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Obama, Chinese leaders meet

SHANGHAI, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, President Ho Jintao, met Monday in Beijing kicking off Obama's four-day visit with a state dinner.

Obama met with Hu and other Chinese leaders to raise topics such as climate change, trade, Iran and denuclearization of North Korea, Voice of America reported.

White House aides said Obama would bring up human rights issues in private discussions with Chinese leaders.

In addition to the bilateral discussions, Obama will visit two of China's most recognizable tourist sites -- the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, where Chinese emperors once lived.

Before traveling to Beijing, Obama spoke to a group of university students in Shanghai in a town hall event during which he stressed the importance of freedoms such as freedom of information, expression, worship and political participation.

"These freedoms ... we believe are universal rights," the U.S. president said. "They should be available to all people."

He also told the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum audience that, despite U.S.-China disagreements, the two countries are not "predestined" to be adversaries.

Obama said, "Our relationship has not been without disagreement and difficulty, but the notion that we must be adversaries is not predestined," CNN reported.

Obama, visiting China for the first time as president, noted every country must chart its own course and said the United States does not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation.

He described U.S.-China relations as "positive, constructive and comprehensive," adding this understanding opens the door to partnership on key global issues, including economic recovery, development of clean energy, stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and climate change, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

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Harkin promises weekends on healthcare

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- The chairman of the Senate committee overseeing healthcare reform said Monday the chamber would meet on weekends in December to pass a bill by Christmas.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also predicted during an interview on the " Bill Press Radio Show" that the Senate would have the 60 votes needed to call up the healthcare bill this week, The Hill reported.

However, he said senators wouldn't begin working on the legislation until after the Thanksgiving break.

"If the Republicans want to stay here this Saturday and Sunday to read the bill, then let them stay here," Harkin said, noting Democrats would seek "live quorum," where the sergeant at arms requests the presence of all absent senators. "We are planning to do something that would require Republicans to be there 24 hours a day, and if they leave the floor, we'll ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading, and that'll be the end of it."

The Iowa senator said Democrats expect to hold the first big test vote by Friday on a motion to consider the bill, the Washington publication said.

He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada was committed to working through every weekend in December to pass the bill before lawmakers break for the Christmas holiday.

"We're going to be going long days -- I've already talked to Leader Reid about this -- long nights, weekends," Harkin said, "constantly, from then until right before Christmas, when I think we'll have the votes, hopefully, to pass the bill."

Harkin indicated Senate Democrats expect the Congressional Budget Office to release its score of the healthcare reform bill by Tuesday.

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Obama decries rising U.S. hunger

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama expressed concern Monday about a report that hunger "rose significantly" in the United States last year.

The White House released a prepared statement from Obama, who was in Beijing meeting with Chinese leaders. Obama said in part, "I look forward to working with Congress to pass a strong child nutrition bill that will help children get the healthy meals they need to grow and succeed -- and help keep America competitive in the decades to come."

Obama cited the new report.

"As American families prepare to gather for Thanksgiving, we received an unsettling report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that found that hunger rose significantly last year," the president said. "This trend was already painfully clear in many communities across our nation, where food stamp applications are surging and food pantry shelves are emptying."

Obama said it is "particularly troubling that there were more than 500,000 families in which a child experienced hunger multiple times over the course of the year."

The president said his administration "is committed to reversing the trend of rising hunger. The first task is to restore job growth, which will help relieve the economic pressures that make it difficult for parents to put a square meal on the table each day. But we are also taking targeted steps to prevent Americans from experiencing hunger. Earlier this year, we extended help to those hit hardest by this economic downturn by boosting SNAP benefits."

A central part of the administration's Recovery Act was a large increase in nutrition assistance benefits for the 36.5 million, half of them children, who participate in the USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly the Food Stamp Program, officials said.

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Searchers find girl's body in N. Carolina

SANFORD, N.C., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Searchers in North Carolina Monday found the body of a missing 5-year-old girl, police said.

After looking fruitlessly Sunday for Shaniya Davis in a wooded area near Sanford, N.C., police and some 200 volunteers picked up Monday morning acting on "reliable information" that the girl's body may have been dumped along a state highway, the Fayette (N.C.) Observer reported.

Fayetteville, N.C., police later confirmed the child's body had been discovered, CNN reported.

Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance told reporters that authorities had received some tips about Shaniya, noting that while confessed kidnapper Mario Andrette McNeill has been "extremely uncooperative," he has also given up some information.

The newspaper said McNeill, 29, was arrested and charged with first degree kidnapping Thursday after video surveillance tapes allegedly showed him with the missing girl at a hotel in Sanford. The girl had been taken from a mobile home park.

The Observer said Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Davis, 25, was charged Saturday with human trafficking and felony child abuse involving prostitution. Davis was "prostituting her child," Chance told CNN.

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Three conservatives urge detainee transfer

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Three conservative leaders say they endorse the possible transfer of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison detainees to a penal institution in Illinois.

In a letter, 2008 Libertarian Party presidential nominee and former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, American Conservative Union founder David Keene and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist said Sunday civilian prisons and courts are safe and appropriate places to handle suspected terrorists, The Hill reported Monday.

The trio specifically addressed claims that bringing Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S. mainland could enhance the possibility of a terrorist attack.

"The scaremongering about these issues should stop," the three wrote. "It makes sense for the community, which will benefit from the related employment and has absolutely no reason to fear that prisoners will escape or be released into their communities."

Meanwhile, Illinois officials say the possibility of housing Guantanamo Bay inmates would be a boon to the state's dismal economy.

Officials from the U.S. departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and the federal Bureau of Prisons were scheduled to visit the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., Monday, to check out the facility's suitability to house fewer than 100 Guantanamo Bay detainees, CNN reported Monday.

"This is something that is very good for our state, it's good for our economy, it's good for public safety," Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters Sunday.

If the severely under-used 1,600-bed facility is determined to be up to the task, the governor and other officials said Sunday, it could provide up to 2,000 jobs and up to $1 billion in federal money to the area about 150 miles west of Chicago.

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Biden touts stimulus results in Arizona

PHOENIX, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden praised the results of the economic stimulus package in Arizona during a fundraising speech in Phoenix Monday.

The stimulus package helped save 7,000 education jobs in Arizona, added $264 million to the state's economy and cut taxes for more than 2 million Arizona families, Biden said.

"Only 12 states have gotten more money obligated that the state of Arizona has," Biden said during the breakfast fundraiser for U.S. Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick of Flagstaff and Harry Mitchell of Tempe.

The recession, he said, "is an opportunity to put America back on a better path. "We've got a chance to history, just a little bit. I have never been more confident in our ability to bend history in the right direction."