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 …
A CHINESE herb, Artemisia annua, say scientists, has yielded a wonder drug -- artemether -- which is 3 times more effective than quinine in treating malaria that is resistant to most drugs. They have also found that artemisinin, an oil extracted from the plant, has cut to about 1/5th the …
THE results of the recent analysis of a skull excavated 10 years ago from cave deposits at the Jinniushan site in China reveal that it is the oldest specimen of Homo sapiens found in the country (Nature, Vol 368, No 6466). The skull, along with an almost complete skeleton, was …
AS CHINA prepares to enter a market economy, it is busy putting its house in order. Two specialist courts will be set up in the key commercial centre of Shanghai to handle trademark and copyright violation cases, the pro-China Hong Kong-based daily Wen Wei Po reported. Shanghai courts have been …
MULTINATIONALS are having a field day on Chinese television. Ever since Robert Wang, a Chinese-American entrepreneur, persuaded the state-run China Central Television to air company profiles on its Economic Half Hour, the floodgates have opened for "infomercials". The 10-minute shows -- filmed and financed by Philip Morris Co and six …
BRITAIN and China have finally joined the international ban on dumping nuclear wastes at sea. The two countries, Russia, Belgium and France had abstained when the London Convention - a worldwide treaty on sea pollution - was adopted by, 72 nations in November 1993. Belgium and France later indicated their …
THE World Bank has commended the Chinese government's resettlement record - at "well over 30 million", the world's largest - as a "model" for most types of resettlements. A leaked report, in which the bank reviewed its own resettlement policy, said, "Over the past 40 years, tens of millions of …
BRITAIN is having a hard time reconciling its business interests and its self-professed environmental concerns. Although the British firm GEC-Alsthom has supplied turbine generators for China's Daya Bay nuclear power station near Hong Kong, the British establishment has vociferously protested against the setting up of the plant. There are fears …
NORMAL life came to a grinding halt in Canada when a geomagnetic disturbance hit two of its communications satellites -- Anik E1 and Anik E2. Television and radio transmissions were disrupted across the nation. Canadian Press, the country's biggest news service that feeds information to more than 100 newspapers and …
THE CHINESE government has been forced to take some drastic measures to assuage the country's long-suffering farmers, who are moving to the cities in droves in search of more money. For one, it has forbidden the construction of new golf courses and horse-racing tracks -- symbols of a "decadent" Western …
HOW DO Chinese tots outperform their American counterparts? Psychologist David C Geary of the University of Missouri at Columbia, USA, who has studied the performance of Chinese and American schoolchildren, found the Chinese kids got three times as many items right in a test and they could hold more digits …
THE CHINESE health ministry has proposed a law requiring people with diseases that lead to birth defects or mental retardation to postpone marriage or undergo "long-term contraceptive measures after marriage". The legislation aims to "avoid new births of inferior quality and heighten the standards of the population", says the official …
CHINA and the US have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enforce the UN ban on drift-net fishing in the North Pacific. The MOU is the first of its kind since the ban came into force on January 1, 1993. China has agreed to allow the US coast guard …
THE CREDIBILITY of China's controversial Three Gorges project to build the world's largest dam across the Yangtze river has received a setback. Two US government agencies -- the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers -- said they will sever their involvement in the project after completing work …
A SATELLITE that plunged into the sea is lying unclaimed and has become a point of debate between USA and China. The US Space Command says the satellite, launched by the Chinese on October 8, fell into the Pacific Ocean 1,600 km west of Peru. However, China disowns any connection …
SOME 1,000 dinosaur eggs found in China have become a bone of contention between scientists and commercial collectors (Science, Vol 261, No 5122). Scientists covet these beautiful and undamaged eggs because they could provide an insight into the Cretaceous period (140-65 million years ago) when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But …
You have been sharply critical of census methods in different parts of the world, in particular India. Why are you unhappy with the Indian census? Starting from 1881, we have had a census every 10 years, except during the war in 1941, when we had a restricted census. Frankly, I …
LOANS FROM the US have helped Pakistan use other funds to finance its nuclear programme, according to the Central Intelligence Agency of USA, reports indicate. The agency is, however, uncertain about whether China continues to provide Pakistan with nuclear weapon technology.
INDIA AND China signed an ecology pact on September 7, during Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao's visit to Beijing. "The two countries have several common environmental problems, which can be solved only by formulating joint programmes and regularly exchanging information," explains Sandeep Kumar of the ministry of external affairs. …
A SERIES of explosions in China's economic boomtown of Shenzhen is the latest proof of the country's dismal industrial safety record. About 70 persons died as the blasts ignited the eight warehouses at a depot owned by Anmao Dangerous Goods Shipping & Storage and the resulting explosions resembled a giant …
CHINA'S plan to build the Three Gorges dam across the Yangtze river with a 185-m-high reservoir level "would not be an economically viable proposition", according to the World Bank. Probe International reports the World Bank endorsed a Canadian feasibility study of the dam, which contained evidence that raising the water …
