international briefs

Washington

(MCT) Washington – President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq Monday in… Washington

(MCT) Washington – President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq Monday in the White House’s latest effort to bolster support for continuing the “surge” of additional U.S. troops in Iraq as the debate over the war there enters a critical phase on Capitol Hill.

Bush left Washington Sunday under the cloak of darkness and the guise that he was preparing to depart for an economic conference in Australia, and flew to Al-Asad Air Base, a sprawling, heavily fortified American facility in Iraq’s mostly Sunni Muslim Anbar province.

There, he met with Iraqi tribal leaders, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki; Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and with Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and he addressed troops in the western Iraqi province.

“Here in Anbar and across Iraq, al-Qaida and other enemies of freedom will continue to try to kill the innocent in order to impose their dark ideology,” Bush said. “But General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker tell me if the kind of success we are seeing now continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces.”

The president didn’t say how many troops could be withdrawn from Iraq or when. The first of the roughly 28,000 additional troops that Bush sent to Iraq earlier this year are due to come home next spring. Administration officials said any talk of a troop drawdown would become moot if security erodes in Iraq.

Bush, however, delivered an upbeat assessment of the situation Monday, telling the reporters who made the trip with him: “When you stand on the ground here in Anbar and hear from the people who live here, you can see what the future of Iraq can look like.” – William Douglas, McClatchy Newspapers

Beijing

(MCT) Beijing – Eight-year-old Zhang Huimin reportedly spent nearly two months running the equivalent of a marathon and a half each day – 2,200 miles in total- from southern China to Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital of Beijing. She wore out 20 pairs of shoes.

Spurred on by her father, the 46-pound runner says she hopes one day to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games, the earliest ones she’ll qualify for because of her age.

Huimin arrived in the square at 5 a.m. last Tuesday wearing red shorts, an orange singlet and pink shoes. Pinned to her chest was a sign that read: “Strong body, defy limitations, honor for the nation, Olympic spirit.”

But her reported feat has generated equal doses of admiration and outrage. Some say she symbolizes the fortitude and grit that Chinese athletes need to garner a basket of medals at next summer’s Beijing Olympic Games.

Others say that her father, who failed in his own dreams of becoming a star athlete, has been abusive to Little Zhang, as she’s known, egging her on out of ambition and a desire to harness her fame for profit. They say he may be ruining her slight body.

Zhang Jianmin, 54, dismissed the criticism, saying his daughter was in good spirits and that her health hadn’t suffered on the marathon odyssey. – Tim Johnson, McClatchy Newspapers