FIGHTING PIRACY: China's missile destroyer DDG-168 Guangzhou sets off from Sanya, Hainan Province on March 4 for an anti-piracy escort mission in the Gulf of Aden. The Chinese flotilla also includes supply ship 887 Weishanhu and missile frigate FFG-568 Chaohu (ZHA CHUNMING)

A Dry Spell

More than 6 million people in southwest China's Yunnan Province faced water shortages as a lingering drought continued to worsen, provincial government officials said on March 3.

"The number of people affected is expected to hit 10 million by May," said Qin Guangrong, Governor of Yunnan Province.

The drought has also affected about 2.1 million hectares of crops, and threatened the water supply for more than 3.6 million livestock in the southwestern province.

Yunnan's drought—its worst in six decades—began in the fall of last year. So far, direct economic losses have been estimated at more than 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion).

Premier on the Net

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said he was determined to tame the "wild horse" housing market and keep property prices at a reasonable level during his term in an online chat with Chinese Internet surfers.

An online survey conducted by Xinhuanet.com reveals that soaring house prices are a top concern and major headache for many Chinese people. As of February 26, 19,796 respondents, or 12.31 percent, said housing is the major issue. This came in second to the income distribution issue, which garnered 13.76 percent of the votes.

"In China, with its huge population and limited land, people's access to housing is a problem," Wen said, adding that the key to solving the problem is to increase the basic supply of housing.

Space Lab

China plans to launch an unmanned space module, the Tiangong-1, in 2011, which is expected to accomplish the country's first ever space dock and is regarded as an essential step toward building a space station, experts said on March 3.

Tiangong, or the Heavenly Palace, would finally be transformed into a manned space lab after experimental dockings with three Shenzhou spacecraft that are expected to be put into space within two years following the module's launch, said Qi Faren, the former chief designer of the Shenzhou spaceships.

Epidemic Eases

The A/H1N1 influenza outbreak, which claimed nearly 800 lives on the Chinese mainland, has passed its peak in the autumn-winter flu season, the Ministry of Health said on March 2. The mainland witnessed a sharp drop in the proportion of A/H1N1 in all flu cases, down from 36.6 percent in January to 11.1 percent in February, the ministry said in a report posted on its website. The disease had led to 793 deaths as of February 28, including 18 in February, according to the report. Experts spotted no mutations in the virus, however, and an estimated 30 percent of the population had immunity against the strain, according to the report. But the ministry warned that, though a pandemic was unlikely to recur in the near future, localized spreading of the disease could not yet be ruled out—especially in crowded public venues such as schools.