following pursuit
Associated Press
A Maricopa County sheriff's deputy was struck by a car yesterday following a pursuit. Three people were subsequently taken into custody for investigation, authorities said.
Deputy John Anderson was hospitalized in critical condition with a broken pelvis and other injuries, said sheriff's Sgt. Bill Knight. The deputy had been sedated to the point of paralysis so he wouldn't move and cause further damage.
"It's going to be a very long and arduous recovery from this injury," Knight said.
The chase began after Anderson tried to stop a speeding motorist, who refused to pull over, said Knight.
Anderson chased the car into a dead-end, where the deputy got out of his patrol car. That's when the vehicle he was following turned around and sped toward him, Knight said.
Anderson shot at the car, but was still hit.
Knight said Jeffery D. Schwertfager, Danny Bowes and Shannon Venditto were taken into custody at an apartment in northwest Phoenix and were being interviewed.
