The Chinese government has announced plans to provide an additional 3-million U.S. dollars worth of humanitarian aid for refugees in Syria.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has made the announcement while visiting Saudi Arabia as part of his current Middle Eastern tour.

Wang also says the Chinese government believes the continued use of military force will lead to more disasters for the Syrian people.

 

AU expresses grave concern over South Sudan situation

The African Union is expressing "grave concern" about the situation in South Sudan.

The comments have emerged from a meeting of the AU's Peace and Security Council.

The council is warning the situation in South Sudan is rapidly deteriorating into a full-fledged civil war.

The AU also says its "dismayed and disapponted" at the country's leaders for failing to live up to the hopes and aspirations of the people of South Sudan.

The public lambasting by the AU follows days of unrest across the world's newest country.

 

Egypt declares Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group after blast

The Egyptian government has officially labelled the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

The authoriteis in Egypt are pinning the blame for a massive bombing in the northern city of Mansoura on the organization.

The massive blast on Tuesday left 16 dead and over 130 others hurt.

The Muslim Brotherhood has denied any connection to the blast.

An al-Qaeda inspired organization is claiming responsibility for the blast.

 

Thousands of Turkish protesters urge Erdogan to step down

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in different cities across Turkey, demanding the resigination of the county's prime minister.

The demonstrations come after three of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet ministers were forced to step down amid a corruption scandal.

Protesters are calling for the entire government to be removed in the wake of revelations the sons of two of Erdogan's cabinet ministers have been charged in a massive corruption probe.

Erdogan himself is dismissing the calls, saying the protesters are trying to create an anti-Turkey "trap" to undermine his administration.

 

China's growth may hit 7.6 percent

China's economic growth is likely to stand at 7.6 percent this year, slightly down from 7.7 percent in 2012.

A State Council report says economic growth has been higher than expected since 2011 despite a declining trend.

A five-year plan set an annual growth target of gross domestic product at 7 percent between 2011 and 2015. GDP growth was 9.3 percent in 2011, 7.7 percent in 2012 and 7.6 percent in the first half of this year.

The report adds there are uncertainties in global economic recovery and the international market has failed to produce strong demand.

 

Dependency on natural gas imports rises

New stats show China is now dependent on 32 percent of the natural gas supply from import.

This is up from 29-percent last year. 

Observers are anticipating this country's dependency on natural gas imports will continue to increase as authorities move to reduce fossil fuel consumption and improve air quality.

Natural gas imports have soared from 940 million cubic meters in 2006 to 31.4 billion cubic meters in 2011.

It's expected China will have imported 53-billion cubic meters of natural gas this year.

This is up nearly 24-percent year-on-year.

 

Alibaba spinoff moves further into the cloud

Chinese E-commerce giant Alibaba is extending its cloud-computing services to overseas markets in March.

The move is meant to grab a share of the public cloud arena from archrivals such as Amazon.com and Microsoft.

Aliyun, Alibaba's spinoff cloud-computing division, is scheduled to set up data centers outside China to provide cloud-computing services to local firms, as well as Chinese companies' overseas operations.

Aliyun will become the first Chinese company to reach out to the foreign public cloud segment, days after its US counterpart Amazon announced the launch of a similar service in China.

 

Williams named AP athlete of the year

American tennis star Serena Williams has been named the Associated Press's Female Athlete of the Year.

It's the third AP award for Williams, following honors 2002 and 2009.

Only two women have been chosen more often as AP Athlete of the Year, since the annual awards were first handed out in 1931.

The vote by news organizations was about as lopsided as many of Williams' matches this season. 

She received 55 of 96 votes, while Brittney Griner, a two-time AP Player of the Year in college basketball and the Number-1 pick in April's WNBA draft, finished second with 14. 

Swimmer Missy Franklin was next with 10 votes.

Williams went 78-4 with 11 titles this year, including victories at the French Open and U.S. Open, raising her Grand Slam championship total to 17. 

She also compiled a 34-match winning streak and earned more than 12-million US dollars in prize money, which is a record for women's tennis.