Social Affairs

An estimated two billion field mice are eating their way through crops in 22 counties around central China's Dongting Lake, in Hunan province, after their homes on islands in the lake were flooded. Local authorities reported to be urgently constructing walls and digging ditches to keep the mice away from flood-control dikes and cropland. The massive invasion of field mice began on June 23 when the Yangtze river flooded, raising the water level in Dongting Lake and submerging mouse holes on islands in the lake.

As recently as last month, villagers in central China still digging up dinosaur bones, boiling them in soup and using them for traditional medicine. The fossils were being sold in Henan province as "dragon bones" at about four yuan (US$0.50) per kilogram. The calcium-rich bones were sometimes boiled with other ingredients and fed to children as a treatment for dizziness and leg cramps.