China's response to typhoon angers residents in hard-hit Yuyao
By Kathleen E. McLaughlin
BEIJING -- When natural disaster hits, China’s need to maintain social order can at times overwhelm its humanitarian efforts.
State security dispatched thousands of riot police and security officers to Yuyao, a badly damaged city in Zhejiang province after Typhoon Fitow hit the eastern coast last week.
Post-typhoon flooding overwhelmed the city several days after the storm, with some reports saying 70% of the streets were flooded. Roads were left so impassable that residents couldn't leave and food supplies could not get in.
After a week of coping on their own, facing critical food shortages, people took to the streets as tempers flared.
European Court of Human Rights halts eviction of squatting Spanish families
Strasboug court seeks information on future housing status of 16 families from Spanish government
Guy Hedgecoe
The European Court of Human Rights has blocked the eviction of a group of families in northeastern Spain who have been squatting in a block of flats owned by the country’s bad bank.
The Strasbourg court said that the eviction of the 43 inhabitants should be delayed at least until the end of this month. It made the ruling shortly before the eviction was due to take place yesterday morning. In the meantime, the court is seeking information from the Spanish government on the future housing status of the families.
The planned eviction, which had been authorised by a local court, sparked a massive social response, with hundreds of campaigners protesting outside the building in Salt in Catalonia. A large online campaign also offered support.
Emerging Challenges: What's In Store for the New Global Powers
China, India and Brazil are taking the global economy by storm, becoming more politically confident on their way. But even as they form a front against the West, they will have to tackle slower growth and major domestic problems that their newly prosperous citizens are no longer willing to tolerate.
What will be the world's most important cities in the future? To answer this question, the US-based journal Foreign Policy and the McKinsey Global Institute examined criteria such as economic growth and receptiveness to technology. The result? Shanghai edged out Beijing and Tianjin, followed by the first non-Chinese mega-city, São Paulo in Brazil. No Western European city ranks among the top ten "most dynamic cities." Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich don't even appear among the top 50, but other cities in China, India and Brazil do. If we are to believe the study's conclusions, humankind will be speaking Mandarin, Hindi and Portuguese in its urban centers in 2025. "We are witnessing the biggest economic transformation the world has ever seen," the experts say.
Rhinos microchipped to combat poaching
October 17, 2013 - 11:36AM
Nairobi: Kenya will place microchips in the horn of every rhino in the country in a bid to stamp out a surge in poaching of the threatened animals.
"Poachers are getting more sophisticated in their approach," Paul Udoto, spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said.
"So it is vital that conservation efforts also follow and embrace the use of more sophisticated technology to counter the killing of wildlife."
Kenya has a little more than 1000 rhino, and the tiny chips will be inserted and hidden in the horn, which is made of keratin, the same material as fingernails or hardened hair.
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The World Wildlife Fund donated the chips as well as five scanners at a cost of $US15,000 ($A15,700), although tracking the rhino to dart them and fit the device will cost considerably more.
Lucha Libro: Peruvian writers 'duke it out' for a book contract in masked competitions
Instead of headlocks and body slams, aspiring writers in Lima, Peru compete against each other by writing short stories in front of a live audience, all for a shot at a grand prize publishing contract.
On a recent weeknight, a tall, masked man going by the pseudonym “Joto” sat in a cramped backstage room, along with seven other people in their 20s. Some were nervous; others appeared composed. Every one of them wore a Mexican wrestling mask. But instead of wrestling, they were there to write.
“The mask gives you a sense of security. When you know nobody’s going to recognize you, it makes writing easier,” says Joto.
This was one night in a series of popular literary “matches” known in Lima as Lucha Libro – a play on the popular Mexican wrestling event known as Lucha Libre. In the Peruvian version, instead of headlocks and body slams, aspiring writers compete against each other by writing short stories in front of a live audience, all for a shot at the grand prize of a publishing contract.
Greater China
Oct 17, '13
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SINOGRAPH
China, US face common challenges
By Francesco Sisci
BEIJING - A document recently circulating on the Chinese Internet [1] argues that there are eight areas that urgently need to be reformed. It is a lengthy and detailed account, but in a nutshell it announces that at the Party Plenum that will convene next month, the leadership intends to curb the power and access to financing for the once almighty and still inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and to create a better market and financial environment for the efficient yet still timid private enterprises. The latter, especially small- and medium-sized businesses, have for decades driven Chinese development.
This is certainly fully in line with the reforms approved in the past, in theory it is continuity. A decade ago the party changed the constitution, giving private enterprises the same status as SOEs. De facto this is the beginning of a total revolution that will check the influence of SOEs, which were an integral part of the economy and power structure of the elite of the party.
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