Month: May 2014

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Becky Domokos-Bays of Alexandria City Public Schools has served her students whole-grain pasta 20 times. Each time, she said, they rejected it.

By Ed Stoddard ISIMANGALISO South Africa (Reuters) – If the African National Congress maintains its 65 percent majority in South Africa’s May 7 election, it will be thanks in large part to rural ethnic Zulu voters such as Alfred Sabela. Before, we fetched water from the river,” said 43-year-old Sabela, standing by the makeshift shop from which he hawks carvings near iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a major tourist attraction in a once-neglected area. The ANC’s drive to develop this corner of KwaZulu-Natal province, 700 km (450 miles) southeast of Johannesburg, has paid dividends, notably by undermining the rival Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), once the regional political force. The IFP’s decline has accelerated under President Jacob Zuma, a 72-year-old Zulu with a rural upbringing and firm beliefs in traditional practices such as polygamy.

By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – China signed a raft of agreements with Ethiopia on Sunday as Premier Li Keqiang arrived for the first leg of his four-nation Africa tour aimed at shoring up burgeoning Sino-Africa ties that saw their trade top $200 billion last year. This is Li's first visit to Africa since he became premier last year, and follows a trip to the continent by President Xi Jinping in March 2013, when he renewed an offer of $20 billion in loans to Africa between 2013 and 2015. Africans broadly see China as a healthy counterbalance to Western influence but there are growing calls from policymakers and economists for more balanced trade relations. In Ethiopia, Chinese firms have invested heavily in recent years with their worth swelling well over $1 billion in 2014, according to official figures.

Beijing’s air quality has come under intense scrutiny since January last year, when heavy smog settled over the city to the alarm of its residents. Premier Li Keqiang in March promised a “war on pollution” as the country seeks to stem public anger over premature deaths while weaning the economy off over-dependence on energy-guzzling heavy industry. Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau handed out fines totalling 14.5 million yuan ($2.3 million) over the first four months of the year, it told state media on Sunday. In March, Beijing for the first time took charge of supervising its pollution levels.

CHICAGO (AP) — The number of children killed by drunken motorists has declined substantially in recent years but the biggest threat remains their own drivers, not strangers in other vehicles, a study found.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s health ministry says one more patient who contracted the potentially fatal Middle East virus related to SARS has died and that 14 new cases have been detected.