World digest || Richest person in world is Mexican

Richest person in world is Mexican

MEXICO CITY

Mexico’s Carlos Slim, the son of an immigrant shopkeeper who amassed a $53.5 billion fortune and bought a major stake in The New York Times, became the first person from a developing nation to be named the world’s richest person.

Slim, a telecom magnate, edged out U.S. billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to earn the top spot on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people — the first time a non-American has topped the list since 1994.

Panera Bread to post calorie counts

Panera Bread announced Wednesday it will be the first nationwide chain to voluntarily post calorie information at all of its company-owned restaurants. The move is notable in an industry that had historically opposed requirements that chain operations post calorie counts.

Calorie counts will be posted by March 24 at all 585 company-owned stores. Panera expects its franchisees eventually to follow suit, which would cover all 1,380 stores. Covelli Enterprises owns five franchise locations in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys.

Obama meets Preval

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama on Wednesday renewed America’s commitment to the recovery and reconstruction of earthquake-devastated Haiti, telling visiting President Rene Preval he knows the crisis has not passed.

After an Oval Office meeting, Obama stood beside Preval in the White House Rose Garden to praise the Haitian leader’s courage and the heroic work of Americans who rushed to help as rescue workers or with generous donations.

The gray-bearded Preval stood erect as he listened to Obama, responding with words of gratitude.

“I thank you not only for the material support but the moral support, the psychological support that made us know we were not alone,” the Haitian leader said.

UN: Food aid to Somalia is diverted

UNITED NATIONS

Up to half the food aid intended for the millions of hungry people in Somalia is being diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local U.N. workers, according to a U.N. Security Council report.

The report blames the problem on improper food distribution by the U.N. World Food Program in the African nation, which has been plagued by fighting and humanitarian suffering for nearly two decades, according to a U.N. diplomat.

OSU: Check found no criminal past

COLUMBUS

Ohio State University said Wednesday a background check on a janitor who shot two supervisors before killing himself didn’t reveal that he had a criminal record, raising more questions about how his past prison sentence was missed.

The school released a background report from September on Nathaniel Brown, 50, who police say entered a maintenance shop Tuesday morning and fatally shot a supervisor, injured another and then killed himself.

Brown, who was upset over his pending dismissal, spent about five years in prison in the 1970s and 1980s for receiving stolen property, according to court and prison records.

Ohio State said it hired an outside vendor, OPENonline LLC in Columbus, to conduct the background check. The report turned up no criminal records on Brown, who denied on his job application that he had been convicted of a crime.

Angela Bosworth, an executive vice president with OPENonline, said in a statement that the company is reviewing what happened and that Brown may have given Ohio State an incorrect birth date.

Associated Press