Official Visits

What's the hottest ticket in the nation's capital? An engraved invitation to Tuesday's White House state dinner, the first hosted by President Obama. He and the first lady will honor India's prime minister. But in a departure from the traditional venue -- the elegant State Dining Room -- the Obamas will gather with a few hundred VIPs in a huge, heated tent on the South Lawn. The guest list for the black-tie gala remains a closely guarded secret. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will certainly be there.

Even after he left Beijing, President Obama apparently fell afoul of the Chinese censors. An exclusive interview he gave to Southern Weekend -- a weekly supplement to the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper -- was published in Thursday's editions, but the page that carried the interview was removed from many copies. And the official online edition of the newspaper had no coverage of the event. In the short interview, Obama did not address any controversial issues, answering instead bland questions about China's economic development, his love for basketball and trade relations.

President Obama told Chinese students today that the U.S. does not wish to contain China's rise, but also offered a gentle critique of their country's approach to human rights. "We welcome China as a strong and prosperous and successful member of the community of nations," Obama said at the start of a town hall-style meeting in Shanghai as he began the China leg of his tour of Asia. Obama acknowledged that the United States has struggled with race relations over the course of its history, but he said America would "always speak out" in favor of free expression, worship, political participation and access to information -- which he termed "universal rights."

President Obama and leaders of other Asia-Pacific countries reached a consensus early today that it is unlikely that negotiators can achieve a binding accord to limit climate change at an international conference next month, and should instead focus on a more limited agreement. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who will host the Copenhagen conference, flew to Singapore and laid out a two-step process at a hastily arranged breakfast meeting, according to the White House.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is stopping in Jerusalem to participate in a moderated conversation at a Middle East policy conference Sunday before heading to Iraq next week, an aide said Friday. Schwarzenegger will speak at a forum sponsored by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, which former President Clinton, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are scheduled to attend. The policy group, which is affiliated with the Brookings Institution, was endowed with the help of entertainment mogul Haim Saban, who is close to Schwarzenegger and has donated to his political causes.

When Luo Xuanmin, a professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University, received a telephone call in March 2008 from a publisher asking him to translate the memoir of an up-and-coming U.S. politician, he had only the vaguest idea who the guy was. "Barack Obama?" To the extent that people in China follow U.S. politics, most assumed that Hillary Rodham Clinton would win the Democratic nomination for president. Not only was Obama an unknown, the Chinese press hadn't even figured out yet what Chinese characters to use to spell his first name.

With unemployment topping 10% and his healthcare plan still facing Senate action, President Obama has plenty to keep him busy at home. But on Thursday, he will head to Asia for more than a week, a trip that underscores the White House's conviction that a close partnership with China and other Pacific Rim nations is crucial to American interests. Obama is scheduled to stop in Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea, bringing to 20 the number of nations he has visited since taking office in January.

Los Angeles' top education official went door to door Monday to urge teens to return to school, netting about a dozen students with the effort and drawing attention to a growing problem. Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines was among 150 staffers and school board members who joined campus employees in the first-time, broad-based initiative, which targeted 10 truancy-plagued middle and high schools. This school year, about 20,000 of the district's 680,000 students have failed to show up as expected, officials said.

Barack Obama's first presidential appearance in New Orleans today is set to be short and tightly scripted, with a visit to a Lower 9th Ward charter school and a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans. If the president has a chance to look out the window of his limo, he will probably get a firsthand glimpse of the massive logistical headache he has inherited: More than four years after Hurricane Katrina, 91,000 homes remain blighted in the city and in two nearby parishes, according to August figures compiled by the Brookings Institution.

The Dalai Lama exhorted Taiwan to safeguard its democracy, interspersing prayers for the victims of Typhoon Morakot with a challenge to China. The Tibetan spiritual leader's call Monday appeared to contradict assurances that his five-day visit to comfort the victims of the worst storm to hit the island in 50 years would steer clear of the political -- a concern for President Ma Ying-jeou's administration, which is seeking closer ties with mainland...