Free Republic

Around the world, scientists are now beginning to examine samples of the virus with a significant question in mind: Could this strain of the disease cause a global pandemic? This international network of scientists keeps constant watch for good reason. In 1918 and 1919, a flu pandemic killed between 20 million and 40 million people, more than the total death toll of World War I, more in a year than the Black Death of 1347 to 1351. More recently, an H1N1 swine flu pandemic was blamed for more than 284,500 human deaths worldwide between April 2009 and August 2010. So...

(CNN)An earthquake in China's southwestern province of Sichuan left at least three people dead and 60 injured on Thursday, according to state-run media. Local authorities put the quake at 6.0-magnitude, while the US Geological Survey (USGS) put it at 5.4-magnitude on an 8-point scale.... ...At least 1,221 houses have collapsed and more than 3,000 have been severely damaged, according to state-run tabloid the Global Times... ..Luzhou City, home to about five million residents, was among the hard-hit areas...

A major discovery of a gold mask alongside a treasure trove of artefacts at a Bronze Age site in China has generated online debate about whether there were once aliens in China thousands of years ago. The gold mask, possibly worn by a priest, along with more than 500 artefacts in Sanxingdui, a Bronze Age site in central Sichuan province, have become the talk of China since the news broke on Saturday The mask is similar to previous discoveries of bronze human statues, however, the inhuman and foreign features of the finds have triggered speculation they may belong to a...

Beijing has successfully powered up its “artificial sun” nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, China’s People’s Daily reported on Friday. It’s designed to be a clean energy source, similar to the real Sun. Made to replicate the natural reactions that occur in the sun using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuels, the HL-2M Tokamak reactor is China's largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device. It is located in southwestern Sichuan province and was completed late last year. The reactor is often called an "artificial sun" due to the enormous heat and power it produces. Men work inside...

I didn’t see it coming, that mild feeling of electric currents buzzing on my tongue as if I’d licked a battery. Seated on a busy pavement in front of a lazy Susan weighed down with sizzling hotpot, diced rabbit and fish soup, I was digging into a spicy meal on the humid first night of a visit to Chengdu, the capital of China’s south-western Sichuan province and the cradle of the region’s famously fiery cuisine. The plates resembled volcanic islands, each dish’s contents swimming in chilli oil hidden beneath a red-hot mountain of peppers and garlic. Tongue ablaze and face...

The Chinese province of Sichuan, located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, has activated the highest level of flood control response for the first time on record on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, as rain-induced floods continue ravaging parts of the province. Meanwhile, the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei is facing the most severe floods since it was built in 2003 and the Tropical Storm "Higos" made landfall in Guangdong. The Sichuan province is experiencing a new round of rain since August 10, prompting authorities to issue an orange rainstorm warning on two consecutive days for the first time...

Chinese security forces continue to surround the Kirti Tibetan monastery in Sichuan after local residents tried to stop them from arresting the 2,500 monks holed up inside. The standoff began earlier this week, when hundreds of people living in Sichuan's Aba region converged on the monastery determined to stop police from removing the monks for reeducation. The monks could soon face food shortages because they depend on offerings from locals, the Voice of America reports. A U.S. State Department spokesman said the U.S. is concerned about China's actions in Aba, which it called it inconsistent with the internationally recognized principles...

Crews searching through the rubble left by a landslide that buried a mountain village under tons of soil and rocks in south-western China have found 15 bodies, but about 100 more people remain missing. Key points: 1,000 rescuers and dogs are looking for signs of lifeThis was the biggest landslide in the area since the Wenchuan earthquake, an official saidLandslide blocked two-kilometre section of river Xinhua, the official news agency, reported that about 1,000 rescuers were using detection devices and dogs to look for signs of life in an area that once held 62 homes and a hotel."We won't give...

China quake: Dozens die and hundreds hurt in Sichuan A powerful earthquake has killed at least 46 people and injured at least 400 in China's south-western province of Sichuan, state TV reports. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which had a 6.6 magnitude, was centred 50km (31 miles) west of the town of Linqiong. It said the tremor occurred at a depth of 12km (7.4 miles). There are fears the death toll could rise further. An 8.0 magnitude quake in Sichuan in May 2008 killed nearly 90,000 people.

Home schools emerged in many places of China today due to the parents' concern about the public education, the China Youth Daily reported Monday.A growing number of parents in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces are choosing to let their children receive an education at home rather than attend public kindergartens, primary, junior or senior middle schools.Some parents think their children cannot realize the happiness of learning, acquire useful knowledge effectively and master learning for a modern society through the current methods taught in schools. A recent seminar about launching home school projects was held by 21st Century Education Research...

"It's all new", said the shirtless man who shared a small quadrant of shade with me behind our bus. He was pointing with his cigarette at a series of white three story buildings directly in front of us. It was two o'clock in the afternoon and a sweltering sun beat down unmercifully upon our vulnerable position on the side of the road. This was the third time that our bus had broken down in just a few hours and I was starting to wonder if I would make it back to Chengdu that day. "What was it like before?" I...

Fossil finds of early humans in southeast Asia may actually be the remains of an unknown ape. Russell Ciochon says that many palaeoanthropologists -- including himself -- have been mistaken. Fourteen years ago, a Nature paper by my colleagues and I described a 1.9-million-year-old human jaw fragment from Longgupo in Sichuan province, China1. The ancient date in itself was spectacular. Previous evidence had suggested that human ancestors arrived in east Asia from Africa about 1 million years ago, in the form of Homo erectus. Longgupo nearly doubled that estimate. But even more exciting -- and contentious -- was our claim...

Parents of the children who died during last year's earthquake in Sichuan have been threatened with imprisonment if they hold memorials for their dead on May 12th, the one year anniversary of the disaster.

PLA sentry stabbed in attack, a week after soldier on garrison guard duty shot dead Choi Chi-yuk South China Morning Post (c) 2009 South China Morning Post Publishers Limited, Hong Kong. All rights reserved. A People's Liberation Army sentry belonging to the same division as the one who was shot dead outside a Chongqing garrison last week was stabbed in an attack in Sichuan province, a local rights watchdog said. The soldier, affiliated with the 64th Squad of the PLA's 149th Division in Leshan about 275km west of Chongqing, was stabbed by a man with a dagger on Thursday. The...

The local police stopped parents who were trying to travel secretly from southwest China to Beijing this week to ask the central government for a full investigation into school collapses that killed their children during the May earthquake, several of the parents said Thursday. A leader of the grieving parents, Sang Jun, who lost his 11-year-old son, said in a telephone interview that he had been detained overnight and released only after more than 60 other parents gathered at the gates of the town government building to demand his release.

China's big quake doubles chances of more Wed Sep 10, 3:36 PM ET China's giant earthquake in May near Chengdu caused so much geologic stress in the Tibetan Plateau that it doubled the chance of more big quakes along three neighboring faults, scientists reported. "The magnitude 7.9 quake on 12 May has brought several nearby faults closer to failure and could trigger another major earthquake in the region," the American Geophysical Union said in a statement. This happens because of a domino-like effect where the movement of one piece of Earth's crust forces another piece to move up, down and...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A potentially destructive 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan, China, at 0949 GMT on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. ~ snip ~

Magnitude 6.1 earthquake jolts China quake area Chengudu, Aug 1 : A fresh earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit southwest China's Sichuan province at 4.32 p.m. Friday, according to the country's Earthquake Networks Centre. The epicentre was located at an area between Pingwu county and Beichuan county, Mianyang city. A slight tremor was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu, the centre reported. The seismological department earlier reported that an earthquake measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale struck Wenchuan county in the province at 10:41 a.m. Friday, Wenchuan was the epicentre of the deadly May 12 earthquake which killed...

Magnitude-5.6 aftershock hits area between Shaanxi, Sichuan BEIJING - A MAGNITUDE-5.6 aftershock jolted the area between Ningqiang County, Shaanxi Province and Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province at 3.54am on Thursday, the China Earthquake Administration said. The epicenter was at 32.8 degrees north latitude and 105.6 degrees east longitude, Xinhua news agency reported.

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