Society

Authorities in Beijing are planning to use cleaner petroleum and diesel to power its five million vehicles in the first half of next year in a bid to reduce pollution.

The Beijing municipal environmental protection bureau is seeking public feedback on the plan that will reduce sulfur

Research showed the cleaner energy will also help to cut nitride oxide, a major pollutant in vehicle emissions by up to 10 percent, to help lower the PM 2.5 reading of microscopic airborne particles, the bureau said in a press release.

A heavy fog blanketed parts of northern China on Monday, delaying flights and causing hundreds of cancellations, while smog hung in a dark haze over Beijing.

As of 2 p.m. (0600 GMT), 126 flights had been delayed by an hour or longer and 207 were cancelled at Beijing, the world's second-busiest airport, Xinhua news agency said.

The Beijing sky was so dark that many drivers kept their headlights on throughout the day, giving the city an eerie, netherworld feeling.

China's top broadcasting watchdog has banned the TV shopping programs of 19 companies from screens after they were found to have less registered capital than the minimum amount required for such programs.

The registered capital of those companies range from 1 million yuan($157,480) to 5.08 million yuan, less than the required amount of 10 million yuan, read a circular recently posted on the website of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

Among the companies, five are from Beijing and others are based in provincial regions including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jilin and Hainan, according to an attached file to the circular.

The Chinese central government decides on Tuesday to raise its standard in defining the poverty line for the nation's farmers.

The threshold is to be raised to 2,300 yuan (about $362) in terms of the annual net income of farmers, up 92 percent from the standard set in 2009.

The government has a goal of providing adequate food and clothing for poverty-stricken people while ensuring their access to compulsory education, basic medical services and housing by 2020, an official in charge of poverty reduction said earlier this month.