Beijing

Carrier-borne jet force set up

A carrier-borne aviation force has been formally established as part of the People's Liberation Army navy, military sources said on Friday. The creation of the force, approved by the Central Military Commission, demonstrates that the development of China's aircraft carrier's capabilities has entered a new phase, the sources said.

Nurses better educated

Fifty-six percent of China's nurses at the end of 2012 were graduates from junior colleges, a figure 24.4 percentage points higher than it was in 2005, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission. More than 10 percent of all nurses now hold a bachelor's degree or above, the commission said in a statement on Friday.

Online news check launched

The State Internet Information Office has launched a two-month campaign to regulate improper online news, according to a statement issued by the office on Friday. Improper practices include running stories without proper attribution, circulating false stories, maliciously tampering with headlines, and assuming the identity of a news organization when publishing news, according to a spokesman for the office.

Infections claim 1,260 lives in April

A total of 611,580 infectious disease cases were reported in China in April, resulting in 1,260 deaths, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said on Friday. Hepatitis, tuberculosis, syphilis, dysentery and gonorrhea were the top five infectious diseases, the commission said.

Pork-purchase plan in pipeline

The government will soon launch a pork-purchase plan to stabilize depressed prices and shore up farmers' confidence, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday. The plan is the second of its kind this year, as prices of pork, a staple meat in China, declined 6.5 percent year-on-year in April and 6.1 percent from the previous month.

Jiangsu

Work ends on longest tunnel

Work on a 3.6-km-long tunnel under the Yangtze River, which will carry a section of subway line 10 in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, was completed on Friday. It is the longest tunnel under a river in China, according to Xinhua News Agency. Workers spent three years on the project, which cost 820 million yuan ($133 million), the report said.

Jiangxi

University chief in discipline probe

The president of Nanchang University is being investigated over suspected serious disciplinary violations, provincial discipline inspection authorities announced on Friday. Zhou Wenbin, born in 1960, has served as president of the university since 2002. Zhou is also the deputy Party chief of the university and has been a deputy to the 12th National People's Congress, the top legislature.

Shanghai

Bird influenzaunder control

Shanghai dropped the pandemic contingency status in the city on Friday as it said the H7N9 strain of bird flu is under control. No new H7N9 infections have been reported in the city for 20 days, and medical observation has ended on all 458 people who had close contact with people infected with the virus, the government said in a statement on its website.

Hubei

Hukou for college graduates

Wuhan, Hubei province, lifted the hukou, or household registration, restrictions on college graduates to attract more talent to the city. Graduates can get a Wuhan hukou after they have worked in the city for two years, according to the city government. There were 270,000 college graduates in Wuhan last year, but only 80,000 of them worked in the city after graduation.

Sichuan

Panda family gets bigger

Forty-five giant pandas have been born at the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center since a magnitude-8 earthquake struck a panda habitat in Wenchuan, Sichuan province, five years ago. Breeding continued despite another earthquake that recently hit the province's Ya'an, said Huang Yan, deputy engineer-in-chief of the center.

Tibet

Foot-and-mouth infects cattle

The Ministry of Agriculture said on Friday foot-and-mouth disease has been confirmed in cattle in the Tibet autonomous region. A village in Nedong county in Shannan prefecture reported that 11 cattle displayed symptoms on May 6. To prevent the disease from spreading, local authorities have sealed off and sterilized an infected area where 56 cattle were culled and safely disposed of.

China Daily-Xinhua