China's meteorological authority on Sunday lifted a blue alert for blizzards that have swept many parts of the country.

However, the National Meteorological Center says slight snow will hit the eastern parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Guizhou, regions to the south of the Yangtze River and the northern parts of southern China on Sunday and Monday.

 

Another 3 human H7N9 cases in China

Chinese health authorities say three more people, one of which has since died, have been confirmed to be infected with the H7N9 bird flu in two provinces. 

Among the infected was an 81 year old woman from Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, who died on Friday. 

An 11-year-old boy from Huaiji County, also in Guangdong, has been confirmed to have the virus, but he is in stable condition. 

Another case , reported in Anhui Province, is in critical condition after contracting the bird flu. 

Live poultry markets in Susong County and the urban area of Anqing City were suspended on Sunday. 

China has reported more than 120 human H7N9 cases this year, which includes over 26 deaths.

Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces have been affected the worst.

 

7.58 mln train trips made on Saturday

China's railway authority has forecasted some 7.5 million trips were made on Sunday as the country embraces a travel peak season after the Spring Festival vacation.

A similar number of trips were made on Saturday.

Passengers are mostly returning to work from family reunions in their home towns after the lunar New Year, which fell on January 31st and a seven-day holiday which ended last Thursday.

The travel rush coincides with snowstorms in central and eastern regions, which put more pressure on the transportation system.

 

Humanitarian operations restarted in Syria

6-hundred Syrians have reportedly left the besieged ruins of the rebel-held central city of Homs.

UN and Syrian Red Crescent teams also managed to deliver relief supplies to the quarter, which has been besieged for more than a year.

The evacuation comes a day after aid workers came under mortar fire in the city.

A joint United Nations and Syrian Red Crescent team had been stranded in central Old Homs for several hours on Saturday.

President Bashar al-Assad's authorities and rebel fighters have traded accusations of responsibility for the attacks.

The convoy was targeted just as the relief workers were handing over food and medical supplies. 

Four volunteers of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were injured.

 

Head of Iran's negotiating team reads from a joint statement with the IAEA

Iran says it will take new steps in cooperating with the U.N.'s nuclear agency concerning the country's nuclear program.

Reza Najafi, the Head of Iran's negotiating team, says Tehran had agreed to take seven new practical measures within three months.

Details of the measures have not been disclosed yet.

The IAEA team is in the Iranian capital to investigate alleged nuclear weapon activity.

Iran has been insisting their nuclear work is peaceful, but the West fears they may be developing weapons capability.

The joint IAEA-Iran statement makes no mention of the agency's long-sought access to the Parchin military site.

 

DPRK ship free to leave Panama after paying fine: authorities

A North Korean vessel was free to go after its owner paid a heavy fine for trying to ship undeclared Cuban arms through the Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal Authority says in a statement the over 693 thousand-U.S. dollar fine was imposed for violating navigation regulations by not reporting that the ship was transporting war material hidden beneath 10,000 tons of sugar. 

Last week, 32 of the ship's 35 crew members, all North Korean citizens, were transferred into the custody of immigration officials after prosecutors dropped charges against them. The three highest-ranking crew members, including the captain, still face trial on arms trafficking charges. 

The confiscated arms will likely be sold or given away and the sugar sold to companies interested in turning it into ethanol, according to Panamanian officials.

 

PBOC vows to guard against financial risks

China's central bank has pledged to guard against financial risks while keeping liquidity at appropriate levels.

The People's Bank of China aims to keep a closer eye on the risks of wealth-management products, banker's acceptance, and inter-bank businesses.

At the same time, it will also keep watch on potential default risks from lending to local governments, industries struggling with overcapacity, and the property sector. 

In its latest quarterly statement, the PBOC says it will sustain the growth of lending and total social financing at a reasonable pace.

The PBOC says they will push forward with interest-rate liberalization and keep the yuan exchange rate at steady levels, as per their long-standing policy.

 

Xisha islands to become China's latest ecotourist paradise

The Xisha Islands in the South China Sea are to become China's latest tourist hotspot.

The provincial governor of Hainan says cruises to the islands, around 180 nautical miles away from the nearest port, got underway on a trial basis in April last year. The trip to Xisha on the Coconut Princess, takes about 20 hours from Haikou, the main port of Hainan, China's southernmost province. 

Tourists have to eat and sleep onboard the cruise ship to protect the fragile local environment and because of shortages of basic supplies, especially water.

 

Alipay claims to be world's No. 1 mobile payment company

Alipay, a leading Chinese third-party payment platform, has become the largest mobile payment provider in the world based on user and transaction volume.

The subsidiary of Internet firm Alibaba Group had nearly 300 million registered users by the end of last year.

Over 100 million of them accessed Alipay services via mobile phones.

Alipay's mobile users made nearly 2.8 billion transactions and spent 148 billion US dollars by the end of last year.

Moreover, about 81-percent of Chinese web users access the internet through their mobile phones.