Nation adds 3.42m new jobs

The number of people with jobs in China rose by 3.42 million in the first quarter, while the registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent, a spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Thursday. The employment situation was "favorable" in the first three months, spokesman Yin Chengji said. The urban unemployment rate from January to March remained unchanged from 4.1 percent in 2012, and may contribute to realizing this year's target of keeping the unemployment rate at or below 4.6 percent.

Hu's comments hit bookstores

A work on former president Hu Jintao's remarks on building a harmonious socialist society hit bookstores on Thursday. The work features 40 articles, with a total of 130,000 characters, on Hu's key comments on the issue. Some of the articles are published for the first time. It opens with Hu's speech at a national conference on prevention and control of SARS, on July 28, 2003.

Illustrations on display at university

An exhibition displaying China Daily artists' illustrations and caricature works opened at the campus of North China University of Technology in Beijing on Thursday. The exhibition is organized by China Daily and displays about 400 works from eight fine art editors of the newspaper. "These works will help the students learn more about newspapers, the society, the world and China's external publicity," said Wu Wanyun, Party chief of the university. The exhibition will head for its second stop at Tsinghua University in mid-May.

Three new H7N9 cases reported

Three new cases of H7N9 avian influenza were confirmed in China on Thursday, according to local authorities. Two women in Zhejiang province and a man in Henan province tested positive for the virus on Thursday. The National Health and Family Planning Commission said in its Wednesday update that the total number of H7N9 cases reported in the Chinese mainland stood at 108, including 23 cases that have ended in death.

Road construction nears completion

The supporting transportation arteries for the Ninth China (Beijing) International Garden Expo are almost done, authorities said. Three main roads in the Fengtai district, once completed in early May, will provide substantial traffic convenience for visitors heading to the expo, which begins on May 18. The three roads, and the subways under construction, will also help accelerate the city's infrastructure construction while creating jobs for residents.

Shanghai

Student arrested in roommate's death

A third-year medical student at Fudan University has been arrested on suspicion of intentionally killing his roommate, the Shanghai procuratorate said on Thursday. The 27-year-old student named Lin is suspected of poisoning Huang Yang, 28. Police say that Lin took a deadly chemical compound from a university lab and put it into the water dispenser in their dormitory on March 31. Huang died on April 16 of multiple-organ failure, 15 days after drinking poisoned water.

Taiwan

Signal error halts trains

Service resumed on all of Taiwan's high-speed rail lines by 11:30 am on Thursday after a signaling error brought several hours of delays and suspensions, the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation announced. Earlier, the company said services on all high-speed lines had been halted due to the error and the lines would not reopen until 9:30 am. It is the first incident from non-natural causes to bring widespread disruption to the island's high-speed rail lines since they went into operation in 2007. Thirty-seven trains were delayed and more than 20,000 passengers affected. The corporation said it will further investigate the signal error.

Guangdong

Qihoo 360 loses Tencent case

Qihoo 360, a leading Chinese antivirus software developer, was ordered by a court on Thursday to make a public apology and pay compensation of 5 million yuan ($810,000) for unfair competition to Tencent, the country's largest Internet company. Lawyers for Qihoo 360 said the company will appeal to the Supreme People's Court. The Guangdong High People's Court said in its ruling that improper words were used to promote security software from Qihoo 360, and software developed by Tencent was "disdained", which constituted unfair competition.

Guangxi

Structures fall in rainstorm

At least one person was injured after a rainstorm on Thursday triggered the collapse of two structures in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, firefighters said. A food processing plant workshop collapsed after the storm hit Jingxi county in Baise, burying a number of workers. So far, 23 people have been evacuated from the workshop, with one of them injured. The other collapse happened near the county's mental health hospital, but there are no details of casualties. Rescue work is continuing.

China Daily-Xinhua