IN BRIEF (Page 2)

New rule to allow 6 days to visit delta visa-free

The country's first cross-region visa-free transit policy will take effect on Jan 30 in the Yangtze River Delta region, the Ministry of Public Security said on Jan 26. It will allow foreign transit passengers from 51 countries to travel through Shanghai and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces for six days.

2022 Paralympics to push equal access

To prepare for the 2022 Paralympic Games, Beijing plans to build 100,000 accessible facilities, train 100,000 fitness instructors for disabled people, and launch Paralympic education programs, the Games organizing committee said on Jan 25.

Capital aims to cap population at 23m

Some Beijing residents will be relocated to ensure the capital does not exceed its population target of 23 million by 2020, a high-ranking official said on Jan 23. The cap on the populace comes as the number of permanent residents hit 21.7 million by the end of last year.

Govt plans nuclear emergency taskforce

China will form a national nuclear emergency response taskforce to prepare for possible serious accidents and take part in overseas operations, according to Xu Dazhe, head of the China Atomic Energy Authority. The force will have more than 300 professionals and will work with the 30 or so existing nuclear emergency teams to conduct search and rescue operations in the event of an accident.

31,500 young offendersgiven amnesty

China has released 31,527 prisoners, most of whom were juveniles when they committed crimes, under an amnesty agreement signed by President Xi Jinping to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, according to an official statement on Jan 25.

Police recruitment rules tightened for quality

China has tightened the rules on its recruitment of police officers to ensure the force is honest and professional, the government has said. Recruitment will now be handled only by provinces, not cities or counties.

Marines hold live-fire exercises in Xinjiang

The Marine Corps of the People's Liberation Army Navy conducted its first live-fire drills in a desert in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Jan 22. During the exercises, marines, artillery units and armored vehicles launched simulated offensives against a heavily armed infantry company from Xinjiang Military Command. It was the farthest and longest training operation ever conducted by the Marine Corps.

Chinese archaeologists to assist Egypt

Archaeologists with the Institute of Archaeology are to work with Egyptian experts to carry out excavations and safety monitoring and control in key sites in Egypt. The institute will also train Egyptian experts in protecting archaeological discoveries.

Seniors protected from demanding children

The eastern province of Anhui has introduced a regulation against grownup children who demand money from their parents. The law, which takes effect in March, states, "Adults who are able to live on their own should not ask for financial support from their parents if the latter and not willing to give it." It also bans them from asking elderly people to complete physical tasks.

Beijing, Kabul boost anti-terror efforts

China has agreed to strengthen its anti-terrorism work with Afghanistan, a war-torn country whose stability is linked to that of western China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. China and Afghanistan have also agreed to discuss and expand trilateral cooperation with the United States.

State entities show anti-graft work

Twenty-six state agencies and enterprises have begun issuing statements showing how they have corrected violations uncovered during graft inspections. Statements from 13 institutions were available on the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection website on Jan 26. The CCDI conducted inspections targeting 26 institutions between June and September.

Wukong sharpens its eyes for dark matter

Scientists have begun calibrating China's first dark matter probe in order to produce more accurate data, more than a month after the detector started to search for signals of the invisible material. The Dark Matter Particle Explorer Satellite, dubbed Wukong after the Monkey King character from the Chinese classic Journey to the West, was launched on Dec 17.

Funds allocated to improve air

Beijing will spend 16.5 billion yuan ($2.5 billion; 2.3 billion euros) on improving air quality this year, the city government said on Jan 24. The funds will be used to cut back on coal use and remove outmoded vehicles from the roads.

Bus arrives after woman hails Uber ride

A woman in Shanghai used the ride-sharing app Uber to summon a taxi and got picked up by a bus. The woman said the middle-aged bus driver told her he had his own car for his taxi work, but received her request as he was completing his first job and picked her up on the way back to the bus depot.

Released teen accused of fresh killing

A man released from prison in November after serving part of a six-year sentence for injuring a girl with a knife has been accused of the Jan 18 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in the southern city of Guangzhou. The 19-year-old, identified only as Wei, was convicted in 2011 and was also accused of killing a boy in 2010.

Shanghai may offer 2 local icons a job

A Shanghai legislator has proposed adopting two locally made cartoon images - the hero of Black Cat Detective animations and the White Rabbit creamy candy log - as symbols of the city. The black cat stands for justice and rules, while the white rabbit is a symbol of intelligence and flexibility. These qualities are inseparably interconnected in the core philosophy of the city, said Li Qi, a deputy to the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress.

Nuclear energy goal still within reach

China can meet its target of achieving 58 gigawatts of installed nuclear power capacity by 2020, despite slower approval for new nuclear power generators after Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, officials said. The government took measures to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities after that, including security inspections of all facilities, adopting the most stringent safety standards and improving emergency response.

Tourism to Taiwan on fast track

The number of tourists from the Chinese mainland visiting Taiwan was estimated to be a record 3.4 million for 2015, the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office said on Jan 27. About 9.9 million people made cross-Straits trips, said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the office. Taiwan residents made 5.5 million visits to the mainland, up 2.5 percent, while mainland residents made about 4.4 million visits to the island, up 7.7 percent.

Apps to pay public fees to cover more cities

Residents in more than 70 percent of Chinese cities will soon be able to use popular smartphone apps to pay their taxes and electricity bills. Many local governments have been prompted to offer online payment options for public services, tech consultancy Gartner said in its latest report. Of the country's 688 million netizens, more than 90 percent use smartphones to access the Internet.

Drones will keep eye on big cats

Jilin province is planning a series of measures to protect endangered Siberian tigers and Amur leopards, some of which inhabit territory along China's border with Russia, officials said. The province plans to spend 12.8 billion yuan ($1.9 billion; 1.8 billion euros) in the project, making use of advanced technologies and collaborating with Russia to protect the two species, said Lan Hongliang, director of the Jilin Forestry Department, at a symposium in Beijing on Jan 27.

Hospital appointment scalpers face penalties

China's top medical authority will investigate and punish the scalping of hospital bookings, a spokesperson announced. A video clip that has gone viral on social networks shows a woman weeping, claiming hospital staff colluded with scalpers. She said she had waited for an outpatient appointment for two days in vain. She said an appointment slip at Guang'anmen Hospital that originally cost 300 yuan ($46; 42 euros) was being sold by scalpers for over 4,500 yuan. She later called police.

Driver intentionally hits cheaper car

A truck driver involved in a collision on a highway in Wuhan on Jan 25 said his vehicle was headed toward an Audi sedan, but he turned the wheel toward a second car because it was cheaper than the Audi.

Coal mining province to curb production

North China's Shanxi Province, a major coal mining area, plans to keep production within 1 billion tons in the next five years, provincial officials said on Jan 28. The government proposed a five-year plan to curb mining and boost coal use for more efficient forms like electricity production or chemicals. It also planned to continue encouraging mergers of mining firms, and cut the number of mines to improve efficiency.

Musician plays guitar during brain surgery

A 57-year-old guitar musician had a brain operation in Shenzhen on Jan 25 as he played his guitar. The patient had a rare neurological disease called musician's dystonia, which affected his finger muscles, depriving him of the strength to play. It is the seventh case in the world and the first in a Chinese hospital in which surgery was used to treat dystonia using light electricity to stimulate the neurons. He played so doctors could detect and record signals sent by his brain.

Cancer kills over 7,500 daily in China: report

About 2.8 million Chinese died from cancer in 2015, or over 7,500 cancer deaths per day, according to the US journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The report, compiled by the National Cancer Center in Beijing, also showed 4.3 million newly diagnosed invasive cancer cases last year in China, almost 12,000 new diagnoses each day.

(China Daily European Weekly 01/29/2016 page2)