ZHENGZHOU: After years of delay, construction on the South-to-North Water Diversion Project will, for the first time since it began years ago, proceed at full capacity next year, thanks to an unprecedented investment boom, according to Zhang Jiyao, the official in charge of the program under the State Council.
Zhang said at a conference on Monday, [...]

The bill for official government vehicles reached 80 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) last year, making up 14 percent of last year’s total government procurement, southcn.com reported today.
China’s self-owned brands are required to make up no less than 50 percent for governmental-used cars since 2009, according to the 12th meeting of the 11th National People’s Congress [...]

About forty million farmers in China still live under the poverty line, web portal ifeng.com reported, citing comments from Fan Xiaojian, the head of China’s national poverty and development office. A farmer is considered to be living in poverty if they make less than 1,196 yuan ($175) annually.
Fan said the global financial crisis has hit [...]

A man who killed his neighbor and took his victim’s pregnant wife hostage in Chongqing municipality yesterday morning was later shot dead by police, local officials said.
The 26-year-old man, who local media reports identified as Liu Yong, took the woman hostage at a community in Yongchuan district of Chongqing.
The man was shot at about 10:30 [...]

Family members of Hunan province’s former Wugang city deputy mayor, who died last month, are applying to the Ministry of Public Security for a re-investigation of the alleged suicide case, saying the facts show that he was murdered.
I’m determined to demand a reasonable explanation for what happened to my husband as long as I have [...]

GUANGZHOU: In an attempt to stop people from protesting garbage incinerators, officials here are maintaining that no death and cancer cases are directly related to burning trash in this way, officials said.It is a rumor that the number of death or cancer cases has been rising after the garbage incinerator in Likeng was put into [...]

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who shouldered huge domestic pressure for a meeting between visiting Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping and Japanese Emperor Akihito, said yesterday he “earned the chance” to deepen ties with Beijing.I’m convinced that I got the chance to promote mutually beneficial relations (with China),” Hatoyama said at a dinner in Xi’s honor.
The [...]

A significant majority of Chinese teenagers are quite conservative when it comes to pre-marital sex, a survey of 1,500 people from a district of Chongqing municipality has shown.
The latest poll surveyed the residents of Jiangbei district in the southwest municipality older than 15.
About 69 percent of those born during the 1990s were of the view [...]

TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday that the three detained Americans will be tried by the country’s judiciary, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
“Introgating the three U.S. citizens who have entered the country illegally with suspicious aims is underway,” Mottaki told reporters.
Asked whether Iran is ready to exchange the three U.S. citizens [...]

Former champion gymnast and disabled rights activist Sang Lan has criticized her local community members who block the wheelchair ramp with bicycles and motorcycles.
The 27-year-old woman, who is paralyzed from the chest down after suffering a spinal injury at the Goodwill Games in New York 10 years ago, said she has had trouble accessing the [...]