In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
NEUTRON stars are rapidly rotating stars composed predominantly of closely packed neutrons. They emit rapid, regular pulses of radiation (usually at radio frequencies, and are known as pulsars). Since 1967, when the first pulsar was discovered accidentally, a lot of research has gone into neutron stars. One of the several …
Increased pollution levels are the reason behind China facing a terrible water shortage. According to a Chinese scientist, if the trend continues, it could become a full blown crisis by mid-21st century. Chen Mengxiong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said many people believe that water supply in the country …
THE Yangtze river is swollen. Since May 1998, floods caused by heavy rains have affected thousands across 12 provinces in central, southern and eastern China. Gushing waters have killed more than 1,200 people, according to reports. Though floods are an annual affair in this part of China, water levels have …
Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes are the major causes of death in China today. According to a report published by the national health economics institute, more than US $12 billion will be spent on the treatment of these diseases. By 2000, the annual expenditure will cross …
linzhou , a tiny mountain province in China, has seen a lot of action lately. Here, in a nondescript red-brick health centre, next to a metalworking shop that could be perfectly at home in the Middle Ages, us and Chinese doctors operated recently on Chinese peasants with high-tech medical equipment …
A Han dynasty work of art that was sold recently in New York for us $2.5 million may have been stolen from the area to be flooded by the Three Gorges Dam. Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, an archaeologist and art historian based at New York University, has found similarity between the sold …
Scientists in China have planned to clone the giant panda as a means of saving the extremely endangered species, according to a participating researcher. In this regard, the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences has granted us $12,000 to fund a project at its Institute of Zoology, said assistant researcher Duan …
Millions of people in Indonesia may face food shortages following prolonged drought and a deepening economic crisis, warns the United Nations. In a statement, the United Nations Development Programme has said that nearly 7.5 million people in Indonesia living in 15 provinces risk experiencing food crisis if another drought takes …
For the first time, China looks serious towards the environmental problems. It has recently put the environment protection issue in the government's priority list, which is at par with agriculture, forestry, water conservation, energy, transport and telecom, says Qu Geping, director of the National Peoples Congress Resources and Environment Sub-committee. …
A growing number of albino (white-skinned) animals in Shennogjia nature reserve in central part of the nation has got the country's biologists puzzled about the cause. People have reported seeing bears, snakes and river deer with white skin or fur in the dense forests of the sprawling Shennogjia reserve. Zoologists …
The wild elephants that once roamed freely over southern China, retreated long ago to the dense tropical rain forests which cover the mountains near the nation's borders with Myanmar (previously Burma) and Laos. The dwindling elephant population that now survives has been further ravaged in recent years by poachers eager …
The Yamdrok Tso pumped-storage hydroelectric plant has become fully operational from late 1997, reports the World Rivers Review . Situated 120 km from the country's capital Lhasa, on the banks of the massive Yamdrok Tso lake, the plant is the biggest power station in Tibet, with an installed capacity of …
The Chinese government has launched a "Ride the Wind' project to achieve 1,000 megawatts (MW) of installed power capacity by the end of the year 2000. The state planning commission has appointed Luoyang First Tractor Factory and Xian Aero Engine Company as local partners in this ambitious project, to avoid …
A diet comprising a bowl of rice and vegetables may seem rather stern compared to the relatively rich daily fare of today, but it was heart-friendly, claim doctors. With the rising living standards, a significant percentage of the China's formidable populace is switching to meat. Pork with eggs has attained …
an earthquake which recently rocked the Hebei province in northern China has left nearly 11,440 people injured and 44,000 homeless. Economic losses from the quake have been estimated at us $228 million. Thousands of victims are now facing the bitter cold. The temperature in the quake-affected areas has plunged to
China has found its biggest threat yet. Pollution. With 178,000 annual deaths being attributed to urban pollution, the nation's leaders have become keenly sensitive to the issue and going by the rhetoric and new regulations, are indeed concerned about the problem. The blood-lead levels in Chinese children are 80 per …
The World Bank's report on the environment in East Asia says that disease and death will increase steeply among China's city dwellers unless the country tackles its growing air pollution. The report claims that if urban air pollution continues to grow at current rates, the number of premature deaths in …
Family planning restrictions in some urban areas of China have been eased allowing many of the parents of the one-child policy to have two children. The two-child rule, envisioned years ago, but phased in quietly in selected areas only recently, is designed to tackle a new problem in China: too …
