China's Deadliest Infectious Disease is Now AIDS

For the first time last year, AIDS has become the most infectious disease in China. 6,897 of its citizens died within the first nine months of 2008 due to the disease. The Chinese government has improved the reporting of HIV/AIDS statistics and is acknowledging its presence in the country. China has denied that AIDS is a problem in the country for a long time, partly due to the low amount of reported deaths.

In recent years, leaders of China have more open about the disease, offered free treatment for the poor, anonymous testing, and have banned discrimination against people who have the disease. The government of China and UNAIDS estimate that the number of citizens in China living with HIV is estimated at 700,000 and 85,000 of these people have full blown AIDS. About 34,864 people have died from aids since its first reported death in 1985. The main causes of HIV infections are due to sex, drug abuse, unsanitary blood plasma, and tainted transfusions in hospitals.

First Face Transplant Done in America

In Cleveland, reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow and a team of specialists performed the first face face transplant done in America by replacing 80 percent of a disfigured woman's face by using the face of a female cadaver. Many details of the surgery have not been released but surgeons that do this usually transplant skin, facial nerves, muscles, and other deep tissue.

Skin is considered an organ and it still runs the risk of the body rejecting it, as with other organ transplants. Recipients of transplants have the risk of deadly complications, such as the new facial tissue attacking the recipient's body and the recipient's body attacking the bone marrow or the transplanted face to cause inflammation at the area of the new tissue. They also have to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent the body rejecting the organ. This raises the risk of cancer and other diseases.

This is the fourth one done worldwide. Two have been done in France and one was done in China. The first one was a partial face transplant done in France in 2005 on a woman who had been mauled by her dog and received a new nose, chin, and lips from a brain-dead donor. Another was done in France on man disfigured by a genetic disease. One was done in China on a farmer that had been disfigured by being mauled by a bear.

Thousands of People Evacuated in China

In China, 200,000 people were evacuated by early Saturday to safer places due to a lake formed by the recent earthquake threatening to breach its dam. Hundred of Chinese troops have been working to drain Tangjashan Lake in Sichuan province. The lake was formed when a hillside plunged into a river valley during the earthquake on May 12^th that killed 68,977 people and left 17,974 missing, according to most recent updates.

A runoff channel has been recently completed and water is expected to be discharged between Sunday and Tuesday. Another 1.3 million people in the area will be evacuated if the barrier of the lake fully opens and floods the area.

Evacuation Warnings in China

It is possible that more than one million people might have to evacuate dozens of villages in a Sichuan province if the lake bursts and floods the area due to the recent earthquake. The lake has a wall of debris that is clogging a river. On Saturday, officials will start a three-day drill that will test the government communications systems to make sure that residents in the valley can hear future evacuation orders.

So far, it is estimated that 68,858 people were killed in the earthquake and there are 18,618 people that are missing. The earthquake left 5 million people homeless and many people were separated from their families.

China Changes One-Child Policy Due to Earthquake

China has decided to change its one-child policy to exempt the families with a child killed, severely injured, or disabled in the country’s recent earthquake. The families can get a certificate to have another child.

On May 12th of this year, there was a devastating earthquake that killed 65,000 people and left more than 23,000 people missing. There were many children that were killed and injured in the disaster. Usually, having more than one child is illegal in China and families that have more than one child are punished by having to pay fines. If the families’ legally born child is killed and the family only has an illegally born child under the age of 18, then that child can be registered as a legal child. This is a positive thing because it gives the child that was once illegal the same rights as a legal citizen and nine years of compulsory education.

China started the one-child policy in the late 1970s to control China’s very large population and to provide better education and health care. There were already certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families, and families where both parents are only children. In some parts of rural China, most families are allowed to have a second child, especially if the first child is a girl.

Many people in China have shown interest in adopting children that have become orphans due to the earthquake. There are not any limitations to the number of orphans that a family can adopt. The adoptions and the future birth to a family that adopts an orphan is exempt from the one-child policy as the earthquake left 4,000 children to become orphans. Most of the orphans will be sent to live with other family members.

iPod Defects Being Investigated

Japan is investigating a possible defect in Apple Inc.’s iPod after one of the digital music players shot out sparks while recharging. The problem is assumed to be with the lithium-ion battery in the iPod Nano, model number MA099J/A. The problem was first found in January in Tokyo and Apple reported the problem to the ministry in March. Luckily, no one was injured when the defect happened.

The ministry has instructed that Apple Japan has to find out the cause of the problem and report it back to the government. The iPod was assembled in China but it is not sure where the battery was made. Lithium-ion batteries have already been the problem for some laptops by causing fires.

China Banning Foreign Cartoons

China is putting a ban on all foreign cartoons that air between 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. to protect their domestic cartoon industry. The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) says that no foreign cartoons or programs that introduce foreign cartoons can be shown during those hours on all domestic cartoon channels and children channels starting on May 1^st. Only domestic cartoons that are approved by SARFT can be aired. Cartoons that are co-produced by both domestic and foreign producers have to get approval to be aired.

In August of 2006, a ban was introduced that kept foreign cartoons from airing between 5 pm. and 8 p.m. After the ban, domestic cartoon programming for China increased by 38 percent. The ban is supposed to help China’s struggling animation studios space to compete and help their domestic cartoon industry.

China Targeting the Internet to Stop Juvenile Crime

China is targeting illegal Web sites, computer markets, and Internet cafes to attack online games that are considered too violent and unhealthy to try to stop juvenile crime. The crackdown is being called “Operation for Tomorrow” and is also aimed at Web sites that offer unregistered playing platforms or services that can be downloaded. They hope that this plan will improve the environment, prevent, and reduce juvenile crime and illegal activities.

China already monitors the Internet for anti-government speech and uncensored news reports. The new plan mainly targets school dropouts, runaways, children of inmates, and children that have been left behind by parents that migrated to different areas for work. Unlicensed Internet cafes would be closed down and there would be tighter supervision over legal cafes. The China government is blaming Internet cafes for promoting juvenile crime and school truancy. Online pornography will also be attacked in the crackdown.

The crackdown is meant to increase government supervision and control the services of groups of people that they feel are vulnerable and easily impressionable. They also plan to increase the supervision over domestic and foreign charity groups and other non-government organizations.

New Dinosaur Fossils Found in China

Scientists have found new dinosaur fossils in China. The fossils are small, sparrow sized, toothless, and have carved toes. Despite their small size, they strongly resemble pterodactyls. They supposedly spent most of their time living in trees. Pterodactyls are widely known for being giant flying reptiles and most of their fossils have been found around costal areas.

The new fossil has been named Nemicolopterus cryptic, meaning hidden flying forest dweller. It was found in the western part of China’s Liaoning province, which is a region that had forests 120 million years ago. The fossil had attachments for muscles so that it could grasp limbs. It didn’t have any teeth, unlike most pterodactyls, and probably ate insects.

China Putting Limits on Internet Video

China is putting restrictions on the broadcasting of Internet videos by only allowing citizens to use sites that are ran by state-controlled companies. They are also requiring that providers report questionable content to the government. The regulations will start to take effect on January 31^st and were approved by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and the Ministry of Information Industry.

Under the new policy, Websites that provide videos or allow people to upload videos have to get government permits and applicants have to be state-owned or state-controlled companies. The policy will also ban providers form broadcasting video that has national secrets, hurts the reputation of China, disturbs social stability, or has pornography. Video providers will be required to delete and report this kind of content.

The permits will have to be renewed every three years and video providers that commit major violations might be banned from providing online videos for five years. It is not clear if the popular Website YouTube will be affected since they are available in China and runs a Chinese-language Website. It also isn’t known if any of YouTube’s computer servers are located in China.

Woman Born With Feet Facing Backwards

In China, a woman named Wang Fang was born with her feet facing the wrong way. She lives fine with her condition and doesn’t want to receive disability pension because she doesn’t see herself as disabled. She says that she can run faster than most of her friends and has a job as a waitress. After she was born, Doctors thought she would not be able to walk properly but she is doing fine.

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Read More of the Story: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314781,00.html

Fatal Storm Hits China

A fatal and dangerous storm hit China and caused the evacuation of millions of people. The storm killed 5 people in Taiwan and 55 people in Vietnam. It started as a typhoon and then weakened to a tropical storm. Homes were wrecked and there were power outages.

About 1.4 million people were evacuated from the costal areas, including more than 500,000 tourists who occupied beach resorts for the National Day holiday week. 75,000 fishing vessels were ordered to go back to port and ferry trips and sightseeing boats were canceled.

Baby Crib Recalls

About 1 million Simplicity and Graco cribs are being recalled after three children had gotten trapped in their cribs and died of suffocation. The three children were 6-months old, 9-months old, and 1-year old.
In all of the deaths, the buyer had installed the drop-rail side of the crib upside down. This causes a gap in the crib that children can slide into and suffocate. There have been 55 reports of the crib’s drip side detaching or the hardware not holding the side to the crib. All of the cribs were made in China.
Back in June, about 40,000 Nursery-in-a-Box cribs, manufactured by Simplicity, were recalled because the assembly instructions didn’t explain correctly how to attach the drop side. The current recall involves mainly the Simplicity and Graco cribs made from January 1998 to May 2007. The recall involves many models and model numbers.
A person that owns one of these cribs should make sure that the drop side is installed right side up and is securely attached. The newer models have a flexible tab at the top of the lower track and a permanent stop at the bottom. The older models had a flexible tab at the bottom of the lower tracks.
The models that are recalled include: Aspen 3 in 1, Aspen 4 in 1, Nursery-in-a-Box, Crib N Changer, Combo, Chelsea, Pooh 4 in 1, Ultra 4 in 1, and Ultra 5 in 1. Simplicity is offering free repairs for cribs with older hardware.