On Aug 12, two blasts ripped through a warehouse in Tianjin Port, where large amounts of toxic chemicals were stored, including around 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide. Death toll from the blasts exceed 160. Thousands of dead fish washed up on a riverbank near the site of the explosions last week. White foam filled the streets during the first rain […]
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Beijing The cloud of pollution over Beijing grew so dense this week that much of the city was rendered invisible. Hundreds of flights were grounded, auto traffic was stalled for scores of miles, and residents rushed to buy masks and air filters. Chinese officials downplayed the air-quality crisis, as usual, saying their readings showed that air pollution was “moderate.” But […]
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These nations have been dismissed as underdogs and weaklings. But like budding superheroes, they’ve been sitting on hidden talents. And now they’re about to fly. 1. FINLAND SUPERPOWER: INVINCIBLE TEACHERS If you’re a kid in Finland, you don’t start school until you’re 7 years old. There’s almost no homework until you’re a teenager. You don’t wear a uniform, you can […]
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The smog which suffocates Beijing has gotten so bad that the Chinese media has concluded that something must be done. Poor visibility has led to canceled flights and highway closings. The level of particulates in the air topped 35 times the World Health Organization’s safety limit. China’s new leaders “appear to be sending a signal that they want to allow […]
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Beijing Mass arrests: In one of the biggest crackdowns on civil society groups in decades, Chinese authorities have detained and questioned at least 238 lawyers and human rights activists over the past two weeks. At least 20 activists remain incarcerated, and the whereabouts of six of them are unclear. Maya Wang, a researcher with Human Rights. Watch, said those still […]
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Pyongyang, North Korea Pleasure squad: Now that the mourning period for his father Kim Jong II is over, dictator Kim Jong Un is creating a “pleasure squad” of pretty women. South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reported that Kim has ordered that young women be recruited from across North Korea and trained as singers, dancers, and concubines so they can entertain him […]
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There was an explosion at a chemical plant located in Yancheng, China that reported about 78 people were killed and over 500 injured. The plant is run by Tianjiayi Chemical that was founded in 2007. People reported feeling the explosion over 4 miles away and said that they had some windows blow out. The explosion happened due to a fire […]
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Ghana has sold its soul to China, said Alex Bossman Baafi. Small-scale gold-mining permits are reserved by law for native-born Ghanaians only. Yet Chinese immigrants are operating illegal gold mines all over the country, with expensive machinery and guards armed with illegal guns. These miners hurt the environment by razing our forests and dumping toxic mining by-products like cyanide into […]
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After Chen Quanguo was appointed Communist Party secretary, he went to Tibet where he saw that they started arresting Uighurs and sending them to torture camps. The people were told that they were going to reeducation camps. The police took them from their homes at night and took their children to orphanages. Most of the people were sent to hospitals, […]
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China’s wealth gap has widened so much that the country now one of the most unequal outside of sub-Saharan Africa. A respected Chinese institute found this week that China’s Gini coefficient, a number that represents income inequality, has soared from 0.41 a decade ago to 0.61 today. Anything over 0.5 is considered to be destabilizing, and South Africa, where opulent […]
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