IN BRIEF (Page 4)

South Africans pray as Mandela remains hospitalized

South Africans prayed for Nelson Mandela's recovery on Sunday as the 94-year-old former president spent a second day in hospital with a recurring lung infection.

Showtime for modern Chongqing

On a map, the narrow Yuzhong Peninsula, bounded by the Jialing River to the north and the Yangtze River to the south, resembles a smaller version of Manhattan Island in New York.

Leaving the fields behind, villagers become city slickers

"When I leave the apartment, I will always remember to turn off the gas," said Xu Chaohui in a serious voice.

Investigators hunt for clues to fire

Police have cordoned off the road running up to the slaughterhouse in rural northeast China where the death toll climbed to 120 in a fire early on Monday morning.

Company Special: Novartis expands drug research domestically

For more than two decades, the Chinese economy has been growing at a spectacular rate.

Families cling to fading hopes of finding survivors

On Tuesday morning, Wang Shunwen was standing outside the gates of Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co, waiting for news of his daughter.

Help at home is maid to order

Xue Qianchun, 35, carefully used a chef's knife to chop bell peppers and onions. After that, she put some ginger into a food processor and reduced the spice to powder.

Former military base opens doors

Wushitala township in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is only able to thrive because it is next to the Malan military base.

Learning to be a perfect lady proves fruitful

Most Chinese are familiar with the old saying "Daughters should be brought up in rich surroundings", but spending 10,000 yuan ($1,630) a day to study etiquette is still beyond many people's imaginations.

They've got your number

The theft and sale of personal information taken from the Internet and mobile devices has prompted calls for tougher laws, as Hu Yongqi reports from Beijing.

Software testing a crucial defense

As smartphones have gained popularity in China, privacy concerns have shifted from calls to the mobile Internet. About 420 million people in China had surfed the Internet via a mobile phone by the end of 2012, according to the China Internet Network Center.