The wife of an American killed in Beijing is starting to talk and walk short distances while recovering at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

A statement posted on the Web Monday by Barbara Bachman’s three daughters also says the funeral for Todd Bachman is on hold until their mother is well enough to attend.

The Bachmans were in China for the Olympics when they were attacked at a tourist attraction August 9, apparently at random. Their attacker killed himself.

Their daughter Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman is a former American Olympic volleyball player and their son-in-law, Hugh McCutcheon, coaches the American men’s volleyball team.

Daughters Elisabeth, Sara, and Susan say in their statement that their mother is making incredible progress, and doctors are calling her a “miracle.” Ms. Bachman’s doctors have upgraded her condition to good, the Mayo Clinic announced yesterday.

Todd Bachman was CEO of Bachman’s Inc., a family-run garden center in Minneapolis. Updates about Barbara’s condition are posted on the company Web site.

SACRIFICES WERE REQUIRED FOR OPENING CEREMONIES

A martial arts student, Cheng Jianghua, only saw the army barracks he stayed in and the stadium where he performed at the spectacular Olympics opening ceremony. But his sacrifices were minor — other performers were injured, fainted from heatstroke, or forced to wear adult diapers so the show could go on.

Filmmaker Zhang Yimou, the ceremony’s director, insisted in an interview with local press that suffering and sacrifice were required to pull off the August 8 opening, which involved wrangling nearly 15,000 cast and crew. Only North Korea could have done it better, he said.

But some news reports have raised questions about the lengths to which Beijing went in trying to create a perfect start to the Summer Games.

Chinese officials were accused of fakery for using computer-generated images to enhance the show’s fireworks display for television viewers.

Organizers also have been criticized about their decision to have a 9-year-old girl lip-synch “Ode to the Motherland” because the real singer was deemed not cute enough.

Performers have complained that they sustained injuries from slipping during rain-drenched rehearsals or fainting from heatstroke amid hours of training under the relentless summer sun.

RICE NIXES PLANS TO ATTEND CLOSING CEREMONIES

Secretary of State Rice, confronted with sudden array of global troubles, has dropped plans to attend the closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing this weekend.

She will be replaced by Labor Secretary Elaine Chao as leader of the American delegation for Sunday’s finale.

The National Security Council spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said the change was made “because of ongoing events around the world.”

Ms. Rice was in Brussels, Belgium, yesterday for a NATO meeting dealing with Russia’s invasion of Georgia. The American also lost an ally in the war on terror with the resignation of Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf.

NY GRAFFITI ARTIST DETAINED IN CHINA

An American artist who planned to use laser beams to flash “free Tibet” on buildings in downtown Beijing was detained yesterday, according to a colleague and a pro-Tibet group.

James Powderly, a co-founder of Graffiti Research Lab in New York, was detained before dawn as he prepared to use a handheld green laser to project messages on prominent structures in Beijing, according to Students for a Free Tibet.

Mr. Powderly’s colleague, Nathan Dorjee, said in New York that he received a text message from the artist, which said he had been detained around 3 a.m. by police.

Officials at Beijing’s Municipal Publicity Security Bureau did not answer phone calls last night. His whereabouts remained unknown, the group said.

“He was going to project a message that said, ‘Free Tibet,’ and some other messages that would have been three-stories high in different locations in Beijing,” Mr. Dorjee said.

Mr. Powderly is the latest foreign activist detained after seeking to use the Olympic Games to criticize China for its rule in Tibet, alleging human rights abuses and religious restrictions. Other foreign demonstrators, many of whom tried to hang “Free Tibet” banners in Beijing, have been quickly picked up and deported.

BEIJING AIR QUALITY AT BEST LEVEL IN A DECADE

Beijing’s air quality has been at the best level in 10 years this month after the government halted production at factories and took vehicles off roads to help reduce pollution, the environmental protection bureau said.

Beijing has had 18 “full-compliance” days in August, including nine grade-one days, the deputy director of Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Du Shaozhong, said at a briefing in Beijing yesterday.

Beijing has spent $17 billion improving air quality for the Olympics, removing more than half the cars from its roads, halting construction work, and shutting polluting factories.