Three of the four provinces along the Huaihe River have failed to meet their industrial wastewater reduction and treatment targets, the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced recently.

Huaihe River, the country's third largest river, stretches more than 1,000 km through Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces.

The four provinces signed responsibility pledges with the Central Government last year to clean up the river. But the ministry released the findings of a four-day inspection, saying that the river is still plagued by ammonia and nitrogen, and its chemical oxygen demands are excessive.

Public Participation

The country's top legislature promised to make all draft laws public to give people more say in formulating legislation.

"In principle, all draft laws submitted to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for review will be released in full text to solicit public opinion," the NPC Standing Committee announced.

"The draft laws will be published on our official website (www.npc.gov.cn). If they're closely related to the interests of the people, the drafts will also be published in major newspapers," the committee said.

The most recent draft law made public is the draft food safety law, which was published on the national legislature's website on April 20.

Bumper Harvest

Central China's Henan Province, which produces a quarter of the country's wheat, and its neighbor Shandong Province expect a bumper summer harvest after rain this month, the provinces' agricultural authorities said.

The recent rain on April 19-21 ended the spring drought in the two provinces, experts said.

The State Administration of Grain predicted China's grain output would be about 500 billion kg in 2008, the fifth consecutive year of a large wheat harvest.

The country raised its minimum purchase prices for rice and wheat for a second time this year to spur grain production and curb inflation, which hit an 11-year high of 8.7 percent in February and declined to 8.3 percent in March.

No Appeal

Former Shanghai Communist Party chief Chen Liangyu has chosen not to file an appeal to overturn his conviction for bribery and abuse of power.

The deadline for an appeal was April 21, and Chen did not raise a plea for a retrial. It indicates the original sentence of 18 years in prison, handed down on April 11, will be imposed.

His initial trial was held at the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. The court confiscated 300,000 yuan ($42,860) of Chen's personal assets.

Xinjiang Disaster

Sandstorms, snow and freezing weather have hit northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region since April 17, affecting 5 million people and causing an estimated loss of 5 billion yuan ($714 million), local authorities said.

As the Siberian cold front moved southward, the extreme weather wreaked havoc in most parts of Xinjiang from April 17 to 20, said Qian Zhi, the region's vice chairman.

The disaster affected 473,733 hectares of crops, or 69 percent of the total in the region, and 411,466 hectares of fruit trees. About 103,500 livestock were killed while another 3.25 million were injured or lost, he said.

The temperature in Urumqi, the region's capital, dropped from 22 to minus four degrees Celsius in three days.