Chinese premier meets governor of Sweden's Vastra Gotaland province on friendly ties

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is now in Sweden, where he has taken time to meet with the governor of the province where the replica of the famed Swedish merchant ship "Gothenburg" calls home.
Wen Jiabao has also taken time to take a tour of the ship itself.
A copy of the "Gothenburg" became a symbol of China's ties with Sweden back in 2005 when it began a voyage to this country to commemorate the original voyages of the merchant ship back in the 18th century.
Sweden is the 3rd stop on Premier Wen Jiabao's current European tour. He will also visit Poland.
Chinese government says it is de-escalating the situation in Huangyan Island

The Chinese government now says it's moving to de-escalate the situation around Huangyan Island in the South China Sea.
The Chinese side says it has withdrawn two of the three law enforcement vessels it has patrolling the area.
This comes amid reports in the Philippine media that China is deploying more surveillance and paramilitary ships to Huangyan Island.
Former Wukan village heads expelled from Party

Two former village officials from the community of Wukan in Guangdong have been expelled from the Communist Party of China amid corruption and election-rigging charges.
Xue Chang, the former Party chief of Wukan, and Chen Shunyi, former head of the village committee, have also been ordered to hand over all illegal gains.
Wukan grabbed international headlines last year when the locals staged massive rallies in protest against local officials.
Investigators have since found that Wukan's former officials were involved in illegal transfers of land use rights, embezzling from collective properties, accepting bribes and rigging the village elections.
China's former soccer chief stands trial for corruption

The trial for the former head of the Chinese Football Association has now begun.
56-year old Xie Yalong is accused of taking bribes.
The man who eventually replaced Xie as the CFA's chief, Nan Yong, is also due to stand trial this week in Liaoning.
Xie and Nan are the highest ranking officials caught up in the crackdown on Chinese soccer corruption, which has already brought down dozens of high-ranking soccer officials, referees and players.
Four former Chinese international footballers are also due to stand trial on bribery charges this week.
Sarkozy asks Hollande not to shy away from additional debates

Incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy is cranking up the political pressure on his Socialist rival, calling on Francois Hollande to take part in more debates.
Sarkozy is publically calling on Hollande to take part in 3 debates ahead of the May 6th runoff vote between themselves.
Analysts say Sarkozy is trying to goad Hollande into additional debates to try to use his political experience on the public stage to outshine Hollande, who doesn't have a track-record on the national stage.
Hollande is refusing to take part in any more than the one traditional debate, which will be held just days before the May 6th vote.
UN observers visit Damascus suburbs, violence being reported elsewhere across the country

UN observers have made another round of stops around the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The observers have been talking to locals in three different suburbs to try to get a better sense of what is happening on the ground.
However, violence is being reported in other cities across Syria.
Media outlets in Syria are reporting the assassination of a number of high profile army officers.
At the same time, activists say around 30 people have been killed in government shelling, most of them in central Hama.
Trial of former U.S. presidential hopeful Edwards begins

The political corruption trial of former U.S. Presidential hopeful John Edwards is now underway.
Edwards is accused of using campaign contributions to cover up an affair with a mistress who became pregnant during his failed bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Edwards has already conceded to the affair, but says he didn't break any laws.
Edwards is also being accused of collecting nearly 1 million dollars in campaign donations without reporting them.
Chavez says he will return to Venezuela Thursday

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced plans to return to Venezuela on Thursday following his latest round of cancer treatment in Cuba.
The announcement has quashed rumors that Chavez died during his most recent round of treatments.
Chavez' supporters say the opposition is trying to erode Chavez's popularity by spreading the rumors to try to gain an advantage in upcoming presidential elections.
Chavez has been making short trips to Cuba for ongoing radiation therapy since last summer.
Power-strapped China to see blackouts this summer

A new industry report now indicates that some parts of China will experience severe blackouts this summer.
The assessment comes in a quarterly report released by the China Electricity Council.
The report says China's more developed eastern and southern regions will bear the brunt of the shortages.
At the same time, China's northeast and northwest regions are expected to see an electricity surplus.
The CEC is predicting overall electricity consumption in the first half of the year will grow by around 8 percent.
China's 2012 health budget grows

The Ministry of Health here in China now says its budget is going to grow by some 13.3 billion yuan this year.
The ministry says the extra money will be mainly used for medical services, education and scientific research.
Medical services will get the lion's share, 10.9 billion yuan, mostly to try to improve the capacity of major clinical departments in this country's public hospitals.
1.7 billion yuan is being allocated to research projects, which include the development of new drugs and the prevention and control of major infectious diseases.