China's football revolution kicks into overdrive (The Associated Press)

As coaches take notes, teenagers dribble footballs through a course of cones on Ritan Middle School's gleaming artificial field in eastern Beijing, part of a massive program to promote soccer as a pillar of China's rise to global prominence. The 14-year-old boys and girls were being scrutinized under a newly added section of Beijing's high school entrance exam, which beginning this year includes an elective football skills test in addition to such standards as Chinese, math, and English. While the skills tests comprise only a small part of the placement exam, the fact education officials tweaked a notoriously rigid standardized test is one sign of how thoroughly China is mobilizing under President Xi Jinping's drive to overhaul the game domestically and turn the Chinese team into a World Cup winner by 2050.