marked the 16th flight of a Long March 3C rocket, a variant of the Long March 3 family with two strap-on liquid-fueled engines. The more powerful Long March 3B, which flies more often, features four boosters.

The Long March 3C lifted off at 12:53 a.m. Beijing time on Dec. 25.

The Chinese rocket-builder CALT said the launcher delivered its payload to a geostationary transfer orbit, and U.S. military data indicated the satellite was deployed in an orbit ranging between 112 miles (180 kilometers) and 22,234 miles (35,783 kilometers), with an inclination of 28.5 degrees to the equator.

CALT and the Xinhua agency identified the payload as a communications technology test satellite, known as TJS 3. No other information about the spacecraft or its mission were released by Chinese officials, raising suspicionsA secretive Russian billionaire has abandoned his libel case against the Economist magazine after it suggested he had benefited from his close relationship with Vladimir Putin, Russia's former president turned prime minister.

Gennady Timchenko said recently that while he and Putin knew one another, their relationship was one of casual acquaintanceship rather than friendship.

He agreed a settlement yesterday with the UK magazine in the high court in London.

Timchenko had hired the high-profile libel firm Schillings. Speaking in March, his aides said the oil tycoon was determined to go ahead with the case and had "nothing to hide".

According to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti, Timchenko's decision to sue in Britain could have forced him to reveal potentially embarrassing details of his private bank accounts and the ownership and asset structure of