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Source: http://www.facebook.com/mywebtimes/posts/10152095702263266
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A settlement estimated to be roughly 2,000 years old has recently been discovered in eastern Mexico, close to the city of Veracruz.
Information released by the country's National Anthropology and History Institute says that the settlement was first uncovered by construction workers.
Archaeologists arrived at the site later on. Once there, they did not take long to dig out 30 skeletons and the remains of an ancient pyramid.The pyramid sits on a hill, close to the final resting place of these 30 people. It measures about 39 feet (12 meters) in height, and its style appears to be either Mayan or Tajin.
Investigations carried out thus far have revealed that 2 of the 30 people found buried at this location were mere children at the time of their death.
?All that is known so far is that of the 30 burials, two at least belong to infants,? reads a statement issued by Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute.
Scientists expect that they will know more about this group of individuals once they get the chance to thoroughly examine their skeletons.
Live Science informs us that figurines made from clay, mirrors, beads and animal remains were discovered scattered across this ancient settlement.
Most of the animal remains were unearthed from inside the 30 graves in the pyramid's proximity, and appear to belong to dogs, fish, birds, coyotes and the like.
It is likely that these animals were placed inside the graves so that they might accompany the deceased individuals in the underworld, and keep them company.
Oddly enough, researchers also came across fossilized teeth belonging to a long-lost species of Megalodon-like shark.
This discovery suggests that the people who built this settlement enjoyed collecting various artifacts, the same source details.
The artifacts dug out by archaeologists appear to have different origins, hence the experts' belief that they are dealing with the remains of a multicultural community.
?Analyses will enable us to see whether this site was multicultural, as is indicated by the materials found, or whether the inhabitants were all of the same genetic type,? the National Anthropology and History Institute stresses.
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Aviary has just launched its popular photo editor app for Windows Phone 8 and it's free for a limited time. Download it now! It's free!
Source: http://gizmodo.com/aviary-has-just-launched-its-popular-photo-editor-app-f-787871619
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See also: In Chicago, this would look like stuffing the ballot boxes
Francisco Vega officially wins Baja California governor's race
It?s finally official: Nearly a week after elections for governor in Baja California, the candidate for the conservative party that has ruled the state for a generation was declared the victor.Francisco Vega of the National Action Party (PAN) narrowly defeated Fernando Castro Trenti of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The difference was fewer than 25,000 votes, a margin of slightly less than 3%.
The vote count, abruptly halted on election night, July 7, was completed over the weekend, and the PRI recognized its loss.
It had been critical to the PAN to hold on to Baja, where in 1989 it became the first political party ever to defeat the PRI by winning the governorship, a post it has held since?
For the PAN, keeping the top political job in Baja was also seen as important for the party?s continued cooperation with Pe?a Nieto?s government and its agenda of economic reforms, including a major overhaul of the giant state oil monopoly.
Labels: elections, Mexico, parties, politics
Source: http://compgovpol.blogspot.com/2013/07/mexico-election-update-finally.html
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By Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat and Naveen Thukral
SA KAEO, Thailand/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Hidden in 18-wheeler trucks, carts and pick-up vans, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rice are being smuggled from Cambodia and Myanmar into Thailand, although the country holds enough stocks to meet half the world's annual trade in the commodity.
A populist program to support prices has led to the Thai government paying its farmers almost double prevailing prices in Cambodia and Myanmar. Farmers and traders in the neighboring countries are trying to take advantage, sending their grain across the border to be sold into the Thai intervention scheme.
The equivalent of 750,000 tonnes of milled rice is being smuggled into Thailand a year, mainly from Cambodia and Myanmar, according to estimates of analysts and traders who have studied the illicit shipments.
"No one can differentiate which one is Thai rice and which one is Cambodian rice. That makes it easy to smuggle rice in and make a profit by selling it to the government," said Kiattisak Kalayasirivat, managing director at Thai trader Novel Agritrade.
The extent of the smuggling adds to a headache for Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who increased the support price for unmilled rice to 15,000 baht ($480) per tonne after she took power in 2011, to please her farmer vote-bank.
Yingluck's support base is mostly in rural districts, and her government mistakenly bet that Thailand could corner the world rice market by building up stocks.
Instead, the government, already running a budget deficit of 300 billion baht ($9.59 billion) this fiscal year, is struggling to fund the multibillion-dollar program and find buyers for the grain. Ratings agency Moody's warned in June that "populist measures" were a risk to financial discipline.
The government said last month that losses from the scheme amounted to $4.4 billion in the crop year that ended in September 2012.
Thailand now sits on rice stockpiles of 18 million tonnes, almost double a normal year's exports and nearly half of annual global trade of 38 million.
It is mostly holding on to the stocks since it will make a huge loss if the rice is sold. The intervention price of $480 per tonne of unmilled rice translates to $750 a tonne for milled rice. Milled rice is quoted around $475 a tonne in Thailand's open market and around $400 a tonne in Vietnam, traders said.
From No. 1, Thailand has dropped to the world's No. 3 rice exporter behind India and Vietnam.
The quality of the rice in its warehouses has also dropped because most of the smuggled grain is broken rice, which is then blended with full-grain Thai rice.
Because of that, the spread between 5 percent and 100 percent broken rice available in Thailand has narrowed to just $30 a tonne currently from $60 a tonne in June last year and $85 in 2011. "The spread has tightened up very dramatically," said Ben Savage, managing director of London-based Jackson Son and Co, a rice broker since 1860.
CAT RUNNING AFTER A MOUSE
Thailand's porous border with Cambodia, to the east, has no natural barriers like rivers and villagers easily cross between the two countries. Smuggling of rice appears to be rampant.
"As long as our prices are high and they can make a profit, we won't stop them," Pakkarathorn Teainchai, the governor of Sa Kaeo province on the border with Cambodia, told Reuters. "It's like a cat running after a mouse,"
"Recently we confiscated 60 tonnes of rice. There's bound to be more that we can't prevent."
Noppadol Thetprasit, head of a customs post in the Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo, said he recently intercepted 30 tonnes of rice being smuggled from Cambodia, but he knows more must be getting through at smaller crossing points that lack his facilities.
"The rice is being carried into Thailand on villagers' small carts, and is then reloaded onto bigger trucks and moved on to other provinces in Thailand to be resold," Noppadol said.
The smuggling is happening on a far bigger scale than the talk of villagers and carts would suggest. Thai officials say some smugglers use 18-wheel trucks to bring rice into the country.
Small-scale smuggling had occurred previously but volumes have jumped with the advent of the high intervention price.
The International Grains Council in London estimated the equivalent of 750,000 tonnes of milled rice a year was coming into Thailand, senior economist Darren Cooper said. That would be about 900,000 tonnes of unmilled rice, or paddy.
"Clearly shipments (to Thailand) started going up since the intervention scheme started," Cooper said. "It is highly attractive for the neighboring countries to try and get as much rice across to Thailand as possible and supply into the scheme."
The United States Department of Agriculture put Thai rice imports at 600,000 tonnes a year in the first two years of the scheme, jumping from 200,000 tonnes in 2010/11.
BLIND EYE
In Cambodia, the authorities turn a blind eye to the smuggling. Khung Vun, president of the Rice Millers Association in Banteay Meanchey province on the border, says customs and police officials will wave grain through as long as a general export permit can be produced.
In 2012, legal rice exports to all countries by Cambodia amounted to 205,717 tonnes, according to its official data.
Thon Virak, director of Cambodian state-owned rice exporter Green Trade, estimated up to 300,000 tonnes of paddy rice was smuggled into Thailand in 2012 and a similar amount in 2011.
"This year, the number will decline because crossing points have been closed," he said in Phnom Penh, referring to stepped-up border policing on the Thai side.
In Myanmar, a shortage of good-quality mills restricts demand for legal exports and encourages smuggling out.
Aung Kyaw Htoo, agribusiness manager at cargo surveyor SGS in Yangon, estimated around 120,000 tonnes of rice was smuggled into Thailand in 2012, most of it lower-quality broken grain.
He said he understood the rice was sold into the intervention scheme, although other analysts said some of it could have been bought by noodle makers and feedstuff producers who, because of state buying, find Thai grain scarce or costly.
COMMERCE MINISTER SACKED
Thailand announced it would cut the intervention price to 12,000 baht per tonne last month, but reversed the decision on the day it took effect, giving in to farmers who had threatened protests.
Before rowing back on the cut, Yingluck sacked Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, after public criticism that he had failed to be credible or transparent about the costs of the scheme.
New commerce minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan says the government will sell up to 1.5 million tonnes of rice a month for the rest of year through tenders and will also try to sell to other governments.
It is unclear how he will do that without offering grain at cut-rate prices to exporters or governments, and that may lead to charges of dumping. The United States and others have already sounded warning noises at the World Trade Organisation because of Thailand's lack of transparency on sales and stocks. ($1 = 31.0150 Thai baht)
(Additional reporting by Prak Chan Thul in Phnom Penh, Aung Hla Tun in Yangon and Andrew R.C. Marshall in Bangkok; Writing by Alan Raybould, Editing by Jason Szep, Amran Abocar and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-smuggling-rice-thailand-coals-newcastle-212529951.html
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Working in collaboration with an international team of researchers, Dr Vincent Keng Wee-keong, Assistant Professor of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)'s Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, has developed a sophisticated model for studying "Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors" (MPNSTs), thus paving the way for further discovery of new genes and genetic pathways that may provide new therapeutic targets for related cancer treatment.
MPNST is a rare but aggressive type of tumor that is associated with extremely poor prognosis. It is believed that many genetic changes are required for both sporadic and NF1-associated tumor development, although the exact cause of MPNSTs is still not yet known. MPNSTs can occur sporadically or in the context of neurofibromatosis type 1 (gene NF1) tumor syndrome, a disease that occurs approximately one in 3,000 people worldwide. Of great concern is that around 10 percent of these NF1 patients will develop MPNSTs.
Due to the invasiveness and high metastatic occurrence of MPNSTs, current treatment regimes such as surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapeutic treatments have proven to be ineffective. The current five-year survival rate for patients with metastatic MPNST is less than 25 percent. "We desperately need more accurate models of the disease in order to cure it", Dr Vincent Keng said.
In order to identify genes leading to MPNSTs, Dr Keng has been collaborating with researchers from University of Minnesota, Cincinnati Children's Hospital and University of Florida in the US; and the Institute of Predictive and Personalized Medicine of Cancer in Spain. The team has adopted The Sleeping Beauty transposon method, which is a powerful genetic tool and an unbiased approach, in a tissue-specific manner in mice.
Further analysis of these MPNSTs in this study uncovered 745 cancer candidate genes (both known and new genes). Genes and signaling pathways that cooperate in MPNST formation were also identified. In this study, the role of FOXR2 was demonstrated as an important oncogene or cancer-causing gene for MPNSTs development and turning off this gene drastically decreases the growth ability of these tumors. Researchers also found many of the MPNSTs have dual loss of NF1 and PTEN genes, both of which can suppress tumor formation.
Dr Vincent Keng has also previously shown that this pairing of lost genes causes MPNST formation in a paper published in Cancer Research last year. In his laboratory, research is continuing in both mouse models and human cell lines to obtain more effective therapeutic regimes for this deadly disease.
The MPNSTs research was published earlier this year in the international journal Nature Genetics (May 2013 Issue).
Press Contacts
Dr Vincent Keng Wee-keong
Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology
Tel: (852) 3400 8728
Email: vincent.keng@polyu.edu.hk
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Researchsea-AsiaResearchNewsScience/~3/hlfYTteIVDs/1
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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) ? A group of women broke Saturday through a police cordon and entered a former warehouse in Bosnia to lay flowers where their loved ones were killed during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Bosnian Serb police said they didn't use force, but the women ? who are Muslim Bosniaks ? alleged that the police beat them, injuring eight.
The head of the Bosnian Serb police, Gojko Vasic, said the women had no permission to enter the facility because it is private property but that they cut their way through a fence. He said one woman hit a police officer over the head with her mobile phone.
Munira Subasic, who led the group of women, said she was bruised when police beat "us with elbows and feet."
On July 11, 1995, Serb forces overran the eastern town of Srebrenica and executed more than 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys in what became known as the worst massacre in Europe since the Nazi era.
According to a U.N. war crimes tribunal, about 1,000 of the victims were brought to the warehouse in the nearby village of Kravice, locked inside and gunned down on July 13. Soldiers then threw hand grenades inside to finish off potential survivors.
The bodies were buried in mass graves but then excavated again a few months later by the perpetrators with bulldozers and buried at other locations to hide the crime. Many of the bodies were torn apart.
This past week, Subasic buried two bones of her then-18 year-old son; more of his remains have not yet been recovered.
Ethnic tensions still simmer in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the warehouse lies in the Bosnian Serb half of the country, which has its own police force.
Relatives of the victims have never been allowed to visit the warehouse to pay their respects, but this year the women, carrying pliers, were determined to get inside. Subasic said the people injured mainly suffered bruises, but that "every victory had a price and so does this one."
"In 1995, they forced our children inside and today they beat us to prevent us from getting in," she said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bosnia-women-breach-cordon-reach-massacre-170828786.html
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By Ian Chua
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Investors in Asian stocks turned cautious on Friday even after a record close on Wall Street, and a decline in the dollar paused as markets braced for Chinese data that could offer telling evidence of weakness in the world's second biggest economy.
Economists polled by Reuters see China's second-quarter GDP growth at a median 7.5 percent. The data is set to be released on Monday.
Foreshadowing an even slower growth rate, China's finance minister said he expected a 7 percent pace for this year, which would be below the government's own official forecast.
"China's weak foreign trade data for June provide a pessimistic edge to second quarter GDP estimates. Monthly data, including industrial production and fixed investment, show China's economy slowed further in the second quarter," said Alaistair Chan, an economist at Moody's analytics in Sydney.
"This year is shaping up to be the slowest since 1999, and the risk is increasing that full-year GDP growth will come in below the government's 7.5 percent target."
Confirmation of any further weakness in China's economy would dampen risk appetite.
Yet China's main markets were still on track for their best week in five months, helped by tentative signs of support for sectors plagued by overcapacity.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was essentially flat on Friday. Yet after three straight sessions of solid gains, it was on track to end up more than 3 percent for the week, its best since September.
Tokyo's Nikkei added 0.2 percent, South Korea's KOSPI eased 0.7 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.5 percent and China's mainland shares shed 0.8 percent.
Bucking the region's weaker trend, Australia's ASX 200 index added 0.4 percent, thanks mostly to strength in the major miners such as BHP Billiton.
European shares were expected to gain at the opening on Friday after Wall Street set record highs.
Capital Spreads forecast Britain's FTSE 100 to open up 0.1 percent, Germany's DAX to rise 0.3 percent, and France's CAC 40 to gain 0.1 percent.
The generally subdued performance on Asian exchanges followed a powerful rise on Thursday and a record closing high for the U.S. S&P 500 index and Dow Jones.
Investors had cheered Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's commitment to keep monetary policy accommodative for the foreseeable future.
Before his comments, markets had started to price in the prospect of the Fed scaling back its bond-buying programme as early as September following a string of encouraging data that showed a clear recovery in the economy.
DOLLAR STEADIER
Currency markets were steadier following a breathtaking selloff in the dollar on Thursday as investors cut bullish positions on Bernanke's pledge.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback's performance against a basket of major currencies, wallowed at 2-1/2 week lows, having slumped more than 2 percent. That fall was the steepest in four years, normally seen only during financial crises.
The euro had set up camp at $1.3082 having jumped as far as $1.3208 on Thursday to be well off this week's trough of $1.2755.
Analysts at BNP Paribas said the fall in the dollar should be seen as an opportunity to buy because they still expect the Fed to begin winding down its stimulus later this year.
"We forecast an acceleration of U.S. GDP growth in Q3 and Q4 that is consistent with the Fed starting its tapering process in the second half of 2013," Steven Saywell wrote in a report.
"We choose to recommend a short GBP/USD at 1.5130, targeting a move to 1.45 with a stop at 1.5310," said Saywell, adding he believed the Bank of England would ease policy in August.
Caution ahead of the Chinese data saw commodity currencies such as the Australian dollar give back much of the recent gains made against the greenback.
The Aussie slipped to $0.9173 from Thursday's high of $0.9306, keeping in sight a 34-month trough of $0.9036 set earlier this month.
The Aussie's decline came even as commodity markets were bolstered by Bernanke's commitment to keep policy loose. Copper was a touch softer on the day at $6,980 a tonne, having jumped 2.6 percent, while gold stood at $1,282 an ounce after a 1.7 percent rally.
Oil lost a bit of momentum as traders took profits on a three-week rally that lifted prices to 15-month highs. U.S. crude eased back to around $104.82 a barrel, having reached $107.45.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-stocks-turn-cautious-china-risk-looms-072029925.html
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In the never ending battle of big companies suing each other, and also government entities, Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against the United States Customs and Border Patrol (USCBP) for allowing Motorola Mobility phones into the country against court orders.
The import restriction was put in place by the courts back in 2012, and the patent dispute revolved around the calendar functionality on the Motorola Android devices, which Microsoft claimed was being infringed upon.
Microsoft states;
"The only conclusion that can reasonably be drawn from CBP's pattern of conduct is that CBP will not enforce the Commission's exclusion order absent a court order compelling it to do so. CBP has repeatedly allowed Motorola to evade that order based on secret presentations that CBP has refused to share with Microsoft. Microsoft has repeatedly explained that CBP's stated reasons for not enforcing the exclusion order are legally mistaken, only to confront new theories and claims that CBP has adopted (apparently after further secret discussions) to justify its continuing refusal to enforce the exclusion order. Microsoft's efforts to resolve this impasse through means other than litigation have come to naught. With its recent, and demonstrably flawed, June 24 refusal to bar importation of infringing Motorola devices, CBP has left Microsoft no choice but to bring this action."
For those not in the know, Motorola Mobility is owned by Google and they had something to say also;
"U.S. Customs appropriately rejected Microsoft's effort to broaden its patent claims to block Americans from using a wide range of legitimate calendar functions, like scheduling meetings, on their mobile phones. We're confident that the court will agree."
We'll bring you more information as the saga unfolds, so sit back and grab some popcorn for the show.
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Despite differing results on Thursday, three Vacaville PONY baseball all-star teams all will keep on playing.
Vacaville's Bronco age 12-under all-stars turned in the biggest win of the day, routing Sierra Valley 16-3 to win the East Bay Region tournament at Keating Park.
The 12-under squad already had qualified for the Super Regionals, which begin on Tuesday in Pacific Grove. Now Vacaville will advance as the East Bay's No. 1 seed, and will open play in the event on Wednesday.
Vacaville's Pony Division (13-14) all-stars had to settle for the East Bay's No. 2 seed after a 6-1 loss to Napa, also at Keating.
The local Pony team will begin play in the Super Regionals on Tuesday in Los Altos.
Vacaville's Bronco-11 team just started its Super Regional event in Brentwood. Vacaville played the host team late Thursday night, and will either play in loser's bracket game tonight, or in the semifinals on Saturday.
The winner of the Bronco-11 Super Regional moves on to the Zone Championship, next week in Walnut.
The Bronco 12 squad rolled to another win, and finished the region tournament outscoring its four opponents by a combined count of 56 runs to 10.
Alejando Belo, Trey Peyton and Austin Lamb each finished with three hits for Vacaville, and combined to drive in seven runs. Belo belted a two-run homer.
Andrew Smith hit a grand slam in the sixth to put the mercy rule into effect.
Lamb pitched a complete game with six strikeouts.
Other
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Photo: Richard Lugar Center for Renewable Energy
The Stalk Stoker creates energy from biomass. Researchers say they hope the machine will one day be affordable enough to distribute around the world.
IUPUI?s Richard Lugar Center for Renewable Energy has unveiled a new?machine that turns biomass into energy using a system that is much more efficient that traditional technology.
Officials held a ribbon-cutting for the ?Stalk Stoker? in Indianapolis on Thursday.
Lugar Center for Renewable Energy?Director Peter Schubert says the center has just been awarded a patent on the $500,000 machine that converts biomass, any woody plant material that is not used for food, into electric power and useful heat.
Schubert says the plan is to make the Stalk Stoker available to farms and businesses all over the world.
?Currently, people cook with things they take from the land around them, and that?s 4 percent to 20 percent efficient. This is 70 percent efficient, so if you use this in a village, you can use less biomass to cook more food and also provide electric power,? he says.
Purdue University now owns the patent on the technology and the?Lugar Center for Renewable Energy?is currently seeking financing to manufacture more machines.
?We eventually need to get this robust enough and cheap enough to deploy worldwide,? Schubert says.
Source: http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/renewable-energy-center-unveils-biomass-energy-machine-52336/
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S.F. plane crash victims were heading to church camp in West Hills
Bob Pool ("Los Angeles Times," July 7, 2013)
There was shock and grief Sunday among the worshipers at a West Hills church where the two 16-year-old Chinese girls killed in Saturday?s jetliner crash in San Francisco had been heading for a three-week summer camp at the church?s school.
The two victims, Wang Lin Jia and Ye Meng Yuan, were among 35 teenagers who had been scheduled to arrive at the West Valley Christian Church's school Monday.
Leaders of the 800-member church, located near West Hills? boundary with Canoga Park, said they had scheduled a prayer vigil for the survivors and the two victims? families.
Host families, church members and others from the community are being invited to the vigil, set for Thursday at 7 p.m.
In the meantime, church leaders have launched a fundraising drive in hopes of replacing the surviving teens? luggage and clothing that was destroyed in the crash and resulting fire.
Many of the 600 who arrived for two church services Sunday were unaware that the Chinese who had been students heading for West Hills were on the Asiana Airlines jet that crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday as it attempted to land after a 10-hour direct flight from Seoul. The flight originated in Shanghai.
Between services, Senior Minister Glenn Kirby said the church was waiting to learn whether surviving students would continue on to West Hills or simply return home to China.
?We?re waiting. We don?t know things until they develop. There are a lot of unknowns,? Kirby said. ?We didn?t know the students were on that flight. We do know that two of the 35 lost their lives in the accident.?
Kirby said it was difficult for him to preach the sermon he had planned for Sunday morning.
?I can only imagine as a parent how those parents feel. I grieve with them even though I?ve never met them,? he said.
Derek Swales, administrator of the church?s school, said numerous summer camps had been staged at the campus in the past. The Chinese visit was to have been the first this year by an international group.
The high school and middle school pupils would have been taught English and American culture in the mornings and would have toured local universities and gone sight-seeing in the afternoons. On weekends, they would have taken excursions out of town.
He said organizers of the visit had lined up host homes in the West San Fernando Valley area for the Chinese teens.
Swales said he was traveling south on Interstate 5 Saturday after spending Independence Day with his family in San Francisco when he received a call about the crash. He had just passed a charter bus heading north to pick up the teens for a tour of the Bay Area before traveling to West Hills.
A group of South Korean youngsters is scheduled to arrive at the church school in late July for a second summer camp session. West Valley Christian Church members have volunteered to host them.
Church member Bobbie Dandler of Calabasas has signed up to take in one of the South Korean teens. At first, she thought that children from her group were involved in Saturday?s airliner crash.
?I understood that they?d be coming in a few weeks,? she said, adding that she had been stunned to learn that the 35 Chinese teenagers were also headed to West Valley Christian Church.
As the church's second worship service Sunday got underway, Kirby started with a prayer that acknowledged that only God can see what is happening with the survivors.
?We ask you be there for the parents of the two kids who perished,? Kirby prayed.
Related Sections | Christianity | Miscellaneous
Source: http://wwrn.org/articles/40183/
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Despite having one of the worst offenses in the NFL last season, the Browns main focus in the offseason was to address the defensive side of the ball.? Ray Horton, the Browns? new defensive coordinator, has promised that his new 3-4 defense will look a lot like the Pittsburgh Steelers' attacking defense that has terrorized the Browns for the last 10 years.
In order for Horton to fulfill that promise, he will need stellar play from his outside linebackers.? In the last few years, the Steelers? defense featured two Pro Bowl caliber players on the outside in James Harrison and Lamarr Woodley.? This season, Horton will be working with free-agent signee Paul Kruger, first-round draft pick Barkevious Mingo and third-year veteran Jabaal Sheard.
Kruger and Mingo are more natural fits for the position whereas Sheard has played defensive end in former defensive coordinator Dick Jauron?s 4-3 scheme the last two seasons.? Sheard will have to perform one of the toughest transitions for NFL players to make.
Defensive ends in a 4-3 are solely responsible for getting after the passer and setting the edge on running plays to keep the runner from getting outside.? A 3-4 outside linebacker has more responsibilities.? Along with being able to rush the passer and set the edge effectively, an outside linebacker in a 3-4 must be able to drop into coverage, play man or zone, and make more open-field tackles.
Chris Pokorny of dawgsbynature.com has justifiable doubt as to whether Sheard can develop the necessary coverage skills to excel at his new position.
All indications out of the Berea suggest that Sheard?s transition has been seamless.? If these reports are true, combined with Mingo and Kruger, the Browns will feature a pass rush that has the capability to get after the quarterback with regularity, something that is vital to success in today?s NFL. ?My big question for Sheard boils down to how well he will do when he has to drop back into coverage. For me, it?s one of those things that I?m really not confident in evaluating until we see how he does during the regular season.
NFL Story Links
How will the Browns? new look defensive line perform this season? (By Peter Smith, Dawg Pound Daily)
The Browns? receivers have plenty of potential: can it translate to success on the field? (By Fred Greetham, Orange and Brown Report)
How will Norv Turner go about improving the Browns? offense? (By John Breech, CBSSports.com)
Everything you need to know before the Browns? start to training camp. (By Jason La Canfora, CBSSports.com)
Aaron Hernandez has reportedly confessed to the murder of Odin Lloyd. (ESPN.com)
The ?other? Patriots tight end, Rob Gronkowski, is doing well after back surgery. (FanNation)
Which NFL teams are primed to drastically improve this year? (By Bill Barnwell, Grantland)
Cowboys running back Demarco Murray is confident in Tony Romo?s abilities. (By Jon Machota, dallasnews.com)
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/07/10/utecht-wins-concussion-arbitration-against-the-bengals Former NFL tight end Ben Utecht has won his concussion arbitration proceeding. (By Mike Florio, ProFootballTalk)
Reviewing the 2013 NFL draft for the teams in the AFC North. (By Doug Farrar, Yahoo! Sports)
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2013/07/cleveland_browns_and_nfl_pm_li_6.html
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Get Entertainment Newsletters:
Neill Blomkamp to base next film on science fiction short Tetra Vaal... Ask not for whom the Jug Face pours... Christian Slater gets Stranded on a space station...
From the luxurious Cinefantastique Online studios, Dan Persons brings you up-to-date on what's happening in the world of fantastic film and TV.
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posted by jeffnuttalx @ 7:58 PM
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant is engaged to Minnesota Lynx guard Monica Wright.
Wright confirmed the engagement following Minnesota's 91-59 victory over the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday night.
Durant, who was selected with the second overall pick in the 2007 draft, just completed his sixth season in the NBA. The 24-year-old forward averaged 28.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists last season.
Wright is in her fourth season in the WNBA. She played her college ball at Virginia and turns 25 on July 15.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thunder-star-durant-engaged-lynx-g-wright-082506116.html
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PARIS (AP) -- A French court on Monday acquitted oil giant Total SA, its chief executives and a raft of former French officials of corruption-related charges linked to the scandal-ridden U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq.
The across-the-board acquittal in the high-profile case came after a decade-long French investigation ? and despite widespread international accusations that the U.N. program was rife with corruption and was thwarted to benefit Saddam Hussein's government.
The Paris prosecutor's office says everyone facing trial in the French case was acquitted Monday by a Paris court. Prosecutors have up to 10 days to appeal.
Defendants included Total SA, its CEO Christophe de Margerie, former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, former French diplomats and others. Investigators accused them of getting around a U.N. embargo against Iraq by buying Iraqi oil through front companies, allowing Saddam's government to raise money illicitly.
Total insisted it was operating according to the rules of the U.N oil-for-food program, which allowed Iraq, while under U.N. sanctions, to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods from 1996 to 2003.
The program was designed to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions, but authorities said the program was corrupted because Saddam was allowed to choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods.
A sweeping U.N. investigative report in 2005 alleged many kickbacks in the lucrative contracts linked to the program. The report said that Pasqua, for example, was allegedly awarded 11 million barrels of oil. Pasqua denied receiving it.
The French investigation was opened in 2002 on the basis of suspicious funds transferred from 1997 to 2001 between Total subsidiaries and companies based abroad.
After years of investigation, prosecutors in the French case had argued that the case be dropped, saying investigators had failed to uncover enough hard evidence for a conviction.
Pasqua and two former high-ranking diplomats were accused of influence trafficking and corruption. De Margerie, Total's chief, was accused of "complicity in the abuse of company assets" and "complicity in corrupting foreign officials."
A lawyer for the oil company, Jean Veil, drew wry smiles when hailing the "total acquittal" for Total.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-acquittals-iraq-oil-food-150016459.html
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posted by jeffnuttalx @ 8:21 PM
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Do you even have computers there? They're complicated devices you know. The words DEVICE and DEVIL are very similar!
More seriously, they are elected as law-MAKERS, not law-WRITERS. All these bills are written by their clerks. Their clerks get the jobs by whose family they are from, not by skill.
100 million laws and yet they can find something new to pass a law about every day of the week. A good example is Obamacare - no matter if you're for it or against it - and its thousands of pages. Just as there is not one living soul that knows all the tax code, nobody knows exactly what Obamacare does either.
Now, we need a new law to limit the laws. Of course, we'll need 23,000 pages to do this.......
This is what happens when lawmakers don't actually read the bills they vote forThe suit filed by one internet cafe owner is claiming that phrasing used in the legislation might be applied to any computer or smart phone connected to the internet.
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posted by jeffnuttalx @ 6:22 PM
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LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Kris Jenner isn't going it alone on her new talk show: Joan Rivers and Sean "Diddy Combs" will be among the co-hosts sharing the stage with Jenner.
The show's producer said Monday that Jenner will be paired with a different co-host for each episode of the daytime show, titled "Kris."
Others in the lineup include Kathie Lee Gifford, Morris Chestnut, NeNe Leakes, Tom Bergeron and Ryan Seacrest, who produces "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," which features Jenner and other family members.
Khloe Kardashian-Odom, one of Jenner's daughters, also will be a "Kris" co-host.
The talk show gets a trial run starting next week on selected Fox stations.
There was no word from producer 20th Television on whether another Jenner daughter, new mom Kim Kardashian, will get a co-host slot.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kris-jenner-tries-variety-talk-show-co-hosts-123601936.html
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posted by jeffnuttalx @ 2:34 AM
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[unable to retrieve full-text content]After a recent study showed that injection of the soy peptide lunasin dramatically reduced colon cancer metastasis in mice, researchers were eager to see how making lunasin part of the animals? daily diet would affect the spread of the disease.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/5YQ266S7Ytc/130708170852.htm
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posted by jeffnuttalx @ 12:34 AM
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With the primary election scheduled for September 10th , the top candidates are campaigning furiously.
We?re breaking it down for you along the way.
Here is a list of your top seven mayoral runners as of now.
These days leading up to the primary, each candidate agrees on one thing: The race is getting even tighter.
?You know, politics is not that complicated a thing. It?s making people understand that you understand their challenges,? front runner Anthony Weiner said.
And those challenges are presented in each debate and each meet and greet with the public.
Weiner even kicked off his campaign with an event at a subway stop in Harlem.
Both he and Quinn believe the ?mayor should have control of the MTA, saying quote ?I don?t know what a representative from Buffalo has to do with who?s getting on and off the? G train.?
Of course, Thompson and Lhot are big on the topic of transportation.
Thompson has said he would ?use $40 million of MTA surplus money to restore services.?
Llhota adds, ?Transportation cannot be ignored and must remain a focal point.?
Voters say it?s an exciting, tight race and everyone needs to be informed.
Source: http://pix11.com/2013/07/07/meet-the-candidates-for-new-york-city-mayor/
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Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos has become a freedom fighter of sorts. He plays the people's game of baseball to uphold the principles of truth, justice, and the winning way. Not surprisingly, this bugling backstop plays his best baseball when celebrating a nation's day of independence.
Ramos was not born in the United States, a baseball-loving nation that marked its independence on July 4. But he provided the fireworks, nonetheless.
In his return to the Nationals' lineup after a 44-game absence, Ramos helped the home crowd celebrate America's freedom with a three-hit, five-RBI performance against the Milwaukee Brewers at Nationals' Park.?
Ramos hit a two-run single in the sixth to extend the Nats' lead at the time to three runs. Then, in the seventh, Ramos hit a three-run home run with two outs to give the Nationals a three-run lead they would not relinquish.?
In response to his performance, the fans at Nationals Park liberated themselves from their seats and gave Ramos a standing ovation.
That performance was the first indication that Ramos enjoys playing on Independence Days. His team joined him in the celebration, winning 8-5 and snapping a two-game skid.?
Luckily for the Nationals, Ramos' native Venezuela celebrated their independence on July 5, or El Cinco de Julio. Ramos was again feeling patriotic, and he played accordingly against the San Diego Padres. "The Buffalo" hit a two-run single in the second and an RBI single in the third.
For the second straight game, the Nats won 8-5, and moved within five games of the Atlanta Braves for first place in the?NL East Standings.?Ramos provided the winning margin in both games while driving in a total of eight runs.
As the Nationals struggle for freedom from the shackles of second place, one wonders:
What will Ramos do next as he fights for freedom, independence, and a winning team?
Well, Malawi celebrates its independence day on July 6. Washington should rush international scouts to this tiny African nation to discover the next great Malawian baseball player. That way, Ramos can lead the Nationals to another victory as he celebrates Malawi's independence day with his new found teammate.
Whatever it takes to keep hope alive.
?
Note: All statistics updated through July 5 courtesy of MLB.com unless noted otherwise.
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TV
July 6, 2013 at 1:09 PM ET
John P. Johnson / HBO
Who would've thought Bill could get even more annoying this season on "True Blood"?
It's only three episodes into the new season of "True Blood," and most of the upcoming drama is still a complete mystery. But a couple points are already crystal clear.
Firstly, big bad Bill Compton really needs to get his comeuppance as soon as possible (and permanently). Secondly, he's not the only one.
The Bill situation has been brewing for some time. Long before he took his first sip of Lilith's blood and turned into an almost-god, Sookie's ex had turned into a total jerk. Now? He's just about unbearable with his near-limitless powers and massive ego.
How can a one-time good guy fall so far and still find redemption? He can't. There's nothing the former gentleman vamp could possibly do to make up for his downward spiral. After his recent face-off with Sookie (and the subsequent bashing of her little brother), that much seems certain. And if his obvious plan to drain Andy Bellefluer's quartet of tween fairies works out (c'mon, you had to see how he looked after the mere mention of their existence), well, then he's beyond a lost cause.
In fact, the most entertaining scene Bill's been in so far this season was the one in which he overestimated his superpowers and burst into flames at sunrise. The only way he'll top that one is if he overestimates his way to the True Death.
After all, someone's going to die this season -- that much is sure. Why not Bill? And why not more than one someone?
Things are getting pretty crowded in Bon Temps, and there is another good-guy-gone-bad (or at least not-so-good) who's really trying viewers' patience this season.
John P. Johnson / HBO
Alcide, what happened to you this year?! Where's the werewolf we loved?
Pack master Alcide has gone to the dogs too. There was a time when the tall, dark werewolf added to the overall alfa male action. He was the hero without all the bloodlust. But that was before he took on the leadership role of the pack -- at least the honorary leadership role. It's become clear that his "No. 1 b-----," the ruthless Rikki, is really calling the shots.
Alcide once told Sookie, "Most weres don't have much sense. ... They're all teeth and fight and sex." And that just about sums up him now.
He and the rest of his kind are about as appealing as those methed-out werepanthers from a couple of seasons back.
Of course, thinning the supe herd isn't the only thing Bon Temps needs. It also needs more of the good guys (and the good bad guys). That means more Lafayette -- both in the comic relief and the sassy badass senses. It means more quotable quips from Jason Stackhouse, more befuddled Bellefluers, more whim in the midst of all the war.
And of course, it means much more Eric Northman.
(Yeah, there's been loads of Eric this season. But you can't really have too much of a good Viking vampire thing.)
What changes would you like to see on "True Blood"? Click the "Talk about it" button below and tell us.
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/sure-true-blood-needs-kill-bill-why-stop-there-6C10549284
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posted by jeffnuttalx @ 6:51 PM
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Jason Hursh (Brittany Hannah / RN-T.com)
slideshow After a two hour and 32 minute delay to start the game, the Rome Braves defeated the Asheville Tourists 3-1 Friday night before 2,895 in attendance on a wet night at State Mutual Stadium.Rome pitching was solid allowing just one run while scattering six hits and striking out six. Atlanta Braves first-round pick Jason Hursh went two innings in his debut, walking one and striking out three. Carlos Perez picks up the victory (4-0) and Alex Wilson the save (3). Ben Hughes (6-7) gets the loss for Asheville.
Asheville jumped on top 1-0 in the third inning on a lead off home run by Dillon Thomas (3). Rome bounced back to take a 2-1 advantage in the bottom of the frame. After two outs, Ross Heffley tripled and Jose Peraza walked. They both later scored on a triple by Eric Garcia. The Braves added an insurance run in the seventh for the 3-1 final.
Source: http://romenews-tribune.com/bookmark/23060037
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posted by jeffnuttalx @ 2:54 AM
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| People's Republic of China ??????? | ||
|---|---|---|
| Anthem:? "March of the Volunteers" ???????? (Pinyin: "Y?y?ngj?n J?nx?ngq?") | ||
| Capital | Beijing 39?55?N 116?23?E? / ?39.917?N 116.383?E? / 39.917; 116.383 | |
| Largest city | Shanghai[1][2] | |
| Official language(s) | Standard Chinese[3] | |
| Recognised regional?languages | Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, Zhuang, and various others | |
| Official written language | Vernacular Chinese | |
| Official script | Simplified Chinese[3] | |
| Ethnic groups? | 91.51% Han;[4] 55 recognised minorities | |
| Demonym | Chinese | |
| Government | Nominally Marxist?Leninist single-party state[5][a] | |
| ?-? | President[b] | Hu Jintao |
| ?-? | Congress?Chairman | Wu Bangguo |
| ?-? | Premier | Wen Jiabao |
| ?-? | Conference?Chairman | Jia Qinglin |
| Legislature | National People's Congress | |
| Establishment | ||
| ?-? | Unification of China under the Qin Dynasty | 221 BC? |
| ?-? | Republic established | 1 January 1912? |
| ?-? | People's Republic proclaimed | 1 October 1949? |
| Area | ||
| ?-? | Total | 9,640,821?km2?[c] or 9,671,018?km? [c](3rd/4th) 3,704,427?sq?mi? |
| ?-? | Water?(%) | 2.8[d] |
| Population | ||
| ?-? | 2010?census | 1,339,724,852[4]?(1st) |
| ?-? | Density | 139.6/km2?(53rd) 363.3/sq?mi |
| GDP?(PPP) | 2011?estimate | |
| ?-? | Total | $11.299 trillion[6]?(2nd) |
| ?-? | Per capita | $8,382[6]?(91st) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2011?estimate | |
| ?-? | Total | $7.298 trillion[6]?(2nd) |
| ?-? | Per capita | $5,413[6]?(90th) |
| Gini?(2007) | 41.5[7]? | |
| HDI?(2011) |  0.687[8]?(medium)?(101st) | |
| Currency | Renminbi (yuan) (?) (CNY) | |
| Time zone | China Standard Time (UTC+8) | |
| Date formats | yyyy-mm-dd or yyyy?m?d? (CE; CE-1949) | |
| Drives on the | right, except for Hong Kong & Macau | |
| ISO?3166?code | CN | |
| Internet TLD | .cn[c].??[9].?? | |
| Calling code | +86[c] | |
| a. ^ Simple characterizations of the political structure since the 1980s are no longer possible.[10] b. ^ As paramount leader, Hu Jintao holds four concurrent positions: General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission for both state and party.[11] c. ^ 9,598,086 km2 (3,705,842 sq?mi) excludes all disputed territories. | ||
China (
i/?t?a?n?/; Chinese: ??; pinyin: Zh?nggu?; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3?billion. Covering approximately 9.6?million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area,[13] and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.[14]
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China.[15] It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau).[16] Its capital city is Beijing.[17] The PRC also claims Taiwan?which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity?as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
China's landscape is vast and diverse, with forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts occupying the arid north and northwest near Mongolia and Central Asia, and subtropical forests being prevalent in the wetter south near Southeast Asia. The terrain of western China is rugged and elevated, with the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separating China from South and Central Asia. The world's apex, Mt. Everest (8,848 m), lies on the China?Nepal border, while the world's second-highest point, K2 (8,611 m), is situated on China's border with Pakistan. The country's lowest and the world's third-lowest point, Lake Ayding (?154 m), is located in the Turpan Depression. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, have their sources in the Tibetan Plateau and continue to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000?mi) long?the 11th-longest in the world?and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas.
The nation of China has had numerous historical incarnations. The ancient Chinese civilization?one of the world's earliest?flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain.[18] China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, known as dynasties, beginning with the semi-mythological Xia of the Yellow River basin (approx. 2000 BC) and ending with the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Since 221 BC, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the country has expanded, fractured and been reformed numerous times. The Republic of China, founded in 1911 after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949. In 1945, the ROC acquired Taiwan from Japan following World War II.
In the 1946?1949 phase of the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang in mainland China and established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949. The Kuomintang relocated the ROC government to Taiwan, establishing its capital in Taipei. The ROC's jurisdiction is now limited to Taiwan and several outlying islands, including Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. Since 1949, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (now widely known as "Taiwan") have remained in dispute over the sovereignty of China and the political status of Taiwan, mutually claiming each other's territory and competing for international diplomatic recognition. In 1971, the PRC gained admission to the United Nations and took the Chinese seat as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the BCIM and the G-20. As of September 2011, all but 23 countries have recognized the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China.
Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world's fastest-growing major economy.[19] As of 2012, it is the world's second-largest economy, after the United States, by both nominal GDP and purchasing power parity (PPP),[20] and is also the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. In per capita terms, China ranked 90th by nominal GDP and 91st by GDP (PPP) in 2011, according to the IMF. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army, with the second-largest defense budget. In 2003, China became the third nation in the world, after the former Soviet Union and the United States, to independently launch a successful manned space mission. China has been characterized as a potential superpower by a number of academics,[21] military analysts,[22] and public policy and economics analysts.[23]
Main article: Names of ChinaThe word "China" is derived from Cin (???), a Persian name for China popularized in medieval Europe by the account of the 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo.[26][27] The first recorded use in English dates from 1555.[28] The Persian word is, in turn, derived from the Sanskrit word C?na (???),[29] which was used as a name for China as early as AD 150.[30] There are various scholarly theories regarding the origin of this word. The traditional theory, proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini, is that "China" is derived from "Qin" (?), the westernmost of the Chinese kingdoms during the Zhou Dynasty, or from the succeeding Qin Dynasty (221?206 BC).[31] The word C?na is used in two Hindu scriptures ? the Mah?bh?rata of the 5th century BC and the Laws of Manu of the 2nd century BC ? to refer to a country located in the Tibetan-Burman borderlands east of India.[32][33]
In China, common names for the country include Zh?nggu? (Chinese: ??; literally "the Central State(s)") and Zh?nghu? (Chinese: ??), although the country's official name has been changed numerous times by successive dynasties and modern governments. The term Zhongguo appeared in various ancient texts, such as the Classic of History of the 6th century BC,[34] and in pre-imperial times it was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia from the barbarians. The term, which can be either singular or plural, referred to the group of states in the central plain. It was only in the nineteenth century that the term emerged as the formal name of the country. The Chinese were not unique in regarding their country as "central", since other civilizations had the same view.[35]
Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 250,000 and 2.24 million years ago.[36] A cave in Zhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing) exhibits fossils dated at between 300,000 and 780,000 BC.[37][38][39] The fossils are of Peking Man, an example of Homo erectus who used fire. There are also remains of Homo sapiens dating back to 18,000?11,000 BC found at the Peking Man site.[40]
Chinese tradition names the first dynasty Xia, but it was considered mythical until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou in Henan Province in 1959.[41] Archaeologists have since uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs in locations cited as Xia's in ancient historical texts, but it is impossible to verify that these remains are of the Xia without written records from the period.
The first Chinese dynasty that left historical records, the loosely feudal Shang (Yin), settled along the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BC. The oracle bone script of the Shang Dynasty represent the oldest forms of Chinese writing found and the direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters used throughout East Asia. The Shang were invaded from the west by the Zhou, who ruled from the 12th to the 5th century BC, until their centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords. Many independent states eventually emerged out of the weakened Zhou state, and continually waged war with each other in the Spring and Autumn Period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king. By the time of the Warring States Period, there were seven powerful sovereign states, each with its own king, ministry and army.
The first unified Chinese state was established by Qin Shi Huang of the Qin state in 221 BC. Qin Shi Huang proclaimed himself the "First Emperor" (???), and imposed many reforms throughout China, notably the forced standardization of the Chinese language, measurements, length of cart axles, and currency. The Qin Dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after Qin Shi Huang's death, as its harsh legalist and authoritarian policies led to widespread rebellion.[42][43]
The subsequent Han Dynasty ruled China between 206 BC and 220 AD, and created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that extends to the present day.[42][43] The Han Dynasty expanded the empire's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia. China was for a large part of the last two millennia the world's largest economy.[44] However, in the later part of the Qing Dynasty, China's economic development began to slow and Europe's rapid development during and after the Industrial Revolution enabled it to surpass China.
After the collapse of Han, another period of disunion followed, including the highly chivalric period of the Three Kingdoms.[45] Independent Chinese states of this period such as Wu opened diplomatic relations with Japan,[46] introducing the Chinese writing system there. In 580 AD, China was reunited under the Sui.[47] However, the Sui Dynasty was short-lived after a failure in the Goguryeo-Sui Wars (598?614) weakened it.[48][49]
Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese technology and culture reached its zenith.[50] The Tang Empire was at its height of power until the middle of the 8th century, when the An Shi Rebellion destroyed the prosperity of the empire.[51] The Song Dynasty was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy.[52] Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size. This growth came about through expanded rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses.
Within its borders, the Northern Song Dynasty had a population of some 100 million people. The Song Dynasty was a culturally rich period for philosophy and the arts. Landscape art and portrait painting were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity after the Tang Dynasty, and social elites gathered to view art, share their own, and trade precious artworks. Philosophers such as Cheng Yi and Chu Hsi reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary, infused Buddhist ideals, and emphasized a new organization of classic texts that brought about the core doctrine of Neo-Confucianism.
In 1271, the Mongol leader and fifth Khagan of the Mongol Empire Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty, with the last remnant of the Song Dynasty falling to the Yuan in 1279. Before the Mongol invasion, Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census reported roughly 60 million people.[53]
A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty.[54] Ming Dynasty thinkers such as Wang Yangming would further critique and expand Neo-Confucianism with ideas of individualism and innate morality that would have tremendous impact on later Japanese thought. Chosun Korea also became a nominal vassal state of Ming China and adopted much of its Neo-Confucian bureaucratic structure.
Under the Ming Dynasty, China enjoyed another golden age, developing one of the strongest navies in the world and a rich and prosperous economy amid a flourishing of art and culture. It was during this period that Zheng He led explorations throughout the world, possibly reaching America. During the early Ming Dynasty, China's capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing. In 1644, Beijing was sacked by a coalition of rebel forces led by Li Zicheng, a minor Ming official turned leader of the peasant revolt. The last Ming Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide when the city fell. The Manchu Qing Dynasty then allied with Ming Dynasty general Wu Sangui and overthrew Li's short-lived Shun Dynasty, and subsequently seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty, which lasted until 1912, was the last imperial dynasty of China. In the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty adopted a defensive posture towards European imperialism, even though it engaged in an imperialistic expansion of its own into Central Asia. At this time, China awoke to the significance of the rest of the world, the West in particular. As China opened up to foreign trade and missionary activity, opium produced by British India was forced onto Qing China. Two Opium Wars with Britain weakened the Emperor's control. European imperialism proved to be disastrous for China:
The Arrow War (1856?1860) [2nd Opium War] saw another disastrous defeat for China. The subsequent passing of the humiliating Treaty of Tianjin in 1856 and the Beijing Conventions of 1860 opened up more of the country to foreign penetrations and more ports for their vessels. Hong Kong was ceded over to the British. Thus, the "unequal treaties system" was established. Heavy indemnities had to be paid by China, and more territory and control were taken over by the foreigners.[55]
The weakening of the Qing regime, and the apparent humiliation of the unequal treaties in the eyes of the Chinese people had several consequences. One consequence[according to whom?] was the Taiping Rebellion, a civil war which lasted from 1851 to 1862. The rebellion was led by Hong Xiuquan, who was partly influenced by an idiosyncratic interpretation of Christianity. Hong believed himself to be the son of God and the younger brother of Jesus. Although the Qing forces were eventually victorious, the civil war was one of the bloodiest in human history, costing at least 20 million lives (more than the total number of fatalities in World War I), with some estimates of up to two hundred million. Other costly rebellions followed the Taiping Rebellion, such as the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars (1855?67), Nien Rebellion (1851?1868), Miao Rebellion (1854?73), Panthay Rebellion (1856?1873) and the Dungan revolt (1862?1877).[56][57]
These rebellions resulted in an estimated loss of several million lives each and led to disastrous results for the economy and the countryside.[58][59][60] The flow of British opium hastened the empire's decline. In the 19th century, the age of colonialism was at its height and the great Chinese Diaspora began; today, about 35 million overseas Chinese live in Southeast Asia.[61] Emigration rates were strengthened by domestic catastrophes such as the famine of 1876?79, which claimed between 9 and 13 million lives in northern China.[62] From 108 BC to 1911 AD, China experienced 1,828 famines,[63] or one per year, somewhere in the empire.[64]
While China was wracked by continuous war, Meiji Japan succeeded in rapidly modernizing its military, and set its sights on the conquest of Korea and Manchuria. At the request of the Korean emperor, the Qing government sent troops to aid in suppressing the Tonghak Rebellion in 1894. However, Japan also sent troops to Korea, leading to the First Sino-Japanese War, which resulted in Qing China's loss of influence in the Korean Peninsula as well as the cession of Taiwan (including the Pescadores) to Japan.
Following this series of defeats, a reform plan for the empire to become a modern Meiji-style constitutional monarchy was drafted by the Guangxu Emperor in 1898, but was opposed and stopped by the Empress Dowager Cixi, who placed Emperor Guangxu under house arrest in a coup d'?tat. Further destruction followed the ill-fated 1900 Boxer Rebellion against westerners in Beijing.
By the early 20th century, mass civil disorder had begun, and calls for reform and revolution were heard across the country. The 38-year-old Emperor Guangxu died under house arrest on 14 November 1908, suspiciously just a day before Cixi's own death. With the throne empty, he was succeeded by Cixi's handpicked heir, his two year old nephew Puyi, who became the Xuantong Emperor. Guangxu's consort became the Empress Dowager Longyu. In another coup de'tat, Yuan Shikai overthrew the last Qing emperor, and forced empress Dowager Longyu to sign the abdication decree as regent in 1912, ending two thousand years of imperial rule in China. She died, childless, in 1913.
On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established, heralding the end of Imperial China. Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (the KMT or Nationalist Party) was proclaimed provisional president of the republic. However, the presidency was later given to Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general, who had ensured the defection of the entire Beiyang Army from the Qing Empire to the revolution. In 1915, Yuan proclaimed himself Emperor of China, but was forced to abdicate and reestablish the republic in the face of popular condemnation, not only from the general population but also from among his own Beiyang Army and its commanders.
After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, China was politically fragmented, with an internationally recognized but virtually powerless national government seated in Beijing. Regional warlords exercised actual control over their respective territories. In the late 1920s, the nationalist Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, was able to reunify the country under its own control with a series of deft military and political maneuverings, known collectively as the Northern Expedition. The Kuomintang moved the nation's capital to Nanjing and implemented "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's San-min program for transforming China into a modern democratic state. Effectively, political tutelage meant one-party rule by the Kuomintang, but the party was politically divided into competing cliques. This political division made it difficult for Chiang to battle the Communists, which the Kuomintang had been warring against since 1927 in the Chinese Civil War. This war continued successfully for the Kuomintang, especially after the Communists were forced to retreat in the Long March, until the Xi'an Incident and Japanese aggression forced Chiang to confront Imperial Japan.
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937?1945), a part of World War II, forced an uneasy alliance between the Kuomintang and the Communists. The Japanese "three-all policy" in northern China?"kill all, burn all and destroy all"?led to numerous war atrocities being committed against the civilian population; in all, as many as 20 million Chinese civilians were killed.[65][66] An estimated 200,000 Chinese were massacred in the city of Nanjing alone during the Japanese occupation.[67] Japan unconditionally surrendered to China in 1945. Taiwan, including the Pescadores, was retroceded. China emerged victorious but war-ravaged and financially drained. The continued distrust between the Kuomintang and the Communists led to the resumption of the Chinese Civil War. In 1947, constitutional rule was established, but because of the ongoing Civil War many provisions of the ROC constitution were never implemented in mainland China.[citation needed]
Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the Communist Party in control of mainland China, and the Kuomintang retreating offshore, reducing the ROC's territory to only Taiwan, Hainan, and their surrounding islands. On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China,[68] which was commonly known in the West as "Communist China" or "Red China" during the Cold War.[69] In 1950, the People's Liberation Army succeeded in capturing Hainan from the ROC, occupying Tibet, and defeating the majority of the remaining Kuomintang forces in Yunnan and Xinjiang provinces, though some Kuomintang holdouts survived until much later.
Mao encouraged population growth, and under his leadership the Chinese population almost doubled from around 550 million to over 900 million.[70] However, Mao's Great Leap Forward, a large-scale economic and social reform project, resulted in an estimated 45?million deaths between 1958 and 1961, mostly from starvation.[71] In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural Revolution, which would last until Mao's death a decade later. The Cultural Revolution, motivated by power struggles within the Party and a fear of the Soviet Union, led to a major upheaval in Chinese society. In October 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China in the United Nations, and took its seat as a permanent member of the Security Council. In that same year, for the first time, the number of countries recognizing the PRC surpassed those recognizing the ROC in Taipei as the government of China.[72] In February 1972, at the peak of the Sino-Soviet split, Mao and Zhou Enlai met Richard Nixon in Beijing. However, the U.S. did not officially recognise the PRC as China's sole legitimate government until 1 January 1979.
After Mao's death in 1976 and the arrest of the Gang of Four, who were blamed for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping quickly wrested power from Mao's anointed successor Hua Guofeng. Although he never became the head of the party or state himself, Deng was in fact the Paramount Leader of China at that time, his influence within the Party led the country to significant economic reforms. The Communist Party subsequently loosened governmental control over citizens' personal lives and the communes were disbanded with many peasants receiving multiple land leases, which greatly increased incentives and agricultural production. This turn of events marked China's transition from a planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly open market environment, a system termed by some "market socialism";[73] the Communist Party of China officially describes it as "socialism with Chinese characteristics". China adopted its current constitution on 4 December 1982.
The death of pro-reform official Hu Yaobang helped to spark the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, during which students and others campaigned for several months, speaking out against corruption and in favour of greater political reform, including democratic rights and freedom of speech. However, they were eventually put down on 4 June when PLA troops and vehicles entered and forcibly cleared the square, resulting in numerous casualties. This event was widely reported and brought worldwide condemnation and sanctions against the government.[74][75] The "Tank Man" incident in particular became famous.
President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, both former mayors of Shanghai, led the nation in the 1990s. Under Jiang and Zhu's ten years of administration, China's economic performance pulled an estimated 150?million peasants out of poverty and sustained an average annual gross domestic product growth rate of 11.2%.[76][77] The country formally joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
Although rapid economic growth has made the Chinese economy the world's second-largest, this growth has also severely impacted the country's resources and environment.[78] Another concern is that the benefits of economic development has not been distributed evenly, resulting in a wide development gap between urban and rural areas. As a result, under President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, the Chinese government initiated policies to address these issues of equitable distribution of resources, though the outcome remains to be seen.[79] More than 40?million farmers have been displaced from their land,[80] usually for economic development, contributing to the 87,000 demonstrations and riots across China in 2005.[81] Living standards have improved significantly but political controls remain tight.[82]
A composite satellite image showing the topography of China.
The People's Republic of China is the second-largest country in the world by land area after Russia[13] and is either the third- or fourth-largest by total area, after Russia, Canada and, depending on the definition of total area, the United States.[83] China's total area is generally stated as being approximately 9,600,000 km2 (3,700,000 sq?mi).[84] Specific area figures range from 9,572,900 km2 (3,696,100 sq?mi) according to the Encyclop?dia Britannica,[85] 9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq?mi) according to the UN Demographic Yearbook,[86] to 9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq?mi) according to the CIA World Factbook,[87] and 9,640,011 km2 (3,722,029 sq?mi) including Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract, which are controlled by China and claimed by India.[88] None of these figures include the 1,000 square kilometres (386.1?sq?mi) of territory ceded to China by Tajikistan following the ratification of a Sino-Tajik border agreement in January 2011.[89]
According to the Encyclop?dia Britannica, the total area of the United States, at 9,522,055 km2 (3,676,486 sq?mi), is slightly smaller than that of China. Meanwhile, the CIA World Factbook states that China's total area was greater than that of the United States until the coastal waters of the Great Lakes was added to the United States' total area in 1996.[90]
China has the longest combined land border in the world, measuring 22,117?km (13,743?mi) from the mouth of the Yalu River to the Gulf of Tonkin. China borders 14 nations, more than any other country except Russia, which also borders 14. China extends across much of East Asia, bordering Vietnam, Laos, and Burma in Southeast Asia; India, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan[91] in South Asia; Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia; a small section of Russian Altai and Mongolia in Inner Asia; and the Russian Far East and North Korea in Northeast Asia.
Additionally, China shares maritime boundaries with South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines. The PRC and the Republic of China (Taiwan) make mutual claims over each other's territory and the frontier between areas under their respective control is closest near the islands of Kinmen and Matsu, off the Fujian coast, but otherwise run through the Taiwan Strait. The PRC and ROC assert identical claims over the entirety of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, and the southern-most extent of these claims reach Zengmu Ansha (James Shoal), which would form a maritime frontier with Malaysia.
The territory of China lies between latitudes 18? and 54? N, and longitudes 73? and 135? E. China's landscapes vary significantly across its vast width. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains, while on the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau in the north, broad grasslands predominate. Southern China is dominated by hills and low mountain ranges, while the central-east hosts the deltas of China's two major rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Other major rivers include the Xi, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur. To the west, major mountain ranges, most notably the Himalayas, and high plateaus feature among the more arid landscapes of the north, such as the Taklamakan and the Gobi Desert. China's highest point, Mt. Everest (8848m), lies on the Sino-Nepalese border. The country's lowest point is the dried lake bed of Ayding Lake (?154m) in the Turpan Depression.
A major environmental issue in China is the continued expansion of its deserts, particularly the Gobi Desert, which is currently the world's fifth-largest desert.[92][93] Although barrier tree lines planted since the 1970s have reduced the frequency of sandstorms, prolonged drought and poor agricultural practices have resulted in dust storms plaguing northern China each spring, which then spread to other parts of East Asia, including Korea and Japan. According to China's environmental watchdog, Sepa, China is losing a million acres (4,000?km?) per year to desertification.[94] Water quality, erosion, and pollution control have become important issues in China's relations with other countries. Melting glaciers in the Himalayas could potentially lead to water shortages for hundreds of millions of people.[95]
China's climate is mainly dominated by dry seasons and wet monsoons, which lead to a pronounced temperature differences between winter and summer. In the winter, northern winds coming from high-latitude areas are cold and dry; in summer, southern winds from coastal areas at lower latitudes are warm and moist. The climate in China differs from region to region because of the country's extensive and complex topography.
China is one of 17 megadiverse countries,[96] lying in two of the world's major ecozones: the Palearctic and the Indomalaya. In the Palearctic zone, mammals such as the horse, camel, tapir, and jerboa can be found. Among the species found in the Indomalaya region are the Leopard Cat, bamboo rat, treeshrew, and various monkey and ape species. Some overlap exists between the two regions due to natural dispersal and migration; deer, antelope, bears, wolves, pigs, and numerous rodent species can all be found in China's diverse climatic and geological environments. The famous giant panda is found only in a limited area along the Yangtze River. China suffers from a continuing problem with trade in endangered species, although there are now laws to prohibit such activities.
China also hosts a variety of forest types. Cold coniferous forests predominate in the north of the country, supporting animal species such as moose and the Asian black bear, along with over 120 bird species. Moist conifer forests can have thickets of bamboo as an understorey, replaced by rhododendrons in higher montane stands of juniper and yew. Subtropical forests, which dominate central and southern China, support as many as 146,000 species of flora. Tropical and seasonal rainforests, though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, contain a quarter of all the plant and animal species found in China.
In recent decades, China has suffered from severe environmental deterioration and pollution.[97] While regulations such as the 1979 Environmental Protection Law are fairly stringent, enforcement of them is poor, as they are frequently disregarded by local communities and government officials in favour of rapid economic development.
Environmental campaigners such as Ma Jun have warned of the danger that water pollution poses to Chinese society.[98] According to the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources, roughly 300?million Chinese do not have access to safe drinking water, and 40% of China?s rivers have been polluted by industrial and agricultural waste as of late 2011.[99] This crisis is compounded by the perennial problem of water shortages, with 400 out of 600 surveyed Chinese cities reportedly short of drinking water.[100][101]
However, China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy technologies, with $34.6?billion invested in 2009 alone.[102][103] China produces more wind turbines and solar panels than any other country,[104] and renewable energy projects, such as solar water heating, are widely pursued at the local level.[105] By 2009, over 17% of China's energy was derived from renewable sources ? most notably hydroelectric power plants, of which China has a total installed capacity of 197 GW.[106] In 2011, the Chinese government announced plans to invest four trillion yuan (US$618.55 billion) in water infrastructure projects over a ten-year period, and to complete construction of a flood prevention and anti-drought system by 2020.[107]
The People's Republic of China, along with Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, and Cuba, is one of the five remaining official Communist states in the world.[108][109] but simple characterizations of China's political structure since the 1980s are no longer possible.[10] The Chinese government has been variously described as communist and socialist, but also as authoritarian, with heavy restrictions remaining in many areas, most notably on the Internet, the press, freedom of assembly, reproductive rights, and freedom of religion.[110] Its current political/economic system has been termed by its leaders as "Socialism with Chinese characteristics".
Compared to its closed-door policies until the mid-1970s, the liberalization of China has resulted in the administrative climate being less restrictive than before. China is far different from liberal democracy or social democracy that exists in most of Europe or North America, and the National People's Congress (highest state body) has been described as a "rubber stamp" body.[111] China's incumbent President is Hu Jintao, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, and its Premier is Wen Jiabao, who is also a senior member of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee.
The country is ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC), whose power is enshrined in China's constitution.[112] The Chinese electoral system is hierarchical, whereby local People's Congresses are directly elected, and all higher levels of People's Congresses up to the National People's Congress (NPC) are indirectly elected by the People's Congress of the level immediately below.[113] The political system is partly decentralized,[114] with limited democratic processes internal to the party and at local village levels, although these experiments have been marred by corruption. There are other political parties in China, referred to in China as democratic parties, which participate in the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
There have been some moves toward political liberalization, in that open contested elections are now held at the village and town levels,[115][116] and that legislatures have shown some assertiveness from time to time. However, the Party retains effective control over government appointments: in the absence of meaningful opposition, the CPC wins by default most of the time. Political concerns in China include lessening the growing gap between rich and poor and fighting corruption within the government leadership.[117]
The level of support to the government action and the management of the nation is among the highest in the world, with 86% of people who express satisfaction with the way things are going in their country and with their nation's economy according to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey.[118]
The People's Republic of China has administrative control over 22 provinces, and considers Taiwan to be its 23rd province, although Taiwan is currently governed by the Republic of China, which disputes the PRC's claim.[119] China also has five subdivisions officially termed autonomous regions, each with a designated minority group; four municipalities; and two Special Administrative Regions (SARs), which enjoy a degree of political autonomy. These 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities can be collectively referred to as "mainland China", a term which usually excludes the SARs of Hong Kong and Macau.
China has diplomatic relations with 171 countries and maintains embassies in 162.[120] Its legitimacy is disputed by the Republic of China and a few other countries; it is thus the largest and most populous state with limited recognition. Sweden was the first western country to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic on 9 May 1950.[121] In 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China as the sole representative of China in the United Nations and as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.[122] China was also a former member and leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and still considers itself an advocate for developing countries.[123]
Under its interpretation of the One-China policy, China has made it a precondition to establishing diplomatic relations that the other country acknowledges its claim to Taiwan and severs official ties with the government of the Republic of China. Chinese officials have protested on numerous occasions when foreign countries have made diplomatic overtures to Taiwan,[124] especially in the matter of armament sales.[125] Political meetings between foreign government officials and the 14th Dalai Lama are also opposed by China, as it considers Tibet to be formally part of China.[126]
Much of China's current foreign policy is reportedly based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence of Zhou Enlai?non-interference in other states' affairs, non-aggression, peaceful coexistence, equality and mutual benefits. China's foreign policy is also driven by the concept of "harmony without uniformity", which encourages diplomatic relations between states despite ideological differences. This policy has led China to support states that are regarded as dangerous or repressive by Western nations, such as Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran.[127] Conflicts with foreign countries have occurred at times in China's recent history, particularly with the United States; for example, the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict in May 1999 and the US-China spy plane incident in April 2001. China's foreign relations with many Western nations suffered for a time following the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, although in recent years China has improved its diplomatic links with the West.[128][129]
In recent decades, China has played an increasing role in calling for free trade areas and security pacts amongst its Asia-Pacific neighbors. In 2004, China proposed an entirely new East Asia Summit (EAS) framework as a forum for regional security issues, pointedly excluding the United States.[130] The EAS, which includes ASEAN Plus Three, India, Australia and New Zealand, held its inaugural summit in 2005. China is also a founding member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), along with Russia and the Central Asian republics.
In 2000, the U.S. Congress approved "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR) with China, allowing Chinese exports in at the same low tariffs as goods from most other countries.[131] Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform.[132] Bush was furthermore an advocate of China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).[133] China has a significant trade surplus with the United States, its most important export market.[134] In the early 2010s, U.S. politicians argued that the Chinese yuan was significantly undervalued, giving China an unfair trade advantage.[135]
Sinophobic attitudes often target Chinese minorities and nationals living outside of China. Sometimes, such anti-Chinese attitudes turn violent, as occurred during the 13 May Incident in Malaysia in 1969 and the Jakarta riots of May 1998 in Indonesia, in which more than 2,000 people died.[136] In recent years, a number of anti-Chinese riots and incidents have also occurred in Africa and Oceania.[137][138] Anti-Chinese sentiment is often rooted in socio-economics.[139]
China has been involved in a number of international territorial disputes, mostly resulting from the legacy of unequal treaties imposed on China during the historical period of New Imperialism. Since the 1990s, China has been entering negotiations to resolve its disputed land borders, usually by offering concessions and accepting less than half of the disputed territory with each party. China's only remaining land border disputes are a disputed border with India and an undefined border with Bhutan. China is additionally involved in more minor multilateral disputes over the ownership of several small islands in the East and South China Seas.[140][141]
The relationship between China and Japan has been strained at times by Japan's refusal to acknowledge its wartime past to the satisfaction of China. Revisionist comments made by prominent Japanese officials and some Japanese history textbooks regarding the 1937 Nanjing Massacre have been a focus of particular controversy. Sino-Japanese relations warmed considerably after Shinzo Abe became the Prime Minister of Japan in September 2006, and a joint historical study conducted by China and Japan released a report in 2010 which pointed toward a new consensus on the issue of World War 2-era atrocities.[142] However, in the early 2010s, relations cooled once more, with Japan accusing China of withholding its reserves of valuable rare earth elements.[143]
China is heavily engaged, both politically and economically, with numerous nations in the developing world. Most notably, they have followed a policy of engaging with African nations for trade and bilateral co-operation.[144][145]Xinhua, China's official news agency, states that there are no less than 750,000 Chinese nationals working or living in Africa.[146] China has furthermore strengthened its ties with major South American economies, becoming the largest trading partner of Brazil and building strategic links with Argentina.[147][148] Along with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, China is a member of the BRICS group of emerging major economies, and hosted the group's third official summit at Sanya in Hainan Province in April 2011.[149]
China is regularly hailed as a potential new superpower, with certain commentators citing its rapid economic progress, growing military might, very large population, and increasing international influence as signs that it will play a prominent global role in the 21st century. Others, however, warn that economic bubbles and demographic imbalances could slow or even halt China's growth as the century progresses.[150][151][152][153][154]
The Chinese democracy movement, social activists, and some members of the Communist Party of China have all identified the need for social and political reform. While economic and social controls have been greatly relaxed in China since the 1970s, political freedom is still tightly restricted. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China states that the "fundamental rights" of citizens include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to a fair trial, freedom of
Source: http://article.wn.com/view/2013/07/06/China_Switzerland_sign_free_trade_pact/
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