Developed nations in Europe, as well as Japan and the United States, are likely to suffer the largest deterioration in their public finances in the next four decades as aging populations strain social safety nets, S&P said in a report published on Monday.

“Steadily rising health-care spending will pull heavily on public purse strings in the coming decades,” S&P analyst Marko Mrsnik wrote in the report. “If governments do not change their social protection systems,Wholesale Juicy Couture jewelry, they will likely become unsustainable.”

If no reforms are adopted, health-care-related credit downgrades would likely start within three years, eventually leading to an increase in the number of junk-rated countries as of 2020, the study showed.

Health care will likely be the fastest-growing expenditure for developed countries, which already have high social protections and rapidly worsening demographic profiles. For example, Japan’s population is expected to decline by 30 percent by 2060, with two out of every five people turning 65 or older, according to official data.

Emerging market countries, especially in Southeast Asia, have a little more room to maneuver due to more favorable demographic dynamics and economic growth, S&P said.

Demographics will not be the only factor driving up health-care costs. More expensive new technologies and broader treatment coverage may account for as much as two-thirds of the projected increase in health-care spending, according to a study by the International Monetary Fund cited by S&P.

REFORMS

Pension system reforms alone would not be enough for G20 countries, S&P said in the report.

If legislation were enacted to contain future increases in age-related spending without also tackling health-care spending, the results would be only slightly less severe than under a no-policy-change scenario.

“The probable increase in projected health-care costs alone is so substantial that the impact of these reform efforts would not be enough to meaningfully reverse the resulting credit deterioration,” S&P said.

Reforms to contain age-related spending coupled with efforts to balance budgets by 2016, on the other hand, would be enough to offset rising health-care costs by 2050, according to S&P.

“The results of this scenario point to overall stabilization of our hypothetical sovereign ratings,” S&P said, noting, however, that the number of ratings in the lower investment-grade categories would still increase.

(Reporting By Walter Brandimarte; Editing by Leslie Adler)

“Raices,” or “Roots,” is a new public exhibit by Mexican artist Rivelino, designed to provoke reflection about the nation’s past.

Collectively weighing about 28 metric tons, and extending three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometers) in length, the roots are manufactured with an interior of steel and covered in polyurethane and fiberglass.

The exhibit was inaugurated Wednesday night and will be on display through the end of February at 14 historic sites around the city including the Palacio de Bellas Artes, or Fine Arts Palace, and the National Museum of Art.

Some of the roots are installed at the Plaza of Three Cultures, which brings together elements of Mexico’s indigenous past, the Spanish conquest and the modern mix of the two. The plaza was the site of a 1968 government massacre of students and other protesters.

“It’s about questioning who we are; it’s about trying to make a point about historical events,” said Rivelino, whose full name is Jose Rivelino Moreno Valle.

Other sites being used include the 18th century Corpus Christi Convent and the Revolution Monument.

Installation of the exposition took more than 48 continuous hours of work and the help of 250 previously trained volunteers.

Alejandra Gilling, coordinator of open galleries for Mexico City’s Culture Department, said “Raices” is the largest exposition installed in the capital since the capital’s public art program was launched in 2006.

“Raices” follows “Nuestros Silencios,” or “Our Silences,wholesale Ralph Lauren Jackets,” another monumental work that Rivelino installed in 2011 in the Zocalo, Mexico City’s central plaza. It had been displayed earlier in various European cities over two years.

“Nuestros Silencios” explored freedom of expression through 10 bronze sculptures weighing about a ton each.

Rivelino says “Raices” is a natural outgrowth of the previous project. While he characterizes “Nuestros Silencios” as a closed emotion, he says Raices “is completely open.”

The project cost about 8 million (nearly $600,000) and was financed without any public funds a major reason it gained government support.

“Rivelino presented us with a project that was 100 percent financed,” Gilling said. “It seems to us that it has quality, that it’s going to have a great impact on the public.”

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Online:

Artist’s site: http://www.rivelino.com.mx

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Isaac Garrido on Twitter at http://twitter.com/igarridoAP.

TRADE GRIPES

“Currently, instability and uncertainty of world economic recovery are growing,” Hu said. “Under this type of situation, we especially need the world to cross the river in the same boat, and respond hand-in-hand with a spirit of cooperation and mutual benefit.”

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday it would investigate whether Chinese companies sell solar panels in the United States at unfair discounts and receive illegal government subsidies.

Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming reiterated China’s “grave concerns” over the solar investigation in a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

Chen criticised the United States for calling for free trade on environmental goods in the same breath as it announces it is exploring trade remedies against China, a statement on the ministries website (www.mofcom.gov.cn) said.

(Reporting by Michael Martina)

But the United States’ laundry list of complaints about unfair business practice is long, with China’s solar industry at the heart of recent debate about whether it unfairly subsidizes and supports it domestic industries.

To achieve that ambition, the two countries should expand trade in new and clean energy, emissions efficiency, pharmaceuticals, aviation and aerospace, Hu said, according to a statement on the Foreign Ministry’s website (fmprc.gov.cn).

Chinese officials have expressed doubts about U.S. goals at APEC, including a green growth initiative that would cap tariffs on environmental goods and services, such as solar panels and wind turbines, at 5 percent.

On Monday, Chinese officials called Obama’s APEC plans too ambitious, noting that his tariff reduction plan would unfairly target developing economies and not require any U.S. action.

U.S.-China trade relations could be “limitless,” President Hu Jintao said on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Honolulu, during a meeting with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and major companies, including Wal-Mart and FedEx.

Those comments echoed concerns expressed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a speech early in the day, when she called on China to “end unfair discrimination” against foreign companies and their technologies and intellectual property.

“If the United States soon loosens its limitations on technology exports to China, it will not only be good for relieving unbalanced trade, it will also promote the U.S. economy and employment,” he said.

The APEC gathering is also a chance for the United States to reassert its leadership in a region where China poses a growing competitive threat.

HONOLULU (Reuters) China’s president told the U.S. business community on Thursday that trade relations between the two countries are win-win, selling his country as a U.S. export market while defending it as a fair competitor on tariff rates and intellectual property.

Hu defended China’s tariff rates in his meeting with U.S. business leaders, saying that China had dropped its overall tariffs from 15.3 percent to 9.8 percent in the nearly 10 years since it joined the World Trade Organization, putting it “far below” average rates for developing countries.

China’s imports will hopefully exceed $8 trillion in the next five years, with consumer goods imports worth $5 trillion by 2015, Hu said, making China a huge market to help the United States revive manufacturing and reach President Barack Obama’s “export doubling” goal.

Hu arrived in Hawaii on Thursday ahead of a weekend of meetings with Asia-Pacific leaders at a summit already overshadowed by growing alarm over the fallout from euro-zone upheaval.

Addressing a long-held complaint among the foreign business community in China, Hu said that enforcing implementation of China’s already established intellectual property legal framework was a priority.

The official, who would give only his surname Jia as is common in China, said the family told police they were storing gasoline because they had a generator. He said 16 firefighters rushed to the scene, extinguished the fire and found Wang’s body.

It said the Erqi district party committee propaganda department said her home had been illegally constructed and issued a demolition order. Caijing quoted an unnamed lawyer for the family as saying the house was built more than 10 years ago and the government only said recently it was illegal.

It is one of several recent self-immolation cases related to property seizures in China. Some of the most passionate protests in the authoritarian country have been against local officials who have taken people’s houses, often with little or no compensation, to make way for development.

Caijing and Southern Metropolis said the victim’s son and daughter-in-law were detained for 10 days for disturbing public order. Southern Metropolis said six family members were initially detained after Wang’s death, including her granddaughter and 2-year-old great-grandson, who were released the same day.

Although not related, the incident comes on the heels of 11 self-immolations in China in recent months involving monks, former monks and nuns protesting Chinese rule in Tibet.

Financial magazine Caijing said Wang Liushi died after self-immolating on Nov. 3 in her family’s house in central Henan province.

The Southern Metropolis newspaper quoted Wang’s son, Wang Haorong, as saying officials from Zhengzhou city council and the Erqi Law Enforcement Bureau and a demolition team of about 300 came to the family’s house.

An official at the propaganda department of the Communist Party’s branch in Zhengzhou confirmed one death but said it was a “fire accident.”

The paper said Wang’s son and daughter-in-law climbed onto the roof and poured gasoline over themselves in a bid to stop the demolition team. The daughter-in-law said she heard a loud noise and saw heavy smoke coming out of Wang’s room.

Taylor’s necklaces, earrings, pendants and rings with diamonds, sapphires and other gems will go on auction at Christie’s auction house in New York City starting Tuesday. Among the high-profile items is a diamond bracelet given to the “National Velvet” and “Cleopatra” actress by Michael Jackson, with an estimated sale price of $30,000 to $50,000. A 33.19-carat diamond ring given to her by Richard Burton, whom she married twice, is estimated to sell for $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

Other sales of Taylor’s art, clothing and memorabilia will be held later in the week. An online-only sale of some items runs until Saturday. Part of the proceeds will go to The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which she established in 1991 to help people living with AIDS.

NEW YORK The glittering gems, fabulous clothes, accessories and memorabilia amassed by Elizabeth Taylor are up for sale but any would-be buyers had better have some deep pockets.

Taylor’s collection of impressionist and modern art is scheduled to go on sale at Christie’s in London in February.

• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

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“Miss Bala”_ Gerardo Naranjo may have made the least-glamorous movie ever about a pageant queen. And that’s what makes it so beautiful. With long, fluid takes that create a mesmerizing tension, the Mexican director and writer initially draws us into a world of youthful optimism, one which ends up being wildly unpredictable and increasingly desperate. Sadly, it couldn’t be more relevant in depicting the brutal violence plaguing Mexico’s northern border areas. At its center is the gorgeous, leggy Stephanie Sigman, a former model making her striking film debut. Sigman stars as Laura Guerrero, a young woman who hopes to be crowned the next Miss Baja California. (The title is a play on words: “bala” means bullet in Spanish.) When Laura goes to a club with her best friend, she finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, as gang members shoot the place up while targeting some DEA agents who are partying there. Laura escapes briefly but she’s seen too much, and ends up becoming their captive pawn. The group’s leader is the wily Lino (a subtly menacing Noe Fernandez), who’s been terrorizing northern Mexico with his minions while working the angles across the United States border, as well. Lino at first forces Laura to run a few errands, but the tasks become more and more dangerous. R for language, some brutal violence and sexuality. In Spanish with English subtitles. 113 minutes. Three stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

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“Red Tails” The famed Tuskegee Airmen get the John Wayne-style heroic rendering they very much deserve, but also a hackneyed and weirdly context-less story that does them a disservice. George Lucas’ pet project has the laudable goal of proving all-black movies can be a success, but “Red Tails” reduces a historical story of deep cultural significance to merely a flyboy flick. The film, directed by TV veteran Anthony Hemingway, superimposes the tale of the black World War II pilots on a dated, white genre of 1940s patriotic propaganda. “Red Tails” is blatantly old-fashioned, just with a change in color. It focuses entirely on aerial combat in Europe, skipping all that pesky backstory of black men braving the segregation of Jim Crowe America and, against the odds, rising up at the Tuskegee Institute. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard play higher-ups, but the film is centered on a band of pilots, particularly the brash, talented Joe “Lightning” Little (David Oyelowo) and his alcoholic captain Marty “Easy” Julian (Nate Parker). The script, by John Ridley and Boondocks cartoonist Aaron McGruder is swaggering but hopelessly corny and curiously avoids really fleshing out the Tuskegee Airmen’s other battle front: racism at home. The dogfights, though, are elegant and clearly staged, set against a majestic European landscape. PG-13 for some sequences of war violence. 125 minutes. Two stars out of four.

• Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer.

The burr under America’s saddle will begin his Western Hemisphere visit in Caracas, Venezuela, where the open arms of the leftist-populist President Hugo Chávez will set the tone for a trip that will take in other Latin anti-American capitals, including Managua, Nicaragua, Quito, Ecuador, and Havana, Cuba.

Also on the trip itinerary is Guatemala, where the Iranian leader will attend the inauguration of President-elect Otto Perez.

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s trip, his second to Latin America since 2009, comes amid rising tensions between Iran and Western powers intent on curtailing a nuclear program that much of the international community says shows every sign of aiming for nuclear weapons development. Iran claims the program is for strictly civilian purposes.

RECOMMENDED: Iran sanctions 101

The Iranian leader, known for his provocative rants at the United Nations’ annual opening session in New York, appears to be relishing a trip that is being interpreted as an affront to the United States – especially as it comes just as Iran is making a show of warning the US to stay out of its own backyard in the Persian Gulf.

In a high-stakes tit-for-tat that some international analysts blamed for a spike in oil prices last week, the US pointedly responded that it will maintain its presence in the Gulf and in particular will continue to ply the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea lane through which passes about one-fifth of the world’s oil.

The Ahmadinejad visit also places a spotlight on how Iran’s aspirations in Latin America have come to figure in American trade policy and politics.

In the run-up to Ahmadinejad’s trip, Iranian officials touted the rising importance of Latin America to Iran. “The promotion of all-out cooperation with Latin American countries is among the top priorities of the Islamic republic’s foreign policy,Cheap Ed hardy belts,” said the official IRIB News Agency last week.

Such talk irks the Obama administration, which has its eyes set on Latin America as President Obama pursues his 2010 goal of doubling US exports by 2015. The administration ushered free-trade agreements with Colombia and Panama through Congress last year, and Mr. Obama would like to announce their implementation by the time he attends a Summit of the Americas in Colombia in April.

The administration was largely quiet about Ahmadinejad’s last trip to Latin America (a trip that included powerhouse Brazil) in 2009, but that’s not so true this time around, reflecting the rising tensions between the two countries.

In a recent interview with El Universal newspaper in Caracas, Obama said the Venezuelan government’s “ties with Iran and Cuba have not benefited the interests of Venezuela and its people.”

“Sooner or later,” he added, “Venezuela’s people will have to decide what possible advantage there is in having relations with a country that violates fundamental human rights … is isolated from most of the world [and] has consistently supported international terrorism.”

The administration in May imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA oil company for violating US law by selling two tankers’ worth of refined petroleum products to Iran.

But Republicans hoping to pin the “soft on Iran” label on Obama in this election year have sounded sharper alarms about Iran’s activities in Latin America.

Election 101: Where the GOP candidates stand on China, Iran, Israel and other key foreign issues

“Tour of Tyrants” is how House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) of Florida last month described Ahmadinejad’s upcoming Latin America trip, adding that it was aimed at “expanding the Iranian threat closer to our shores.” In recent Republican presidential debates, both Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney said Iran and its proxies such as Hezbollah are increasingly active in the hemisphere, including in Mexico. (Mexico denied those charges.)

Iran and Latin America analysts say Ahmadinejad has accomplished two of his goals with his upcoming trip – riling the “Great Satan” and demonstrating to the Iranian public that Iran is a power with global reach. But many of them add that reports of Iran’s rising influence in America’s backyard are largely overblown.

“Without leaving Tehran,” Ahmadinejad “has already been successful at feeding fears of a minor Persian invasion,” writes Stephen Johnson, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, in a recent posting on the center’s website.

The US and friendly governments in the region, he says, cannot just ignore reports of Iranian-Venezuelan missile development cooperation or of covert Iranian activity in the hemisphere, but neither should Americans buy everything they hear about Iran in Latin America – much of which he says is exaggerated.

Mr. Johnson points out that some analysts have headlined a “tripling” of Iran’s trade with Latin America in recent years. While that may be true, it’s also true that it has tripled from very low numbers, he adds, reinforcing his point that Iran and Latin America’s leftists are more important to each other symbolically than anything else.

RECOMMENDED: Iran sanctions 101

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Bronstein, 61, who has served as editor at large for the past four years, will move into an unpaid role with the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley,wholesale Ed hardy jeans, where he is president of the board, the newspaper reported.

Bronstein had worked as a newsman in San Francisco for 31 years, joining the then-Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner as a reporter in 1980.

During his career, he worked as an investigative reporter, then as a foreign correspondent. His coverage of the fall of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

In the 17 years he worked as an editor for the Chronicle, Bronstein oversaw the newspaper’s investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO, a steroids distribution ring. He also guided the paper through its expansion into the Internet age, and through belt-tightening as the newspaper industry ran into financial troubles.

He made headlines himself when he married actress Sharon Stone in 1998. Bronstein was in the news again in 2001 when a Komodo dragon bit his toe during a private tour at the Los Angeles Zoo, then again when he and Stone divorced in 2004.

Bronstein left the editor’s office in 2008 but remained as The Chronicle’s executive vice president.

“Phil has had a long and storied career with Hearst over many years, both as a correspondent and editor at the Examiner and as editor of The Chronicle,” said Chronicle Publisher Frank Vega.

“He has made many contributions in those roles. During his years as editor of The Chronicle, Phil brought many innovations and new thinking as we made a transition from a traditional newspaper into a world where The Chronicle and SFGate.com provide information through many sources.”

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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com

“Napoleon Dynamite,” the 2004 independent film about a socially awkward teenager in a small town, directed by Jared Hess and starring Jon Heder, became a hit and received praise for bringing something fresh to the teen comedy genre.

The film is about a high-school loser, Napoleon, who becomes a bit of a winner while retaining his geekiness. The original cast is voicing their animated characters in the TV shows that debuts on January 15.

They are joined by new characters and guest stars including Amy Poehler, Sam Rockwell and Jemaine Clement.

Heder, 34, talked to Reuters about returning to play Napoleon and working in animation.

Q: Napoleon is back! Why now?

A: “We played around with the idea of an animated series or live-action series for a sequel, but we never played around seriously because we made this with a bunch of friends, so we weren’t thinking cash franchise. But it came out and became a success, and I think all these years later, when Fox came to us, we said, ‘Hey, we’d talked about it. We think the time is right, let’s do it,’ and we were all on board.”

Q: Why animation over live action,wholesale Ed hardy sunglasses, especially with the original cast?

A: “Honestly, because it’s probably cheaper and we’re probably all old and flabby now! A live-action show still has a certain lifespan, but with shows like “Family Guy” and “King of the Hill,” successful animated shows can go on forever.”

Q: Where does the new series pick up from after the film?

A: “Napoleon is already friends with Pedro and Deb, and he still has a rivalry going with Summer and Don, but Kip really hasn’t met LaFawnduh yet. The idea was that Kip might have lots of potential female romantic interests. It’s kind of a prequel, in between the end of the movie and the wedding (between Kip and LaFawnduh), because the wedding at the end of the movie, that could have been much later, even years later, so maybe they took some time apart to try out some different mates.”

Q: What can we expect from Kip’s online dating adventures?

A: “We just like the idea that Kip is always online, especially because he doesn’t really know what he’s getting into. In one of the episodes, he’ll be talking to Tatiana from Russia, and he has no idea who she is, she could be a man, so we’re playing with the idea that Kip is clueless. It also lends itself to stories where Kip and Napoleon are going after the same girl, some sibling rivalry there.”

Q: Do you ever feel pigeonholed by playing Napoleon?

A: “He’s very much like me. He’s not pretentious. He was raised in a small town, and he’s an outsider. So, I relate a ton to the character. It is kind of a part of me and it probably will be for the rest of my life. That’s why I have no problem coming back and doing Napoleon again.”

Q: How do you think fans will respond?

A: “… I think true fans will like it, hopefully. It’s animated but it’s trying to capture the feeling and the integrity of the movie. There’s an innocence that’s still there and the naivety of the characters and there’s such a lovability about them.”

Q: Does Napoleon’s iconic dance to Jamiroquai’s “Canned Heat” make an appearance?

A: “Sadly, because it’s animated, unless they do some motion-capture on me, that was the only thing I was a little bit bummed about. I’m playing the part, but it’s only the voice, and so much of the Napoleon character is capturing the image and the physical movements. But from what I’ve seen, the animators are doing a pretty funny job.”

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Patricia Reaney)

Rep. Peter King, who heads the House Homeland Security Committee, has questioned how much information was shared about the U.S. special operations mission in Pakistan that killed the al-Qaida leader in May. King on Thursday released a December letter from the Pentagon saying that the inspector general’s office covering intelligence matters “will address actions taken by Department of Defense personnel related to the release of information to the filmmakers.”

King, R-N.Y., also released a November letter from the CIA saying that its office of public affairs was developing a “single point of reference that will govern future interactions with the entertainment industry.”

King has expressed worries about the administration’s cooperation with Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and Kathryn Bigelow, director of the Oscar-winning picture “The Hurt Locker,” who is working on a movie about the hunt for bin Laden. In August King wrote the inspectors general of the Pentagon and CIA noting a New York Times column saying that Sony and Bigelow had been given “top-level access to the most classified mission in history.”

In his letter, King said that leaks of classified information related to the bin Laden raid had already resulted in the arrests of Pakistanis believed by Pakistan authorities to have assisted the CIA. Participation by the Pentagon and the CIA in making a film about the raid “is bound to increase such leaks, and undermine these organizations’ hard-won reputations as `quiet professionals,’” King said.

He sought information on talks among the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA about providing Hollywood executives with access to covert military operators and asked whether the film would be submitted to the military and the CIA for pre-publication review.

White House press secretary Jay Carney, asked in August about King’s call for an investigation, said claims that the White House had given out classified information were false and that the most specific information the White House had released about the raid came from his daily briefings.

In a statement late Thursday,Replica Ed hardy, CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said, “CIA has been open that as part of our public outreach, the agency has over the years engaged with writers, documentary filmmakers, movie and TV producers, and others in the entertainment industry.

“Our goal is an accurate portrayal of the men and women of the CIA, their vital mission and the commitment to public service that defines them,” Youngblood added. “And it is an absolute that the protection of national security equities is an integral part of our mission.”

Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal issued a statement in August saying the film “has been in the works for many years and integrates the collective efforts of three administrations, including those of Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama, as well as the cooperative strategies and implementation by the Department of Defense and the CIA.”

The movie is expected to reach theaters at the end of the year.