TECH BREAKTHROUGH: HIT, a robot developed by Harbin Institute of Technology in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, is a Chinese bipedal robot capable of kicking a ball. A press conference introducing Heilongjiang's investment environment in scientific and technological fields was held in Beijing on April 3 (SHA YUCHAO)

Corruption Trials

Former Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun has been charged with bribery and abuse of power, authorities said on April 10.

According to the indictment issued by the Second Branch of the Beijing People's Procuratorate, as a state functionary, Liu sought to benefit other parties by taking advantage of his position and accepted considerable amounts of financial incentives for doing so.

Liu, 60, became minister of railways in March 2003 and was sacked in February 2011.

He is accused of having received bribes worth more than 60 million yuan ($9.68 million), reported Beijing Times.

On April 8, Huang Sheng, a former deputy governor of east China's Shandong Province, stood trial on charges of accepting bribes.

According to the municipal people's procuratorate, from the latter half of 1998 to August 2011, Huang abused his official positions as mayor and Party chief of Dezhou, as well as vice governor of Shandong, to obtain benefits for others in their business operations and promotions.

He accepted bribes worth more than 12.23 million yuan ($1.97 million), prosecutors said.

Transit Visas

Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province is expected to become the third Chinese city to allow foreign visitors to transit for 72 hours without a visa, according to Tan Wangen, General Manager of China Southern Airlines.

"We are actively talking with the local airport and customs authorities to push the implementation of the visa-free transit policy as soon as possible," Tan said.

Since January 1, travelers from 45 countries have been benefiting from 72-hour visa-free stays in Beijing and Shanghai. With the adoption of this policy, Shanghai has registered more than 1,000 foreign passengers transiting from its Hongqiao and Pudong airports without visas, the local immigration control authorities said.

The number of inbound tourists to Beijing is expected to increase to 10 million within the next three years as a result of the policy, said the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development.

"If the negotiations go smoothly, the policy will be implemented in Guangzhou within this year," Tan told Xinhua News Agency.

Jobs for the Disabled

New progress has been made in the employment of the disabled, as China created new jobs for 329,000 disabled urbanites in 2012, according to a communique released on April 7.

As many as 299,000 handicapped urbanites received vocational training last year, while the number of vocational training bases inched up to 5,271 from 5,254 in 2011, said the communique, released by the China Disabled Persons' Federation.

According to the federation, a total of 16,514 blind masseuses and 4,925 blind medical workers were trained in 2012, with 12,887 massage care institutions and 848 medical massage institutions located across the country.

The communique showed that about 3.25 million disabled urbanites joined in the country's social pension insurance system for urban residents in 2012, accounting for 58.4 percent of the total disabled urban population.

In addition, about 13.34 million disabled people in rural areas were included in the new rural social endowment insurance system, making up 63.8 percent of the total disabled rural population, the communique said.