Fingerprints to be added to ID cards

The old resident identity cards will be obsolete as of Jan 1, and public security departments in some major cities will begin collecting residents' fingerprints when people apply for a new ID card, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday. Figures released by the ministry show, at present, more than 1.1 billion people have obtained the new versions of the ID cards.

Project will benefit 500 million people

About 44.8 billion cubic meters of water will be supplied to drought-prone northern China every year, benefiting 500 million people, when the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is completed, authorities said. The project, the world's largest water diversion, will transfer water from the water-rich south, mainly the Yangtze River, to the drought-prone north.

100m more 3G users in 2013

China will add an estimated 100 million new 3G subscribers in 2013, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The number of broadband Internet users will increase by 25 million, Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, said at the ministry's annual meeting on Thursday.

Many factors cited in air pollution

The 2012 Annual Report on Motor Vehicle Pollution Control in China, released on Thursday, emphasized a growing trend of compound sources in the country's air pollution. Tao Detian, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Ministry, said the number of motor vehicles nationwide in 2011 was at more than 200 million, 30 times more than the 1980 level. The total amount of emissions also rose 14 times.

Unmanned drone ready for testing

An unmanned drone developed by a research team of the People's Liberation Army will soon undergo its first test. The drone's functions include automatic tracing and surveillance, and key attack technologies will be tested, according to a report by Science and Technology Daily on Thursday.

China to support ball sports

China's top sports official said on Wednesday that the government will develop favorable policies and financial support for the development of popular ball sports, especially soccer. Liu Peng, director of the General Administration of Sport, said China's national teams in ball games, especially soccer, basketball and volleyball, failed to achieve their goals in recent competitions, and some of them are struggling.

City to join New Year countdown

Beijing will hold its unique New Year countdown by lighting a gigantic ball at the China Millennium Monument, an official from the Beijing municipal government said on Thursday. Cities around the world mark the New Year with unique celebrations. This year, Beijing is joining in with a unique lighting ceremony.

Guangdong

Universiade way over budget

The 2011 Shenzhen Universiade went drastically over budget, a report by the Shenzhen audit office announced on Thursday. Some programs of the Universiade failed to come in under or on budget, and some did not even have budgets, with the Universiade as a whole coming in 12.74 million yuan ($2 million) over budget.

Shanghai

City mulls blacklist for food safety

The government of Shanghai is considering rolling out a mechanism that will blacklist enterprises involved in illegal conduct regarding food safety and impose harsh punishments, Deputy Mayor Shen Xiaoming said on Wednesday. The mechanism would cover 11 types of misconduct and include company executives on the blacklist.

Component failure blamed for spill

A malfunctioning part was confirmed to have caused a molten iron spill that occurred in a Baosteel workshop in Shanghai last week, killing two and injuring 13, authorities said on Wednesday. Investigators found an L-shaped block component failed to stop a crane carrying molten iron, which then came off its tracks and spilled on workers.

Sichuan

11 jailed for taking part in disturbance

A local court in Luzhou city, Sichuan province, sentenced 11 people to prison on Thursday, two months after an incident caused a disturbance in the city, local media reported. The 11 people were sentenced to prison for between eight months and nine years for crimes of arson, creating social disturbances, attacking State organs in groups and disrupting public services.

Taiwan

42 percent use wireless Internet

Wireless Internet users in Taiwan account for 42.4 percent of the island's population, according to a report published on Wednesday by the Taiwan Network Information Center. The 2012 Survey of Wireless Network Usage in Taiwan said that as of Oct 3, a total of 9.76 million people above the age of 12 had used wireless networks in the past six months, a year-on-year increase of 11.9 percent.

Hubei

First subway under Yangtze to open

The first subway line to cross the Yangtze River, China's longest waterway, will open on Friday in Wuhan, Hubei province, local authorities said on Thursday. Trains will start running at 10 am on Friday at a speed of 80 km per hour, the city government said in a press release.

Hebei

Reporter confined by county official

An official with the land and resources bureau of Nanpi county in Hebei province confined a journalist who was investigating a land-seizure case. The reporter from China Newsweek was released unharmed after six hours. Xue Wenyuan, the bureau's office director, reportedly spoke and behaved inappropriately to the journalist.

China Daily - Xinhua