China Using Artificial Rain to Clear Dust

Beijing will use artificial rainmaking to clear the air after a choking dust storm coated China's capital and beyond with yellow grit, prompting a health warning to keep children indoors, state media said Tuesday. The huge storm blew dust far beyond China's borders, blanketing South Korea and reaching Tokyo. The storm, reportedly the worst in at least five years, hit Beijing overnight Sunday, turning the sky yellow and forcing residents to dust off and hose down cars and buildings. Hospitals reported a jump in cases of breathing problems, state television said. The government was preparing to seed clouds to make rain to clear the air, state TV said, citing the Central Meteorological Bureau. It did not elaborate, and the bureau refused to release more information. Storms carrying chalky dust from the north China plain hit Beijing every spring, but newspapers said this week's was the heaviest since at least 2001. The Beijing Daily Messenger said 300,000 tons of sand and dust were dumped on the city Monday....

Rare bubonic plague case reported in Los Angeles

A case of bubonic plague has been reported in the second largest US city of Los Angeles for the first time in 22 years, health officials said. An unidentified woman came down last week with symptoms of the disease, known as the Black Death when it devastatingly swept across Europe in the 14th century. Health officials said they believed the infected woman, who remains hospitalised, was exposed to fleas in the area around her house and stressed that the likelihood of a spread of the rare disease was very unlikely. "Bubonic plague is not usually transmissible from person to person," said Jonathan Fielding, head of Los Angeles County public health. Fielding explained that the disease is not uncommon among animals such as squirrels but seldom spreads to humans. "Fortunately, human plague infection is rare in urban environments, and this single case should not be a cause for alarm in the area where this occurred," he said. Health officials investigating the source of the disease set traps to catch squirrels and other wild animals in the area near where the woman lives....