Chinese and South Sudanese presidents meet

Chinese President Hu Jintao has now met with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir here in Beijing.
Hu Jintao has told Kiir that South Sudan and Sudan need to respect each other's sovereignty.
At the same time, the Chinese president is urging the two countries to resolve their differences through negotiations and mediation.
Kiir's 6-day state visit here to China comes as his country becomes more embroiled in a border war with Sudan.
China willing to deepen relations with Sweden: Premier

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has been meeting with the top leaders in Sweden as part of his current trip there.
This is the first time for a Chinese Premier to visit Sweden in 28 years.
Wen Jiabao says China sees Sweden an important cooperation partner. China will provide a one billion euro special loan to support enterprises from both sides to conduct scientific cooperation.
China is Sweden's biggest trading partner in Asia.
There are 500 Swedish enterprises in China. 10 thousand Swedish companies have relations with China.
Sweden is the 3rd leg of Wen Jiabao's European trip, which will also take him to Poland.
2 Chinese observers join UN advance team in Syria

2 Chinese observers have now arrived in Syria to join the advanced UN observer team there.
Their arrival has enabled two other observers to be shifted to the central city of Hama.
The UN advance team has been operating in Syria for more than a week now to monitor the UN-backed ceasefire.
Since their arrival, violence has reportedly declined, though attacks and deaths are still being reported on daily basis.
Police nab suspect in Beijing doctor stabbings

Police have caught the man suspected of stabbing two doctors at two Beijing hospitals earlier this month.
Lu Fuke, a 51-year-old native of Beijing, was picked up in Hebei yesterday.
Lu allegedly stabbed two doctors both the Peking University People's Hospital and the Beijing Aerospace Hospital on April 13.
Both doctors survived the attacks.
Police are now looking into possible motives for the attacks.
China to open Xisha Islands to tourism this year

The provincial authorities in Hainan are now planning to open the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea for tourism this year.
The vice-governor of Hainan, which administers the islands, has made the revelation at a tourism conference in Haikou.
The Xisha Islands are a cluster of close to 40 islets, sandbanks and reefs in the South China Sea.
Dutch elections expected after summer

Law makers in the Netherlands have now agreed that an election to replace the current government will be held after the summer break.
This means an election won't be held until sometime in the Fall.
The decision by the parties in the Dutch parliament comes just a day after the resignation of government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Rutte has been forced to call the election after one of his party's main supporters in the coalition government refused to come to terms with an austerity budget he had been putting forward to try to maintain the country's AAA credit rating.
Egypt's former premier barred from presidential race

Former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik has become the latest person to be barred from running for President of Egypt.
Egypt's electoral commission has barred Shafik from running under the recently-passed legislation which bans any former top official under Hosni Mubarak from political posts for 10-years.
The move now means that former Arab League chief Amr Moussa is one of the only non-religious-based candidates in the running for the presidency of Egypt.
The presidential election in Egypt is due to be held in around one-month's time.
Romney taking big wins in GOP primaries

Mitt Romney continues to roll along in the Republican primary campaigns, even though most pundits now have him has the presumptive nominee.
5 primaries have taken place in states in the US northeast, and Romney is projected to win all of them.
Romney is still technically campaigning against former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas representative Ron Paul.
Meanwhile, new Gallop polling has put incumbent US President Barack Obama well ahead of Romney in voter support, carrying some 50-percent support.
Mad cow case detected in U.S.

A fourth case of mad cow disease has been detected in central California.
The authorities say the animal in question did not enter food chain, meaning there is no threat to the food supply.
The US Agriculture Department is now sharing its findings with other laboratories to confirm which form of 'mad cow' this particular animal had.
Mad Cow disease outbreaks in the past, particularly in the UK, have caused significant damage to the beef industry, given the threat Mad Cow disease poses to human health.
World's largest solar plane to make first cross-continent flight

The designers of the world's largest solar powered airplane are now planning a cross-continental flight.
The Swiss-made "Solar Impulse" will try to fly some 25-hundred kilometers from Switzerland to northwest African nation of Morocco.
The designers of the plane are planning for a flight sometime in either May or June, though the exact day will depend on the weather conditions.
This flight is supposed to serve as a 'dress-rehearsal' for an around-the-world flight in 2014.
World Buddhist Forum to Open in HK

The latest installment of the World Buddhist Forum is set to get under way in Hong Kong later today.
Monks and scholars from more than 50 countries and regions are set to participate in the three-day forum.
It's believed that around one in seven people living in Hong Kong are Buddhists.