MEETING OFFLINE: Winners of the award for public service pose for a group photo at the China Internet Conference 2011 in Beijing on August 23. The conference adopted a report, mapping out the development of China's information industry in the next decade (YANG LEI)

Crash Probe

A senior official said on August 22 that results from a preliminary government investigation indicated the deadly high-speed train crash that occurred near Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province on July 23 could have been prevented.

The crash left 40 people dead and 191 others injured.

The government's investigation included a detailed survey and a simulated recreation of the accident, said Huang Yi, a spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety.

Investigators also used data from the trains' black box recorders to analyze the accident.

So far the investigation has revealed serious design flaws in railway signaling equipment, as well as loopholes in railway safety management.

Huang said the government will continue to investigate the crash and identify responsible individuals or entities.

Food Aid

China has donated $16 million to the World Food Program (WFP) to support its famine-relief operations in Somalia, said a WFP press release on August 21.

It is China's largest single donation to WFP. China's total donations to WFP this year have totaled $20 million.

WFP said the donation would be directly delivered to its food aid program in Somalia, where about 1.5 million people are now receiving emergency rations of food.

WFP Deputy Executive Director Amir Mahmoud Abdulla said in the statement that China has emerged as an important donor for WFP programs around the world.

Ecological Improvement

The catchment area of Sanjiangyuan in northwest China's Qinghai Province, which serves as the source of China's three major rivers, has grown by 245 square km due to ecological repair efforts underway since 2005, the Sanjiangyuan Ecological Preservation and Construction Office said on August 23.

Sanjiangyuan supplies headwaters for China's Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers.

The Chinese Government initiated a 7.5-billion-yuan ($1.17-billion) project in 2005 to repair the ecological system of Sanjiangyuan by treating soil erosion, banning overgrazing and resettling the herding families out of the region. About 50,000 people, mostly ethnic Tibetans, from about 10,000 herding families have been moved.

Toxic Pollution

The police in southwest China's Yunnan Province have detained five suspects after a chemical company was found to be dumping carcinogenic industrial chemicals into a local reservoir.

The Luliang Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. was found to have released over 5,000 metric tons of chromium-contaminated waste near the Chachong Reservoir and on the hills of Qilin District in Qujing from April to June, threatening the water sources for tens of millions of people.

The suspects taken into custody included a deputy general manager and an employee of the company.

Rainfall in June washed some of the chemicals into local water supplies and caused 77 cattle to die. At least 3,000 people live near the dumping sites.

As the Chachong Reservoir and its downstream river feed the Pearl River, one of China's longest waterways, the pollution scandal has sparked water safety concerns. However, investigators with the Pearl River Water Conservancy Committee said in mid-July no cancer-causing hexavalent chromium (chromium VI) had been detected in major drinking water sources.