Huge dinosaur discovery in China

Huge dinosaur discovery in China: state media
AFP on Yahoo


BEIJING (AFP) – Paleontologists in east China have dug up what they believe is one of the world's largest group of dinosaur fossils including the remains of an enormous "platypus", state press said Tuesday.

Paleontologists have discovered 15 areas near Zhucheng city in Shandong province that contain thousands of dinosaur bones, the Beijing News reported.

"This group of fossilised dinosaurs is currently the largest ever discovered in the world... in terms of area," the paper cited paleontologist Zhao Xijin of the China Academy of Sciences as saying.

Chinese retail sales increase by 20.8 percent in November

China Nov. retail sales up 20.8 percent
International Business Times


By Deyu Zeng 11 December 2008 @ 11:13 pm EST Beijing - China's retail sales in November grew 20.8 percent from a year earlier, but eased from a 22 percent rise in October, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

The November growth rate is the lowest since March this year, the data revealed.

According to the data, throughout the first 11 months of the year, China's retail sales have increased 21.9 percent from a year earlier.

FT: Shanghai to Beijing by train in a day

Shanghai to Beijing by train in a day

By Rahul Jacob

Published: December 27 2008 01:11

The English poet Philip Larkin once said that he would visit China – if he could return in a day. I recently took a 10-hour train journey from Shanghai to Beijing on one of the country’s fast trains intending a variation on that absurd idea.

It was a chance to see, albeit only from a train window, more than just the epic skyscrapers of those two metropolises. Both cities have played the role of giant portals that have turned the heads of the world’s chief executives and led to the greatest emerging market gold rush ever. Coincidentally, the book I was reading on my journey, Yasheng Huang’s Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics, argued that the government’s huge investments in all those skyscrapers and show-off airports had come at the cost of China’s rural areas.

FT article

FT: China’s state sector urged to boost economy

China’s state sector urged to boost economy

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Senior government officials have publicly called on China’s state-owned sector to increase its dominance in the economy in response to rapidly cooling growth and plummeting profits.

Analysts say while no one in the Communist-controlled government favours a return to traditional central planning, advocates of continued state dominance of the economy are clearly ascendant in Beijing.

FT article

FDA Warns Pet Owners To Avoid Chinese-Made Chicken Treats

FDA Warns Pet Owners To Avoid Chinese-Made Chicken Treats
Sun-Sentinel | By Diane C. Lade


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration again is cautioning pet owners about feeding their dogs chicken jerky treats manufactured in China, as the agency continues to receive reports of kidney-related disorders in animals that ate these products.

The FDA has received 151 complaints about dogs falling sick after eating chicken jerky products since September 2007, when the agency issued its warning. Twenty-six of those pets died

Toxic melamine is suspected in seafood from China

Toxic melamine is suspected in seafood from China
LA Times

Industry experts and businesspeople in China say that the industrial chemical has been routinely added to fish and animal feed to artificially boost protein readings.

Reporting from Los Angeles and Shanghai--Melamine in Chinese-produced milk powder has sickened hundreds of thousands of children and added to a growing list of made-in-China foods banned across the globe.Now, some scientists and consumer advocates are raising concerns that fish from China may also be contaminated with the industrial chemical.


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FYI... people have noticed boxes of frozen talapia bearing “Produce of China” being unloaded into Walmart seafood display cases.

China says NO to The New York Times

China blocks Internet access to New York Times

BEIJING (Reuters) – China, widely criticized for its censorship of the media, this week blocked access to The New York Times, the newspaper said on Saturday.

When computer users in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou tried to connect on Friday to nytimes.com, they received a message that the site was not available, the newspaper said.

There was no access to the site from Beijing late on Saturday without the protection of a virtual private network (VPN).

The State Information Office said it had no information on the case.