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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: High-speed train breaks record

A CRH high-speed train zips in a test run in Zaozhuang, China, Friday.  (Associated Press)

BEIJING – China’s railway ministry says a Chinese passenger train has set a new record for speed, hitting 302 miles per hour during a test run.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the feat took place Friday on the yet-to-be opened line linking China’s two major cities of Beijing and Shanghai. It’s scheduled to commence operations in 2012 and will halve the current travel time to five hours.

State television footage showed the sleek white train whipping past farm fields. The project is part of a massive government effort to link many of China’s cities by high speed rail and reduce overcrowding on heavily used lines.

China to change monetary policy

BEIJING – China will tighten monetary policy next year, the country’s Communist Party leadership said Friday, signaling the world’s second-largest economy will likely slow down in the coming months to combat inflation and settle into a more sustainable pace of growth.

The announcement by the nine-member Politburo, which was made through the state New China News Agency, said China would shift to a “prudent” monetary policy from a “moderately loose” approach. The decision comes after two years of unprecedented bank lending has flooded the economy with excess liquidity.

Easy credit is being blamed for real estate prices that have doubled and tripled in some of China’s leading cities in recent years. Led by soaring food prices, the country’s inflation rate hit a 25-month high in October and is expected to have risen even more in November.