The world is going to end ... but not tomorrow - Mayan calendar prophesy. In the brief life of RFI’s English-language website we have already had the pleasure of reporting the world’s failure to end on two occasions – 11.11am on 11 May 2011 and 21 May 2011 – and we missed quite a few. The prediction that it will all be over on Friday is all over the internet and has been adopted and adapted by a number of new-age cults – with special dispensations for the villages of Bugarach in France and Cisternino in Italy, according to some. About 1,000 members of the Almighty God sect have been arrested in China, according to the Xinjiang Bao newspaper, after its leaders called on members to overturn the “Great Red Dragon”, which the ruling Communist Party not unreasonably takes to be a reference to itself, and prepare for the arrival of a female Christ and the beginning of a new era.
The 2009 Hollywood film 2012, partly based on the Mayan calendar’s supposed prophesy, has given birth to a host of apocalyptic predictions in the People’s Republic. Here are some: Profit or loss? What will London make out of the 2012 Olympics? - Report: London Olympic Games 2012. “The reason countries are eager to host is an altogether different one: hosting makes you happier. Brazil will benefit from 2014 [the football World Cup], but not in money,” Szymanski, a sports economist, and Kuper, a sports writer, claim. They point to the cash spent on organising the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa. “When about a third of your population lives on less than two dollars a day, the government can hardly say it’s blowing billions on a month of fun," they argue.
"It has to argue that the football will benefit the poor.” Sceptics might point out that as Lloyds Banking Group is the official banking and insurance partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, any surveys emanating from their portals are predestined to be positive. However such upbeat assessments about the future can be countered with the cold realities of now. With such data circulating, it is hardly surprising that the organisers’ mantra has been legacy. Can London Olympics opening outglitz Beijing 2008? - Report: London Olympic Games.
The show at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London, will mark a break with the well-drilled extravaganza that launched the Beijing Games four years ago. Back then before 90,000 people in the Bird’s Nest Stadium, the film director, Zhang Yimou, pulled the strings to create a four-hour epic that highlighted 1,000 years of Chinese culture and achievement.
There were 2,008 Fou drummers, dancers, singing children, martial arts performers and of course fireworks. National pride was duly swollen in a production estimated at 81 million euros. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, described it as an “unforgettable and moving ceremony that celebrated the imagination, originality and energy of the Beijing Games”. He went on to laud the Bird’s Nest Stadium as "one of the world's new wonders". Rogge’s eloquence might not be summoned following Danny Boyle’s more modest 34-million-euro offering. The parade will also underline the fight for women to gain the vote. Clinton, Hollande lash Russia, Syria at Paris Friends of Syria conference - Friends of the Syrian People conference, Paris. Clinton called on Russia and China to “get off the sidelines” and accused them of “standing up for” the Assad regime.
She called on other countries to "make it clear that Russia and China will pay a price" for that support and on the UN Security Council to step up sanctions against Syria. Opening the conference, Hollande called on the UN to take tougher action against Syria, warning that Bashar al-Assad’s regime has “no option but escalation” of repression. He called on the conference to make five commitments: An end to impunity for regime members;Real and effective sanctions;Increase in support to the opposition, including providing means of communication;Humanitarian aid;Aid for reconstruction once the conflict is over. But, although Hollande boasted that this third conference is the biggest yet with about 100 countries represented, Russia and China have refused to attend, meaning that its decisions are unlikely to win the support of the UN Security Council.
Haze Stretching from China to Japan. Japan and the Koreas - May 6th, 2012 A thick haze stretches between China (left) and southern Japan (right), also extending up to the western side of the Korean Peninsula. Visible through the translucent veil is Incheon Bay, whose waters are colored tan with sediments. Haze in this part of Asia is often caused by smoke from agricultural fires, smog or fog, or a mix of all there. Clouds Lining West Coast of Korean Peninsula and Haze Over China. Korea - April 14th, 2012 Clouds line the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, hanging over Korea Bay (above) and Incheon Bay (center). Sediments can be seen along the southern coast of the peninsula, while the eastern coast is mostly clear.
In the upper left quadrant and left side of the full image, haze can be seen hanging over northeastern China and the Bohai Sea. Smoke and Haze Over Laos and Thailand. Myanmar - April 14th, 2012 Sediments can be observed in the Gulf of Martaban, in southern Myanmar, in the lower part of this image. Visible to the east and northeast, over parts of Thailand and Laos is a smoky haze, probably caused by agricultural fires. The smoke extends northward towards the southern border of China. Haze Over China and Sediments in East China Sea. China - March 31st, 2012 Haze hangs over northeastern China (left), the Bohai Sea (upper left quadrant) and the East China Sea (lower right quadrant), spreading towards but not quite reaching the Korean Peninsula (upper right quadrant). Visible through the haze are sediments spilling forth from the mouth of the Yangtze River, the longest river in China, near Shanghai, into the East China Sea.
The sediments in the Bohai Sea, to the north, come mostly from the Yellow River (Huang He), the second-longest river in the country. Guangzhou and Sediments in Qiongzhou Strait, China. China - December 25th, 2011 Sediments line the coast of China and are present in the Qiongzhou Strait, also called the Hainan Strait, a body of water that separates the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong, southern China, to the north, from Hainan Island to the south. The strait connects the Gulf of Tonkin in the west to the James Shoal on the eastern edge of the South China Sea.
The strait is on average 30 km wide with a maximum water depth of approximately 120 m. Also of note near the coast is the sprawling, grey area that demarcates the city of Guangzhou, known historically as Canton, the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People’s Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about 120 km north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is the third largest city in China and southern China’s largest city. Snow Over Taklamakan Desert, China. China - December 31st, 2011 The Taklamakan Desert, China’s largest, stretches across the Tarim Basin in this image. The white areas over the desert sands are not clouds, but rather snow. In the full image, the snow can be seen accentuating the valleys inbetween the crests of huge sand dunes. It also lines the lower slopes of the mountains bordering the southern part of the basin. Snowfall over the Taklamakan is not uncommon in winter, although it is rare for the entire desert to be covered (this last occurred in 2008).
Haze Over China. China - January 6th, 2012 This image shows a greyish veil of haze, perhaps mixed with some fog, over eastern China. The low-lying haze seeps into mountain valleys along the edge of the North China Plain, leaving the dark brown peaks clear. Such haze is common over the North China Plain, caused by a variety of factors ranging from smoke from agricultural fires, to smog released into the atmosphere in urban areas, to the presence of cyclones in the Pacific Ocean to the east. Hainan Island and Province in South China Sea. China - February 8th, 2012 This orthorectified wide-swath ASAR image shows Hainan, the smallest province of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The name “Hainan” also refers to Hainan Island, the main island of the province. Hainan is located in the South China Sea, separated from Guangdong’s Leizhou Peninsula to the north by the shallow and narrow Qiongzhou Strait. The province has an area of 33,920 square kilometres (13,100 sq mi) and is China’s southernmost province. Although it comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, 32,900 square kilometres (12,700 sq mi) (97%) of its land mass is Hainan Island, from which the province takes its name.
There are a total of eight major cities and ten counties in Hainan Province. Haikou on the northern coast of Hainan Island is the capital. Haze Over Northeastern China Near Bohai Sea. China - January 6th, 2012 This image shows dense smog hanging over the North China Plain, completely obscuring much of the ground below.
The haze probably contains mostly soot or black carbon and possibly some ground-level ozone. Smog frequently builds up in this way in northeastern China during the winter, because weather conditions trap pollutants over the plain. Here, the haze is also trapped in the area by the surrounding mountains. The North China Plain is bordered on the north by the Yanshan Mountains and on the west by the Taihang Mountains at the edge of the Shanxi (‘western mountains’) plateau. To the south, it merges into the Yangtze Plain.
Two pandas arrive in France for 10-year stay - France - China. It took years of top-level negotiations between Paris and Beijing to bring Huan Huan (Happy) and Yuan Zi (Chubby) to France. They are the first pandas sent here since 1973, when Yen Yen, who went on to live until 2000, was given to then-president Georges Pompidou along with another panda, which died shortly after arriving. Although pandas are notoriously reluctant to reproduce, Huan Huan and Yuan Zi were specially selected for their breeding potential by their keepers in the city of Chengdu. They are to spend 10 years at Beauval zoo, two hours’ drive from Paris in the Loire region. But the European public will have to wait until 11 February to get their first glimpse of the bears in their specially created 2.5-hectare enclosure, which is decorated with Chinese-style pagodas and marble lion statues.
"France is lucky to be getting these two, they are particularly lovable, and very good-looking," he said. "Huan Huan sticks out her tongue a lot and Yuan Zi loves to climb, he's quite sporty. " Ice on Qinghai Lake, Tibetan Plateau, China. China - December 26th, 2011 This image focuses on Qinghai Lake, a saline lake situated in the province of Qinghai, and the largest lake in China. It is located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of the provincial capital of Xining at 3,205 m (10,515 feet) above sea level in a depression of the Tibetan Plateau in the traditional Tibetan province of Amdo.
Twenty-three rivers and streams empty into Qinghai Lake, most of them seasonal. Five permanent streams provide 80% of total influx. The lake has fluctuated in size, shrinking over much of the 20th century, but increasing since 2004. Here, some ice can be seen on the lake, particularly in bays on its western shores and parallel to the northern shores. Kunlun Mountains and Convergence of Karakax and Yurungkax Rivers, China. Paris pitches for foreign Christmas shoppers - France. Tibetan Lakes Region North of Himalayas, China. Thousands of mini Eiffel towers seized as police target illegal street vendors - France. Haze Over China by Taihang Mountains and Loess Plateau. China agrees to invest in euro bailout, diplomats. Haze Over Skies in Eastern China. Smoke from Wildfires Over China, Russia and Japan – October 14th, 2011.
Lake Nur Between Deserts in China. Tropical Depression Nalgae (22W) by Coast of Southeastern China. Hong Kong shut down, Hainan evacuated as Typhoon Nesat strikes. Dust Over Western Half of Taklamakan Desert, China. Tropical Storm Nalgae (22W) Threatens Vietnam and Hainan, China. Lake Alakol in Kazakhstan and Lake Bosten in China. Haze Over Bohai Sea, China.
Haze Over Northeastern China Plains. Nearly 300 dead in Pakistani floods as UN appeals for urgent aid. Chinese to be taught in all Swedish schools. Japanese government on alert as Fukushima leaks radiation. China earthquake leaves 14 dead. Relevant Articles » Blog Archive » Clean up begins after China oil spill. A ‘Small’ Spill? China’s Environmental Tango - Green Blog. Oil spill in Dalian, China.