China

Source: Prison Planet

Shanghai's World Financial Center, the tallest building in China upon completion, defied all known physics yesterday afternoon when it caught fire but did not collapse, a modern day miracle in light of the commonly accepted premise that since 9/11, all steel buildings that suffer limited fire damage implode within two hours.

Anyone who has visited Shanghai's Pudong district will note that the World Financial building eerily resembles the twin towers in New York that were destroyed on 9/11, which is why the sight of it catching fire yesterday would have led many to immediately fear the imminent collapse of the structure.

"According to an eyewitness, the building caught fire around 4:35 p.m., and floors above the 40th floor were shrouded with dark smoke. The fire was fierce, burning debris fell from the building. Many people fled the building in panic," reports Epoch Times.

"According to Mr. Deng, a local resident, floors above the 30th floor were engulfed in thick layers of smoke, while the top of the building was also smoking."

Officials put the time of the outbreak of the fire at 4pm and said that was extinguished by about 6pm. The south tower of the WTC burned for just 56 minutes before collapsing, while the north tower lasted around an hour and 45 minutes. According to the official transcripts of the firefighter tapes, fires in both towers were almost out immediately before the collapses.

The World Financial Center in Shanghai bravely remains standing after fires gutted its top floors, a modern day miracle of science and a bizarre contradiction to the officially revised version of physics that came into effect on September 11, 2001.

Following the recent food scare from China, 92% of consumers now want "Country of Origin" labels on their food, found the latest poll in Consumer Reports.

What a lot of people don't realize is that even food made in the U.S. provides no guarantee against being duped.

In an attempt to make healthier choices, many consumers pick food items with the label "Natural" in the grocery store.

A 2002 study by the National Consumers League (NCL) showed that 76% of the surveyed believed that foods with "natural" on the package contain at least 90% natural ingredients; another 80% thought "natural" products were good for them.

NCL President Linda Golodner begs to differ: "Products with the 'natural' labeling are not required by law to contain only natural ingredients."

In fact, in most cases "natural" doesn't mean anything, because ­ unlike the label "organic" ­ it has no definition in law or regulation.

There are only two exceptions: "Natural flavors" means by law that a flavor has to be derived from natural sources like fruit juice, spices, herbs, etc. And in meat, the USDA allows the word only for minimally processed meat and poultry products without artificial ingredients or added colors.

What’s wrong with China? Pet food sickened dogs and cats, then warnings about toothpaste, toy trains, car tires and several types of fish came.

The warnings had one thing in common - all of the products came from China. And that has people worried.

"I'm scared to death. We are dependent on our government inspecting things," said Joyce Simple, a church secretary, interviewed on a recent shopping trip to a Wal-Mart in Houston. "I would be careful of anything that came from China."

For Emily Pokora, a 24-year-old law school student in Phoenix, the problem hit even closer to home. Her cat got violently sick in March after eating tainted pet food. While the cat survived, the episode has shaken Pokora's faith in the products she buys.

"You go to the store and you can't trust anymore that it's not going to kill your animal or hurt you," she said.

The string of recalls has not gone unnoticed by shoppers, based on Associated Press interviews around the country.

"Here we're buying all of these products from China and they're not adhering to our standards. It's very disturbing," said Joanne Metler, a community college teacher in Chicago.

The food and safety issues are one more irritant in a trade relationship already strained by a ballooning U.S. deficit with China. That deficit hit $233 billion (EUR171 billion) last year, the highest ever recorded with a single country. Imports of Chinese products into the United States totaled $288 billion (EUR211 billion) while U.S. exports to China totaled $55 billion (EUR40 billion). That means for every $1 (73 euro cents) in goods the United States sells China, China sells the United States more than $5 (EUR3.67) in products.

Chinese exports to the United States last year were nearly triple the level of just five years ago. The flood of Chinese products has increased since China's entry into the World Trade Organization in late 2001, a development which removed many of the remaining U.S. barriers.

China is now the dominant supplier in a whole range of areas that go far beyond the athletic shoes and low-priced clothing that have traditionally displayed the Made in China label.

Source: Newstarget

What's interesting about China's execution of its top FDA official (Zheng Xiaoyu) for accepting bribes from drug companies is not that China executed a corrupt official, it's that such harsh actions demonstrate, in contrast, the complete lack of action against corrupt FDA officials in the United States. In the U.S., the more corrupt the politician or bureaucrat, the more power they seem to gain, and those who demonstrate the most extreme degrees of evil, greed and contempt for fellow human beings seem to end up at the very top.