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On March 22, GK Vasan, India’s central minister for shipping, tabled the National Waterway Bill in parliament, proposing to build infrastructure at an estimated cost of Rs 1.2 billion ($22 million). The projects are expected to be completed by 2019.

The ministry is also awarding contracts for constructing 42 new ports with the target of achieving 3,200 million ton capacity by 2020. The money will be raised through bonds.

China's commitment to sustainable development will benefit China and the world, according to Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond.

"China has made a commitment to move toward sustainable development - something economies all across the world are working toward," Salmond told China Daily.

"Included within that are targets for energy efficiency and consumption that will see China increasingly find its energy from non-fossil fuel sources. That plan is very much in line with what we are trying to do in Scotland."

Sospeter M Muhongo is rare among politicians in that he is an acknowledged expert on his ministerial brief.

The 58-year-old former president of the Geological Society of Africa was appointed last year as Tanzania’s minister of energy and minerals by President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete.

“This is the way we are going now. I think, depending on our new constitution, it is very likely that experts will be deployed in some positions if it is thought they can play roles that benefit the country,” he says.

The government will encourage civil societies to play a greater role by simplifying registration while beefing up supervision, Civil Affairs Minister Li Liguo said on Wednesday.

Experts and industry insiders welcomed the government's pledge but urged concrete action for real change.

Li said the State Council's recently announced reconstruction plan has shown a path for transferring more government functions to society.

Maintaining annual GDP growth between 7 and 8 percent is the best option for China's development, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Against this backdrop, lowering the GDP growth rate from 9.3 percent in 2011 to 7.8 percent in 2012 should be seen as a success rather than a setback, said Zhang Ping, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, the leading economic policy body.

China will target this growth rate not only in 2013 but probably in the foreseeable future, he said.

No sooner had Vice-Foreign Minister Fu Ying been named spokeswoman for the first session of the 12th National People's Congress on Monday, than netizens' comments began to flood in.

Fu, the first spokeswoman in the history of China's top legislature, chaired a 75-minute NPC news conference, aired live on television.

China's top micro-blogging site, Sina Weibo, was flooded with favorable reactions to the so-called iron lady of the Foreign Ministry.

An initial probe into a hot air balloon crash that killed 19 tourists in Egypt has ruled out any criminal activity as a cause of the accident, media said on Wednesday.

"Investigations so far by the general prosecution show no suspicion of criminal activity," the official MENA news agency reported, citing the preliminary findings of the investigation.

Four investigating teams were formed after Prime Minister Hisham Qandil ordered a probe into Tuesday's balloon crash in the ancient temple city of Luxor.

A recent online post on Sina Weibo carried a link to an intriguing new list published by the Chinese business magazine, Investment & Finance.

Highlighted were what the magazine considered the 10 "best paid emerging jobs of the year".

An online novel writer, for example, can make millions of yuan, apparently, by writing fictional stories about princes and princesses in ancient China. 

A Chinese company is likely to be among the top candidates to cooperate with Serbia, as the Balkan country plans to build a landmark navigable canal, a senior Serbian official said on Saturday.

Analysts said that if it materializes, the move would be an important breakthrough in infrastructure cooperation between China and Europe, especially as several previous ventures have been aborted by a number of countries.

Efforts to help street children will be boosted, a minister said as he acknowledged the challenges in preventing children ending up on the street in the first place.

The death of five boys, sheltering in a dumpster in Guizhou province in November, exposed weaknesses in the system built to protect children, Civil Affairs Minister Li Liguo told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"The lack of family responsibility was an element in the tragedy, but it also reflected flaws in our protection of children," he said.

This year will be critical for the Korean Peninsula. All the countries engaged in the Six-Party Talks have seen leadership transitions in the past year or so and, therefore, they may change their policies on the Korean Peninsula issue in accordance with the changing international situation.

The Ministry of Transport has pledged to ensure travelers will enjoy safe and convenient journeys during the coming Spring Festival travel peak, a ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

"We will spare no efforts to guarantee the safety of passengers," He Jianzhong, who is also director of the ministry's policy and statute department, said at a news conference.