Ministry cites rural progress

Investments to improve healthcare and teachers' incomes in rural areas have paid off with measurable improvement in students' development in underprivileged areas, but more measures are needed to achieve equality in education, according to the Ministry of Education.

China backs France in terrorism fight

China firmly supports France, still reeling from the Paris terror attacks, in its fight against terrorism and in safeguarding its national security, President Xi Jinping told French Prime Minister Manuel Valls in Beijing on Friday.

Regulation forbids lavish buildings

The central government has issued a regulation forbidding county authorities in poverty-stricken areas from building lavish office buildings, a senior official said on Friday.

IN BRIEF (Page 3)

Sculpture provides food for thought

Auguste Rodin's masterpiece The Thinker is on display - chin still resting on fist - at the National Museum of China alongside traditional Chinese art. He might be pondering what China and France have in common, and how to draw the two nations more closely together.

MH370 verdict reached

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was officially declared an accident on Thursday under international aviation rules, according to Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation.

Moneybags investor busy mining the DPRK's art market

Investor Frans Broersen has been flying to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for years with "bags full of money" and has returned with hundreds of works of art.

Provinces cut GDP growth targets to meet 'new normal'

Provincial-level governments in China have lowered their annual economic growth targets amid the unprecedented slowdown in the national economy.

Scores of PLA officers punished

More than 200 senior People's Liberation Army officers have been reprimanded, demoted or removed from their posts for problems exposed by military auditors, PLA Daily reported on Thursday.

Fancy some kangaroo in your hotpot?

Everyone at the table has stopped eating. The Chinese dinner guests are staring at me with expressions ranging from abject horror to sheer disbelief.

This Day, That Year

Item from Jan 30, 1986, in China Daily: Heads of state and government, scientists and ordinary people around the world were saddened by the explosion on Tuesday of the US space shuttle Challenger which killed all seven of its crew, including teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe. President Li Xiannian sent a message yesterday to US President Ronald Reagan, expressing his "deepest sympathy" over the disaster.

Hot topic

A prisoner in Heilongjiang province allegedly used a smartphone to blackmail a woman into visiting him in jail for sex.