Suspect, two others, killed in Ore. mall shooting

Updated 10:30 p.m. ET

PORTLAND, Oregon A gunman opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another before apparently killing himself as people were doing their Christmas shopping, authorities said. One other person was reported injured.

Clackamas County sheriff's Lt. James Rhodes said authorities were still trying to get more details about the situation at the Clackamas Town Center. So far, the shooter has only been described as an "adult male."

Authorities said there was no indication that there was more than one gunman. Officials say police did not fire a shot during the incident.

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Cell phone video: Ore. mall evacuated after shooting

"At first no one really knew what was going down," Mario, a kiosk worker inside the mall, told CBS affiliate KOIN in Portland. "We heard six shots at first, and then people scattered like crazy, everybody left."

"The shots were really loud and really scary... It was echoing all through the mall, so nobody knew where it was coming from at first," witness Larisa Tereahova said.

Another witness said the Macy's inside the mall opens into the food court area, where it was reported the shootings took place. Bautista said it sounded like the shots were coming from that direction.

Macy's employees Pam Moore and Austin Patty told the AP the shooter was short, with dark hair, dressed in camouflage. He had body armor and a rifle and was wearing a white mask, they said.

"I heard about 20 shots and everyone hit the ground," Moore said. "That's when we all just ran."

Governor John Kitzhaber released a statement late Tuesday, saying: "My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. I appreciate the work of the first responders and their quick reaction to this tragic shooting. Oregon State Police Superintendent Rich Evans is on the scene. I have directed State Police to make any and all necessary resources available to local law enforcement."

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Gunman 'Tentatively' Identified in Oregon Shooting

A masked gunman who opened fire in the crowded Clackamas Town Center mall in suburban Portland, Ore., killing two individuals before killing himself, has been "tentatively" identified by police, though they have not yet released his name.

The shooter, wearing a white hockey mask, black clothing, and a bullet proof vest, tore through the mall around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, entering through a Macy's store and proceeding to the food court and public areas spraying bullets, according to witness reports.

Police have not released the names of the deceased. Clackamas County Sheriff's Department Lt. James Rhodes said authorities are in the process of notifying victims' families.

The injured victim has been transported to a local hospital, where she is "fighting for her life," according to Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts.

PHOTOS: Oregon Mall Shooting

Nadia Telguz, who said she was a friend of the injured victim, told ABC News affiliate KATU-TV in Portland that the woman was expected to recover.

"My friend's sister got shot," Teleguz told KATU. "She's on her way to (Oregon Health and Science University hospital). They're saying she got shot in her side and so it's not life-threatening, so she'll be OK."

Christopher Onstott/Pamplen Media Group/Portland Tribune

911 Calls From New Jersey Supermarket Shooting Watch Video

Witnesses from the shooting rampage said that a young man who appeared to be a teenager ran through the upper level of Macy's to the mall food court, firing multiple shots, one right after the other, with what is believed to be a black, semi-automatic rifle.

More than 10,000 shoppers were at the mall during the day, police said. Roberts said that officers responded to the scene of the shooting within minutes, and four SWAT teams swept the 1.4 million-square-foot building searching for the shooter. He was eventually found dead, an apparent suicide.

"I can confirm the shooter is dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," Rhodes said. "By all accounts there were no rounds fired by law enforcement today in the mall."

Roberts said more than 100 law enforcement officers responded to the shooting, and at least four local agencies were working on the investigation, including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is working to trace the shooter's weapon.

READ: Guns in America: A Statistical Look

Roberts also said that shoppers, including two emergency room nurses and one physician who happened to be at the mall, provided medical assistance to victims who had been shot. Other shoppers helped escort individuals out of the mall and out of harm's way, he said.

"There were a huge amount of people running in different directions, and it was chaos for a lot of citizens, but true heroes were stepping up in this time of high stress," Roberts said. "E.R. nurses on the scene were providing medical care to those injured, a physician on the scene was helping provide care to the wounded."

Mall shopper Daniel Martinez told KATU that he had just sat down at a Jamba Juice inside the mall when he heard rapid gunfire. He turned and saw the masked gunman, dressed in all black, about 10 feet away from him.

"I just saw him (the gunman) and thought, 'I need to go somewhere,'" Martinez said. "It was so fast, and at that time, everyone was moving around."

Martinez said he ran to the nearest clothing store. As he ran, he motioned for another woman to follow; several others ran to the store as well, hiding in a fitting room. They stayed there for an hour and a half until SWAT teams told them it was safe to leave the mall.

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Doha summit launches climate damage aid

The latest summit to stop climate change, held in Doha, Qatar, over the past two weeks has been roundly slammed. Little was agreed to curb greenhouse gas emissions and the latest modelling, carried out by the Climate Action Tracker consortium shows global averages temperatures are still set to rise by at least 3 °C above pre-industrial levels.

There was one breakthrough: developing countries won a promise from developed ones that they would compensate them for losses and damage caused by climate change. The deal offers the promise of large amounts of climate aid. But first, science will have to catch up with politics.

All countries will suffer from climate change. There will be consequences even if humanity slashed its emissions and stopped temperatures rising more than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, the stated goal of the UN negotiations. In actual fact, with emissions rising faster than ever, a 3 or 4 °C rise is likely this century.

The consequences will be manifold. Deserts will spread and lethal heatwaves become more frequent. Changes in rainfall will bring droughts, floods and storms, while rising seas will swamp low-lying areas, obliterating valuable territory. Food production will fall.

Before Doha kicked off, the charities ActionAid, CARE International and WWF released a report arguing that rich countries should compensate poor countries for such damages. Tackling the Limits to Adaptation points out that climate change will cost countries dearly, both economically and in less tangible ways such as the loss of indigenous cultures.

Two-pronged approach

So far, climate negotiations have taken a two-pronged approach to the problem. On the one hand, they have sought to create incentives or imperatives to cut emissions. On the other, they have established a pot of money for poor countries to pay for measures that will help them fend off the unavoidable consequences of climate change – such as sea walls and irrigation systems.

That, according to some, leaves a third element missing. Helping those who suffer the consequences of climate change is a moral obligation and must be part of any treaty on climate change, says Niklas Höhne of renewable energy consultancy Ecofys. The idea of climate compensation has been around since the early 1990s, when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was negotiated.

In Doha, a coalition including China, the Alliance of Small Island States and the G77 group of developing countries pushed for it to revived.

They proposed a scheme that would decide when countries had suffered climate harms, and compensate them. It would be a form of insurance, and the greatest international aid scheme ever. The idea gained momentum after Typhoon Bopha struck the Philippines last week, and that country's negotiator Naderev "Yeb" Saño broke down in tears during a speech. And, although developed nations had little incentive to agree, the conference concluded with a promise to set something up next year.

Compensation poses a fundamental challenge to climate science, which still struggles to work out if trends and events are caused by greenhouse gases or would have happened anyway. "We can't say that an individual event was caused by climate change," says Nigel Arnell of the University of Reading, UK. "What we can do is say that the chance of it happening was greater."

Systematic tests

Some climatologists are now running systematic tests to decide whether extreme weather events are caused by climate change. They run climate models with and without humanity's emissions. If the odds of a particular event are different, it suggests it was at least partially driven by emissions. By this measure, the 2003 European heatwave and 2011 Texas drought were both made more likely by human emissions.

But this science is in its infancy. We can confidently attribute large-scale trends and temperature changes, says Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. But changes in rainfall, and short-term events like hurricanes, are harder because we do not really understand them. Trenberth speculates that superstorm Sandy would not have flooded the New York subways without climate change, but says it's not possible to prove.

Arnell says that might prove unworkable. Gradual changes – such as rising sea levels, melting glaciers and ocean acidification – are easy to attribute to climate change but their consequences difficult to cost; sudden events are easy to cost but difficult to attribute.

There may be another possibility. Rather than examining individual events, climate models could predict the extra climate-related costs each country would experience, allowing regular payouts. "That would be a way round it," says Arnell. Delegates at next year's conference will have to consider these questions.

Positive step

Harjeet Singh of ActionAid in New Delhi, India, calls the Doha deal "a positive step forward". But it is only an agreement in principle: no money was committed, and even a promise to do so in the future was left out of the final text. Edward Davey, the UK's secretary of state for energy and climate change, said it was "far too early" to talk about committing money. "We aren't saying there should be compensation," he said.

Singh says the developed world would save money by cutting emissions now, rather than letting temperatures rise and then paying compensation. Small island states were keen to get an agreement on loss and damage because emissions cuts are going so slowly, making dangerous climate change almost certain. The Doha agreement is a first step towards dealing with the consequences of that failure.

On 'other business'

Aside from agreeing to make compensation available for loss and damage, the Doha summit achieved little. Nearly two decades ago, the world's governments set out to agree a binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Doha included some baby steps towards a deal in 2015, but that is not guaranteed and in any case will come too late to stop dangerous climate change. Only Lebanon and the Dominican Republic made new emissions pledges.

The talks were bogged down in rows over financing. In a deal that was separate to the adaptation fund, developed countries had promised in 2009 to deliver $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor nations prepare for climate change. Between 2009 and 2012 they allocated $10 billion a year. In Doha they refused to say how they would scale that up, simply promising to "continue" – leaving developing countries unsure if or when they would get more.

The Kyoto protocol was renewed until 2020, but its global effect is likely to be limited. Its value is partly symbolic, to show that binding agreements can be reached, and as one of many small and medium-scale projects to cut emissions.

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Family & friends key to resilient marriages: survey

SINGAPORE: Family, friends and religious advisors are often the primary informal sources of help for couples facing marital issues, according to a study commissioned by Marriage Central which aims to identify resilience factors that can mitigate marriage crises.

Children are an important reason for couples to continue their relationship.

Those who have prior positive interactions with counsellors, such as in marriage preparation programmes, also stand a better chance at overcoming crisis.

The study conducted from February to May involved over 500 married individuals.

Marriage Central said all of those surveyed had remained in their marriages, even though nearly half of the respondents had at some point considered divorce.

The study revealed that some of the common stresses to a marriage in Singapore include infidelity and interference by in-laws.

Principal investigator Dr Mathew Mathews, a research fellow from the Institute of Policy Studies, said: "It shows that there are different agents which are acting in that process - family, the community, broader messages around and notions of commitment are all there, and I think these things help to keep couples wanting to walk through their relationship rather than giving up."

Marriage Central - a workgroup under the National Family Council - said the findings indicate that there is hope for troubled marriages in Singapore.

The workgroup intends to share the findings with voluntary welfare organisations and other stakeholders so that they may develop more resources and programmes for building resilient marriages in Singapore.

- CNA/ck

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Mouned, but inspiring

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

Singer Jenni Rivera

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Sen. Marco Rubio calls Rivera "a real American success story"


• Not only for her music but for her strong, resilient attitude when faced with adversity


• Jenni Rivera was also a woman of many firsts and a businesswoman


• Made breaking into the male-dominated music genre look easy with her perseverance

(CNN) -- Jenni Rivera is being mourned as the Diva of Banda, after the musical superstar died Sunday in a plane crash in Mexico.

She built a recording and performing career, several businesses and a devoted following -- and her life was as full of the ups and the downs as any of the characters she sang about.

She was born 43 years ago in Long Beach, California, to Mexican parents Rosa and Pedro Rivera who named her Jenny Dolores Rivera Saavedra.

In an interview with CNN en Español in 2010, Rivera spoke about how she once sold cans for scrap metal and hawked music records at her family's stand at a Los Angeles flea market.

When she was just 15 and a high school student she became a mother herself, giving birth to her first child, Janney "Chiquis" Marin Rivera in 1985. She then had two more children -- Jacqueline Marín Rivera and Michael Marín Rivera -- with her then-husband, José Trinidad Marín.

Rivera spoke about how Marín physically abused her because while she wanted to attend college, he wanted her to quit school and be at home "cooking and cleaning." She said she grew up with four brothers so she knew how to fight back.

They divorced in 1992 when Rivera found out Marín molested their daughter, Janney, and Rivera's younger sister, Rosie. Marín was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Divorced and on welfare with three children, Rivera worked in real estate and took a second job at her father's record label, Cintas Acuario, which led to her passion and career in Regional/Banda/Norteño music.

Singer Jenni Rivera dies in plane crash

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Since the release of her groundbreaking debut album "La Chacalosa" in 1995, Rivera has released more than 12 hit albums, all reaching Platinum and Gold status in the U.S. and Mexico. Her heart-wrenching ballads often center on infidelity, social issues and relationships. One of her independent albums was "Farewell to Selena," a tribute album to slain singer Selena that helped expand her following.

Rivera married Juan López in 1997 and had two children with him: Jenicka and Johnny López Rivera. They divorced in 2003, and he then died in 2009. Then in 2010, Rivera married baseball player Esteban Loaiza but they filed for divorce earlier this year.

Perhaps it was her personal struggles that made Rivera known not only for her music but for her strong, resilient attitude when faced with adversity.

"In Mexico, she represented a lot of ladies that can't talk about their feelings," Jose "Pepe" Garza, Rivera's godfather and friend of the family, told CNN en Espanol. "The public feels represented by Jenni Rivera, and by the lyrics of her songs."

Garza is very well-known within the banda and norteña music genres and has worked with other big artists in the regional Latin music. He also gave Rivera her big break.

Rivera was also a woman of many firsts. She became the first artist to sell-out two back-to-back nights at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California, in 2010. And she was the first female Banda artist to sell-out a concert at the Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City, California.

The business mogul also started companies including: Divina Realty, Divina Cosmetics, Jenni Rivera Fragrance, Jenni Jeans, Divine Music and The Jenni Rivera Love Foundation. Rivera made her film debut at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival with the indie family drama Filly Brown, set to be in theaters in January 2013.

Her fan base was only expected to grow with a show in development with ABC, confirmed a source with knowledge of the deal to CNN Entertainment.

A multi-camera family comedy, according to Deadline, was expected to star Rivera as a strong, middle-class, single Latina woman working to raise a family, struggling to run a family business and manage her extended family -- all while fighting the cultural perception that she needed a man to do it all.

"It is very flattering when they tell me I'm a great artist and performer," said Rivera in a 2010 interview with CNN en Espanol. "But I am a businesswoman, I'm primarily business-minded."

Breaking into a male-dominated music genre was not easy, but Rivera made it look that way with her endless perseverance.

"I think she just did it with her pantelones, and you need a big personality to do it. She's been through so much," said Damarys Ocana, executive editor of Latina magazine, in an interview with CNN, "She's been a victim, but never thought of herself as a victim."

CORRECTION
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the singer commemorated by Jenni Rivera's 2003 album "Farewell to Selena." The album was a tribute to Tejano star Selena Quintanilla.

The drama that surrounded Rivera's life received just as much attention as her successful, career but that never stopped her from being a "mama bear to her five kids," said Ocana. Family always came first for Rivera.

Flashback: Jenni Rivera reflects on her success

In May 2011, Latina magazine put both Jenni and Janney Rivera on their cover, the first time the magazine put two people on the cover.

"We put both of them on the cover because they were the stars of 'I Love Jenni' and the show was doing incredibly well on Mun2," said Ocana.

Rivera also spent part of her life volunteering at the Love Foundation, an organization that promotes programs to support immigrants, children with cancer, women victims of violence, reports CNN Mexico.

In 2010, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence named Rivera as their spokesperson.

Photos: Singer Jenni Rivera

Speaking on the U.S. Senate floor Monday afternoon, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida described Rivera as "a real American success story."

"She was a singer in a genre of music that's largely dominated by males, and she brought a powerful voice to that genre where she sang frankly about her struggles to give her children a better life in this country," he said.

Universal Music Group also released a statement, saying: "The entire Universal Music Group family is deeply saddened by the sudden loss of our dear friend Jenni Rivera. The world rarely sees someone who has had such a profound impact on so many. From her incredibly versatile talent to the way she embraced her fans around the world, Jenni was simply incomparable. Her talent will be missed; but her gift of music will be with us always."

Also believed aboard the plane were her publicist, Arturo Rivera, her lawyer, makeup artist, Jacob Yebale, and the flight crew.

"It's hard to accept. It's painful. I cry," said Rivera's brother Gustavo Rivera in an interview with CNN en Espanol, "But the support from the fans is consoling to us."

She told CNN in 2010 that she wouldn't let scandals or personal tragedy stop her.

"Staying defeated, crying and suffering was not an option," she said. "I had to get off my feet, dust myself off and press on. That's what I want to teach my daughters."

In an interview with the Immigrant Archive Project she said:

"If I had the opportunity to speak to a young immigrant girl that just arrived to the U.S. the advice I would have for her would be: ask, speak, search; because there are opportunities out there. And, know that you aren't the only immigrant or the last to come to this country. Many that have come before you have succeeded. It is possible."

Jenni Rivera is survived by her parents, Rosa and Pedro, three other siblings: Pedro Jr., Gustavo and Rosie; and her five children: Janney, Jacqueline, Michael, Jenicka and Johnny.

Journalist Jaqueline Hurtado, Catherine Shoichet and Rafael Romo contributed to this report.

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Chicago gang violence shows no signs of stopping

(CBS News) CHICAGO - There is a war going on -- not overseas, but right here on the streets of America. A gang war has taken over parts of Chicago.

Over the weekend, 14 people were shot. Two were killed.

So far this year, there have been more than 2,364 shootings and 487 homicides.

CBS News National Correspondent Dean Reynolds rode along with Commander Leo Schmitz of Chicago Police Department's 7th district. The area is a gang-related swath of the city's South Side. They started to drive as children were leaving school for the day.

"When you have them coming out of school, and there's any kind of gang conflicts, you've got a mix like fire and gasoline," Schmitz said.

The gangs are fighting a war over turf, drugs and money.

"It's crazy," he said. "What used to be a fist fight now turns into, 'Let's go to the guns,'" Schmitz said.

Bullet tax eyed in bid to curb Chicago crime

Report: Chicago shootings leave 9 dead, 28 wounded over the weekend

Chicago police sergeant: "Tribal warfare" on the streets

Shooting deaths are up 20 percent in the city this year, though in the 7th district Schmitz and his team have managed to cut homicides by 30 percent.

He credits better intelligence from informants, increased patrols and a citywide crime-tracking database.

"We use the knowledge," Schmitz said. "So, if there's a shooting right here, we know that the retaliation will be a block down."

The police gave us a bulletproof vest for the trip, and within minutes it because crystal clear why.

A block away, a man walking was a target. The suspect was fleeing the scene.

"He done shot at me right here!" the man said.

Police apprehended a Chicago suspect who allegedly shot another man. The shooting supposedly has roots in gang violence.

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CBS News

The commander and his men ran down the suspected shooter, 21-year-old Julian Gayles. Police think the shooting was probably gang-related.

The police also received the weapon. Schmitz described it as a 9mm Beretta.

"If you can see the hammer's already (up)," he said. "That means he just shot it."

Chicago has seized more guns this year than New York and Los Angeles combined. The violence is so bad that the heavily armed police now attend gang funerals to prevent revenge killings. Schmitz said he doesn't just want to maintain a level of clam.

"I want to win," Schmitz said. "So, we're going to always try to do better than we did before."

It didn't get much better this weekend. Among the victims was an off-duty cop.

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Woman Gets Life for Lottery Winner's Murder

DeeDee Moore, the Tampa woman accused of swindling and then killing lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare, was found guilty today of first degree murder and other charges, after she declined to take the stand and the defense rested without calling a single witness.

In addition to the murder charge, Moore was also found guilty of possessing and discharging a firearm resulting in death. Prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty in the case, and Moore was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

"After trial and listening to all of this over two weeks, words that were said cool, calculated, manipulated. Abraham Shakespeare was your prey and victim. Money was the route of evil you brought to Abraham. You are sentenced to life in prison you shall not be elegible for parole," Judge Emmet Battles said.

Jurors deliberated for more than three hours Monday before delivering their verdict.

Prosecutors argued that Moore, 40, befriended Shakespeare before he vanished in April 2009 after he'd won $30 million in the Florida lottery. After Shakespeare had given away most of his money to people who simply asked for it, Moore agreed to manage the little he had left, but instead, prosecutors said, stole his winnings and killed him.

During a dramatic trial Moore has broken down in tears several times, and at one point said that she went into anaphylactic shock while in custody after taking the drug Bactrim when she was having problems with cuts on her ankles from being cuffed every day.

Early today the defense announced it would rest its case without calling any witnesses. Moore did not testify during her trial.

Jay Conner/The Tampa Tribune/AP Photo

Florida Lotto Murder Trial: Bizarre Moments Watch Video

Florida Lottery Murder Trial: Letters to Victim's Family Watch Video

Dee Dee Moore Trial: Woman Accused of Murdering Lottery Winner Watch Video

"There is no witness that can say she ever admitted to doing the killing or participating as a principle in helping anyone else do the killing," Moore's defense attorney Byron Hileman said today.

In the courtroom this morning, Moore's friend, former inmate Rose Condora was accused of threatening witnesses by Tampa Judge Emmett Battles, and was thrown out of the courtroom.

Authorities say Shakespeare, 47, was shot twice in the chest by a .38-caliber pistol sometime in April 2009. He wasn't reported missing until November 2009. His body was found under a slab of cement in a backyard in January 2010.

Polk County authorities claim Moore offered someone a $200,000 house in exchange for reporting a false sighting of Shakespeare. She also allegedly sent the victim's son $5,000 in cash for his birthday, and used the victim's cellphone to send text messages purportedly from him.

Shakespeare's mother, Elizabeth Walker, also testified that Moore tried to hide that her son was missing, and said that he had AIDS.

Sentorria Butler, Shakespeare's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, also testified. Butler told the court last week that Moore is a divisive and manipulative woman who told her Shakespeare "ran off with the lady from the bank."

During the trial, jurors also watched a Walmart surveillance video that the prosecution said links Moore to Shakespeare's killing. The footage shows Moore making a $104 cash purchase of gloves, duct tape, plastic sheeting and other items detectives later found close to where Shakespeare's body was buried.

Jurors hearing the case also heard a rambling two-page letter that witness Greg Smith, a police informant who was a former friend of Shakespeare and supposed friend of Moore, says Moore allegedly forged while at a Comfort Inn & Suites in Lakeland, Fla.

The letter was meant to appear to be from Shakespeare, prosecutors said. They say the letter was a ruse to convince Shakespeare's mother that he was still alive. Moore attempted to cover her tracks while it was written, according to prosecutors.

During the trial, jurors had to be accompanied by a security escort into the courtroom after they told the judge Smith and Shakespeare's family and friends were making them feel uncomfortable outside the courthouse. None of the jurors had to be excused by the judge.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Xi's Shenzhen visit a sign of reform: Chinese media

BEIJING: China's new Communist Party chief Xi Jinping has signalled his commitment to push for economic reforms by visiting the city of Shenzhen, the historic hub of modernisation, state media said Monday.

Xi's trip, his first official one as ruling party leader, echoed a visit by then-leader Deng Xiaoping to the southern boomtown in 1992 to revive reforms.

Deng had launched China's economic modernisation more than three decades ago under the slogan "Reform and Opening".

According to analysts the pace of restructuring has slowed in the last decade under outgoing leader Hu Jintao, but Xi's choice of destination sent a clear signal.

"The party Central Committee's decision to undertake Reform and Opening was correct," Xi said, according to the Nanjing Daily.

"We will continue down this path, unswervingly continue down the path of enriching the country and the people, and will break new ground."

Authorities stressed their commitment to reform during the once-a-decade party leadership handover last month that put Xi in the top spot.

They face growing calls to realign the economy to ensure long-term growth, by reducing reliance on investment and exports and boosting domestic consumption.

Growth slowed to a three-year low of 7.4 per cent in the third quarter of this year, hit by the global economic slowdown. Leaders have warned that the past years of dramatic double-digit growth are unlikely to return.

"It is high time the Party stepped up reform and opening up," the Global Times quoted Huang Weiping, director of the Contemporary Chinese Politics Research Institute at Shenzhen University, as saying.

"And Xi chose to visit Shenzhen now because he is aware that China has just experienced a major crisis, and crisis always drives further reforms."

Xi is due to take over as national president in March.

Shenzhen served as an early "special economic zone" in the 1980s, a laboratory of sorts as the communist country began to seek foreign investment.

The experiment transformed it from a small village bordering Hong Kong to a bustling modern city and helped initiate years of roaring growth for the country.

During his trip late last week Xi visited a fishing village and an industrial park which is home to the IT giant Tencent Technology, the China Daily reported. He also laid flowers at a statue of Deng in a park.

- AFP/ck

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Obama, Boehner tackle fiscal cliff face-to-face

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• President Obama and House Speaker Boehner meet at the White House


• Their spokesmen issue identical statements about the first such talks in 23 days


• Democrats and the GOP have been sparring about efforts to avert the fiscal cliff


• Sen. Corker joins some Republicans as open to hiking tax rates on the wealthy

Washington (CNN) -- Twenty-three days since they last met face-to-face and 23 days before the fiscal cliff becomes a harsh reality, the two men most pivotal to the contentious budget talks sat down Sunday.

There was no evidence of a breakthrough, though President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner at least did agree on something: what, and what not, to say.

Sunday's White House meeting caught some by surprise, considering it had not been on the president's official schedule and the two sides have been sparring publicly, accusing each other of failing to work sincerely toward a compromise. After the talks ended, White House spokesman Josh Earnest and Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck issued identical statements.

"This afternoon, the president and Speaker Boehner met at the White House to discuss efforts to resolve the fiscal cliff. We're not reading out details of the conversation, but the lines of communication remain open."

The statements didn't give much insight into developments on the effort to prevent the U.S. government from going over the fiscal cliff, the term referring to the widespread automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that will take effect in January without a deal.

On Sunday, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde echoed numerous economic experts in predicting a sharp drop in confidence and "zero" U.S. economic growth if there's no agreement.

But the two political camps' matching words were remarkable, given what they have been saying about each for weeks.

Last Friday, for instance, Boehner reported "no progress" and accused the White House of having "wasted another week."

"There are a lot of things that are possible to put the revenue that the president seeks on the table, but none of it's going to be possible if the president insists on his position, insists on 'my way or the highway,'" the Ohio Republican told reporters.

Obama has held his ground, especially on his insistence that tax rates return to 1990s' levels for families with incomes higher than $250,000, while they'd remain the same for those making less than that.

After campaigning against any tax increases, many top Republicans have expressed willingness since the election to raise revenue by adjusting deductions and loopholes.

But Boehner and others have said any revenue hikes must be packaged with major spending cuts, including reforms to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. And they've resisted any tax rate hikes -- including for the wealthiest Americans -- as part of any deal.

There have been some public departures from that thinking however. On Sunday, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said he'd support raising taxes on the top 2% of households, arguing it will better position Republicans to negotiate for larger spending cuts to Social Security and Medicare despite opposition from many Democrats.

"A lot of people are putting forth a theory, and I actually think it has merit, where you go ahead and give the president ... the rate increase on the top 2%, and all of a sudden the shift goes back to entitlements," Corker said on "Fox News Sunday."

Corker is not entirely alone, as fellow Republican Sens. Tom Coburn, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe have said they could vote for such a limited tax hike.

There have been fewer higher-profile voices express that opinion in the House, though. One of them, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, reiterated Sunday that he could go along with this scenario.

"You have to do something, and doing something requires the cooperation of the Senate, which the Democrats run, and the signature of the president," Cole said on CNN's "State of the Union."

But one of his colleagues, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, said the Republicans shouldn't budge. Despite the loss of Republican seats in the House and Senate, Blackburn argued voters affirmed support for the GOP on Election Day and "clearly said we don't want our taxes to go up."

"The president thinks he has momentum, I think he is running on adrenaline from the campaign," the Tennessee lawmaker told CNN.

This story was reported by Jessica Yellin, CNN's chief White House correspondent, in Washington and written by Greg Botelho in Atlanta.

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Boehner and Obama meet on "fiscal cliff"

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, met at the White House Sunday for their first face-to-face meeting on the "fiscal cliff" in weeks, indicating that negotiations are continuing despite a public stalemate over the requirements for a deal.

The two have spoken over the phone as recently as Wednesday but on Friday, Boehner held a news conference to announce that "no progress" had been made.

While details of today's discussion weren't disclosed both Mr. Obama's and Boehner's spokesmen released the same exact statement to reporters, revealing some coordination - even if it's just how to talk to the press.

"This afternoon, the President and Speaker Boehner met at the White House to discuss efforts to resolve the fiscal cliff. We're not reading out details of the conversation, but the lines of communication remain open," Boehner spokesma Brendan Buck and White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest separately emailed.

The "fiscal cliff" is a series of automatic spending cuts and tax increases that are set to go into affect at the beginning of the year unless Congress passes an alternative proposal. Most economists say the jolt to the economy would harm any recovery, and could throw the country back into recession.

Both sides have laid out their demands. Republicans are adamant that spending be greatly reduced, especially for entitlements. Democrats, however, are demanding that tax rates increase for the wealthy, something that some Republicans, including Boehner, have indicated is up for discussion.

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