More lawyers THE number of practicing lawyers in China surpassed 365,000 by the end of 2017, an increase of 11.5 percent, according to the All China Lawyers Association on Monday. Poverty alleviation MORE than 5.81 million Chinese people have been lifted out of illness-induced poverty, said Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, on Monday. Programs addressing poverty caused by illness are making positive progress, Ma told a working conference on poverty alleviation held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. Ma said China had been improving medical care services and favorable policies for people below the poverty line. In 2017, the percentage of individual medical payments after reimbursements for people living below the poverty line was at 16 percent, down 27 percentage points from 2016, according to Ma. Panda cubs born A 17-YEAR-OLD female panda gave birth to twin cubs in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan Province on Monday morning. Qing He, whose name means congratulations in Chinese, gave birth to the twin cubs. The female cub born at 7:53 a.m. weighed 117.2 grams and the male cub born 23 minutes later weighed 140.8 grams. They are the second pair of twins born in the base this year. |