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Chinese officials and state media remained silent Wednesday on the status of the country's leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, as rumors continued to swirl regarding his 11-day absence from public life.

At a regular press briefing, China's Foreign Ministry again refused to provide any details on the Chinese vice president, who was expected in just a few weeks to be named the country's top leader for the next decade. Spokesperson Hong Lei deflected several reporters' questions about Xi, saying he had no information.

Xi has not appeared at a number of meetings with foreign visitors during the past week, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He was last seen in public on September 1 at the opening of the fall semester of the Beijing Communist Party school.

While many observers point out that the speculation is unsubstantiated, they say the episode reveals the government's crumbling sense of credibility among Chinese citizens and foreign media.

Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at City University in Hong Kong, said the Communist Party's time-tested record of keeping the health conditions of its leaders a state secret may be hurting more than it is helping.

"This certainly reveals a lack of a sense of accountability to the domestic population and to the international community," he said. "I'm sure many foreign ministry officials understand that this secrecy may in fact backfire and may generate unhealthy and unnecessary speculation, but I'm afraid that they simply cannot or dare not persuade top leaders to change their positions."

But Cheng says there is no evidence to suggest the incident will affect the Communist Party's tightly-controlled leadership transfer that is expected to begin in the coming weeks with a Communist Party Congress.

"We have detected no signs that there will be serious leadership changes before the 18th Party Congress," he said. "Chinese leaders in the past five years or so have been working hard to prepare for a predictable succession process, and they certainly would like to keep it that way. "

Meanwhile, rumors continue to fly in China, both on the street and on the country's heavily censored microblogs. Jeremy Goldkorn, the editor of Danwei.com - a website about Chinese media and Internet - says Beijing's team of web censors are working overtime to squash the rumors.

"As is the practice, they're being scraped quite thoroughly. So it's quite hard to find any of these rumors on the Chinese Internet," he said. "The name of Xi Jinping, I think right now is still a blocked search term on Sina Weibo, the big Twitter-like service, and so is backache. So they're doing a pretty good job of keeping it clean."

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In China, Still No Word on VP Xi

Mary Casanova read about the frozen prostitute 20 years ago in a history of Koochiching County, and she couldn't get the image out of her head.

"Someone took this woman's body, put a liquor bottle in her hand and stood her up as a joke before a town meeting around 1909," recalled Casanova, who lives in Ranier, Minn., near the Canadian border.

"Who was that woman? I wanted to vindicate her, give her a voice. For a long time, I wasn't sure how to tell it; the image of her body used as a joke was so disturbing and compelling. But it wouldn't let me go. I kept working on it and leaving it, until finally it took shape in the voice of her daughter."

That daughter, Sadie Rose, is the central character in Casanova's new novel, "Frozen."

This is the first young-adult novel from Casanova, 55, an award-winning author who's done 30 picture books, kids books and chapter books for middle school readers.

"Frozen" is also Casanova's first book with a regional publisher, University of Minnesota Press, and UMP's first original youngadult fiction.

Rich in historical details and descriptions of the area around Rainy Lake, the story begins in 1920 with 16-year-old Sadie Rose unwilling to speak. Sadie was taken in by a politician and his wife when she was found almost frozen in a snowbank after following a man who was carrying her mother's body from the hotel/brothel where they lived.

When Sadie discovers some provocative old pictures of her mother, her speech returns

Casanova said she "didn't want to compete" in the world of paranormal novels currently hot with young adults, and that's just fine with Todd Orjala, senior acquisitions editor for University of Minnesota Press.

"We are going against the tide, since this book is not about vampires or mermaids," Orjala said. "But it is an edgy book. The protagonist is raised in a brothel, confronted by difficult circumstances. It's very realistic."

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University of Minnesota Press, author Mary Casanova partner on 'Frozen,' new YA fiction

Associated Press

In this photo taken Sept. 1, 2012 and released by Chinas Xinhua News Agency, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping addresses the opening ceremony of the autumn semester of the Party School of the Communist Party of China in Beijing. Chinese micro-bloggers and overseas websites have come up with all kinds of creative speculation as to why President-in-waiting Xi has gone unseen for more than a week. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Tao)

BEIJING A Chinese spokesman on Tuesday said he had no information about the status of leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping, who dropped from sight 10 days ago and has canceled a series of meetings with foreign visitors.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he had no information in this regard when asked about Xis condition and whereabouts at a news conference Tuesday.

Asked whether Xi was still alive, Hong replied: I hope you can ask more serious questions.

Xis absence and the complete lack of information from the government has sent the Chinese rumor mill into overdrive, with most speculation focusing on a health crisis ranging from a sore back to a stroke. Some of the more fanciful tales involve a staged car crash as part of a political feud, although no evidence has been offered to back that up.

The 59-year-old Xi is Chinas vice president and was picked five years ago to succeed President Hu Jintao. Xi is due to take over as head of the ruling Communist Party at a congress later this year, although no date for it has been announced yet.

Xis last public appearance was at the opening of the Communist Party training academys fall session on Sept. 1. Since then, he has canceled meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. On Sunday, he also missed an emergency meeting of the Central Military Commission, of which he is a vice chairman, called to discuss earthquake recovery work.

The mystery surrounding Xi is the latest in a string of unforeseen incidents that have threatened to derail the leaderships plans for a smooth handover of power to younger officials. Those began with the spectacular downfall of high-profile populist politician Bo Xilai and the unexplained reassignment of a top aide to Hu earlier this month.

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No word on status of China’s missing next leader

By Malcolm Morrison, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The Canadian dollar closed at a 13-month high Tuesday amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will launch another round of stimulus to help the American economy.

The loonie was off the highs of the session, closing up 0.45 of a cent to 102.75 cents US after going as high as 102.91 cents US as the greenback weakened ahead of the Feds two-day meeting on interest rates.

The central bank could announce another round of quantitative easing Thursday, which would see the Fed print more money to buy up bonds in order to keep interest rates low and encourage lending.

Expectations that the Fed would provide another jolt for the economy increased after jobs data released Friday failed to meet modest expectations of 125,000 new jobs. Instead, the economy cranked out 97,000 jobs and employment numbers for June and July were revised downward.

However, there is a degree of uncertainty as to whether the Fed will act now, especially as it may not want to become a key point of debate in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

The American currency weakened further Tuesday morning after Moody's Investors Service said it would likely cut its "Aaa" rating on U.S. government debt, probably by one notch, if federal budget negotiations fail. If the highly partisan Congress does not reach a budget deal, more than $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases will kick in next year.

That scenario has been called the "fiscal cliff" because it is likely to send the U.S. economy back into recession and drive unemployment up.

Commodities were higher amid signs that the Chinese government may be moving to provide another round of stimulus measures to help a slowing economy.

A day after data showed Chinese imports and factory output continuing to slow, Chinas premier Wen Jiabao promised to do more to encourage growth through more tax cuts and measures to boost consumer spending.

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Canadian dollar at 13-month high ahead of expected Fed word on stimulus

wwltv.com

Posted on September 9, 2012 at 9:45 PM

Updated today at 5:56 AM

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS and EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS / Associated Press

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Loved ones and teammates of a Tulane University football player who fractured his spine while making a tackle will face an agonizing wait to learn how serious the injury is and whether it will leave him paralyzed. Senior safety Devon Walker was in stable condition and recovering in an intensive-care unit after a three-hour surgery to stabilize his spine at St. Francis Hospital, said Dr. Greg Stewart, Tulane's director of sports medicine. "These kind of injuries take 24, 48, sometimes 72 hours to fully declare themselves," Stewart said before the surgery. "We don't know what the long-term implications and outcomes are going to be." Stewart said he was with Walker on the field, in the ambulance and at the hospital after the injury Saturday. He said Walker was put into a cervical collar and couldn't see much of what was happening, so Stewart explained what was going on. Walker was talking with doctors as he was being treated, Stewart said. Walker's parents had traveled to Oklahoma to be with their son, and they were "doing as well as can be expected," Stewart said. "They're like the rest of us -- hopeful and prayerful." Stewart was back in New Orleans on Sunday, as were Walker's teammates. He said Tulane's athletic director and the football team's trainer remained in Oklahoma with Walker. Walker's injury occurred on the final play of the first half, hours after Tulane opened the Conference USA portion of its schedule against Tulsa. Tulsa was leading 35-3 and facing a fourth-and-2 with the ball at the 33-yard line on Saturday when the Golden Hurricane called timeout. Tulane then called timeout. When play resumed, Tulsa quarterback Cody Green tossed a short pass to Willie Carter, who caught it at about the 28, and turned upfield. He was tackled around the 17-yard line, with defensive tackle Julius Warmsley and Walker sandwiching him and apparently smashing their helmets together. Medical personnel from both teams tended to Walker as he lay on the field. FOX Sports reported a hush went over the crowd at H.A. Chapman Stadium as Walker was attended to, and that several coaches were in tears as he was taken away in an ambulance. Spectators bowed their heads as someone on the field led the stadium in prayer. Dr. Buddy Savoie said during a postgame news conference that Walker never completely lost consciousness and was breathing on his own. "He was stable when we transported him," Savoie said. "I do not think, based on the information we have, his life was ever in danger." Walker is a senior majoring in cell and molecular biology. His brother, Raynard, told The Associated Press on Saturday that their mother was watching the game on television when her son was injured. Tulane head coach Curtis Johnson said after the 45-10 loss that while Walker was on the field, Johnson told Walker that he was praying for him and that help was on the way. He said the mood among players was somber and called the day his most difficult ever. "It was tremendous that they finished the game, as I thought about just saying `Hey look, let's not do anything else. Let's just get on the road and go."'

Originally posted here:
Family, friends hold vigil as they await word on extent of Devon Walker's injury