MAKING FORTUNE: Women of Dong ethnic group make embroidery works at Tongle Village in Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on January 26 (XINHUA)

Land Protection

China's State Council, or Cabinet, on January 28 published a circular on soil pollution, setting out a plan to contain the increasingly severe problem by 2015.

The circular ordered a thorough survey into soil conditions by 2015 and a system to be established to rigorously protect arable land and land where drinking water originates.

It proposed building a soil environment monitoring network to cover 60 percent of all arable land and land of drinking water sources that serve over 500,000 people, so that regular surveillance will be possible for these regions.

Rigorous controls on newly polluted soil were also demanded by the State Council, which set soil protection priorities as nipping in the bud the environmental risks accompanying soil pollution, and treating contaminated land.

Heavy metal pollution alone results in the loss of 10 million tons of grain and the contamination of another 12 million tons annually, incurring 20 billion yuan ($3.17 billion) in direct economic losses each year, the Ministry of Land and Resources estimated.

Missile Interception

China again carried out a land-based mid-course missile interception test within its territory on January 27.

Xinhua learned the news from the Information Bureau of China's Defense Ministry.

"The test has reached the preset goal," said an official with the bureau, without giving detailed information.

"The test is defensive in nature and targets no other country," he said.

It was the second time China announced such kind of missile test. A similar anti-missile interception test was successfully conducted on January 11, 2010.

Before the test, China's first domestically built jumbo air freighter made its maiden flight on January 26.

The Yun-20 is a huge, multi-function airfreighter which can perform various long-distance cargo and passenger air transportation tasks, Xinhua reported, saying that the successful test flight is significant in promoting China's economic and national defense buildup as well as bettering its emergency handling such as disaster relief and humanitarian aid.

The giant aircraft will continue to undergo experiments and test flights as scheduled, Xinhua said.