Chinese analyst: China's cooperation with Russia allows them to focus on U.S. threat to Asian-Pacific region

© Sputnik/ Mikhail Mecel

In an interview for Sputnik, Dr. Xu Jin, Director of the Department of International Politics at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, laid down his vision of the Chinese perspective on geopolitics, noting that Russian-Chinese relations serve as a model for relations between great powers.

Speaking about China's priorities in foreign affairs, Xu noted that "the most important region for China is East Asia, including Southeast and Northeast Asia." He explained that "almost all territorial disputes between China and other countries lie there." The expert added that one of the greatest threats to Chinese security is "America's rebalancing of the Asian-Pacific [region], and separatism, which sometimes combines with terrorism."

On Afghan security, the expert noted that in China's view, only the country's government can solve its security problems: "If Afghanistan's central government cannot be effective, clean and strong enough, any help from outside will be useless. God helps those who help themselves."

Xu emphasized that in the Asia-Pacific region, "Russia and China can cooperate to deal with many problems, such as terrorism in Central Asia, or Japan's desire to violate the basic international principles set after WWII." He noted that in Asia, "Russia is China's most important partner, because a good Sino-Russian relationship means a stable strategic rear."

With regard to China-Russia relations in general, Xu noted that the two countries have achieved a great deal through their comprehensive partnership, which includes cooperation in the "political, military, economic, cultural and other spheres."

With regard to the present conflict in Ukraine, Xu noted that while "it is a local matter now...if the two sides cannot achieve a political solution, the crisis could possibly escalate to a larger scale, and several great powers will get involved in it." The expert notes that "at that time it will become a question of global stability," which could lead to Russia confronting "the US and maybe the EU," which would be "a tragedy of power politics."

Touching on the pressing issue of China's slowing growth, the analyst noted that in his view, "China's economy is going into a new normal status. High growth rates — 8% or higher — will not be reached again. China will put more attention on the updating of its economic structure with a medium-high growth rate. The Chinese economy does face some problems, but one cannot say that China is entering a period of economic turmoil." Xu added that he believes that "China will greatly narrow its economic gap with the US within the decade."

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New U.S. sanctions will not pressure Russia to change its foreign policy

New US sanctions not only harm the global economy, but also won't force Russia to change its stance on foreign policy issues, the Russian President's Press Secretary announced.

Dmitriy Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary announced that the new sanctions imposed by the United States will not alter Russia's foreign policy.

"No sanctions will ever pressure Russia to change its consistent foreign policy."

Peskov stated emphasized that while sanctions against Russia do cause discomfort, they also hurt companies in countries which issue the sanctions, as well as the entire global economy.

Sanctions are a double-edged sword, and they do cause discomfort for the Russian Federation, but they also hurt entrepreneurs and the economy of those countries who play around with these sanctions. These sanctions don't bring any good to the global economy," Peskov said.

Russian-Western relations have deteriorated because of the situation in Ukraine. Last summer, the European Union and the United States imposed sanctions on entire sectors of the Russian economy, accusing Moscow of fueling the fighting in Ukraine. Russia, in response, has banned certain food imports from the countries that imposed the restrictions.

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38 people killed by flooding in Tanzania

© AFP/Simon Maina

An estimated 3,500 people in Tanzania's northwest have been affected by flooding

Flooding in north-western Tanzania has killed at least 38 people and left hundreds of others homeless, police in the Shinyanga region have told the BBC.

The downpours were accompanied by hail and strong winds meaning many people had no chance of escaping, senior police officer Justus Kamugisha said.

The rains have severely damaged mud houses and blocked roads, making rescue operations difficult, he added.

More than 60 rescued people are being treated for their injuries in hospital.

The BBC's Hassan Mhelela in Tanzania says most people in Shinyanga make their living by subsistence farming.

But the weather has wreaked havoc on the landscape and crops of maize and cotton have been destroyed and livestock killed, he says.

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We still live in a world where many believe...

© Prevent Disease.com

The status quo is reality. People don't question the existing state of affairs, especially if it's been repeated enough times as the norm in the name of social, scientific and economic progress. But how do we define progress in our species?

Through advancements in energy, economics, agriculture, technology?

All of the above? What about advancements in Humanity?

Humanity has taken a back-door to what we define as progress. The problem is we still live in a world where people believe:

...that killing a person is unacceptable but killing millions of people through war is all good in the name of peace.

...that out of the millions of planetary systems, Earth is the only one with intelligent life.

...that despite being around for billions of years, the Sun, a primary source of life on Earth, is evil between 10pm-4pm.

...that 90% of the world being enslaved to earn paper money is totally acceptable.

...that there are no consequences of GMOs or for example injecting fish genes into strawberries since after all, nature won't know the difference.

...that eating junk food is completely normal, but a fixation on conscious healthy organic eating is a mental disorder.

...that it's reasonable to assume that specialized therapy sessions can change one's sexual orientation.

...that losing a mobile phone is more emotionally painful than entire nations suffering from poverty.

...that injecting or consuming toxic drugs is medical science but healing the body naturally must be quackery.

...that it is acceptable to demonize a plant and incarcerate those in possession, yet a drug company processing that same plant into a pill is perfectly fine.

...that scientific method and its conclusions are totally unbiased, unfiltered and independent from the objectives of those funding the experiments.

...that it's acceptable to assume that drinking a cup of fluoridated water will prevent tooth decay, but swallowing that same amount of fluoride in toothpaste warrants an immediate call to poison control

...that poisoning and burning the body to kill cancer, while leaving the immune system completely shattered is a very logical process to healing

Yes, most of society still associates with and believes in all of the above. Do you see a problem here?

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Earliest human species possibly found in Ethiopia

© Kaye Reed

A close-up view of the mandible from an early Homo species, shown just steps from where Arizona State University graduate student Chalachew Seyoum from Ethiopia spotted it.

An ancient jawbone fragment is the oldest human fossil discovered yet, a bone potentially from a new species that reveals the human family may have arose a half million years earlier than previously thought, researchers say.

This find also sheds light on the kind of landscape where humans first originated, scientists added.

Although modern humans are the only human lineage alive today, other human species once roamed the Earth. These extinct lineages were members of the genus just as modern humans are.

For decades, scientists have been searching Africa for signs of the earliest phases of the human family, during the shift from more apelike species to more human early species. Until now, the earliest credible fossil evidence of the genus was dated to about 2.3 million or 2.4 million years ago.

Now researchers have found a human fossil in Ethiopia about 2.8 million years old. The scientists detail their findings in two papers online today (March 4) in the journal .

"There is a big gap in the fossil record between about 2.5 million and 3 million years ago — there's virtually nothing relating to the ancestors of from that time period, in spite of a lot of people looking," research team co-leader and study co-author Brian Villmoare, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas,told Live Science. "Now we have a fossil of from this time, the earliest evidence of yet.

New human species?

© Erin DiMaggio, Penn State

A camel caravan as the animals move across the so-called Lee Adoyta region in the Ledi-Geraru research site near where researchers discovered the early mandible.

The fossil was found by team member Chalachew Seyoum in 2013 at the Ledi-Geraru research area in the Afar region of Ethiopia. "One hill was particularly rich in fossils — it was probably a bend in a stream, where bones tended to gather after animals died," Villmoare said. "We found this fossil coming out of that hill."

The fossil, known as LD 350-1, preserves the left side of the lower jaw along with five teeth. "Once we found it, we knew immediately what it was — we could tell it was a human ancestor," Villmoare said. "We were jumping up and down the side of that hill."

The scientists dated the fossil by analyzing the layers of volcanic ash above and below it. "When volcanoes erupt, they send out a layer of ash that contains radioactive isotopes, and these isotopes start going through radioactive decay," Villmoare said. "We can use this to figure out how old those layers of ash are."

The fossil was found near the Ethiopian site of Hadar, home to Australopithecus afarensis, the ancient species that included "Lucy" that was long thought to be a potential ancestor of the human family. Moreover, LD 350-1 only dates to about 200,000 years after Lucy, and its primitive sloping chin resembles that of . However, the fossil's teeth and even proportions of its jaw suggest it belonged to the genus rather than .

"It's a mixture of more primitive traits from with quite a few traits only seen in later ," Villmoare said.

The scientists do not yet know whether this fossil belongs to a new species or to a known, extinct human species such as , Villmoare said.

"We are holding back on that — we are hoping to find more of it, learn more about what it looked like, before we give the species a name," Villmoare said.

Where Homo evolved

The geological setting in which the fossil was discovered suggests the site was probably similar to African locations like the Serengeti Plains or the Kalahari back when this specimen was alive — mostly a mix of grasslands and shrubs, with scatterings of trees near water, the researchers say. There was also a lake and rivers in the area with hippos, antelope, elephants, crocodiles and fish, they added.

"This find helps place the evolution of geographically and temporally — it tells us where and when evolved," Villmoare said.

Prior research suggests that global climate change intensified about 2.8 million years ago, resulting in increasing African aridity that spurred evolutionary changes in many mammal lineages, potentially including the origin of .

"We can see the 2.8 million-year-old aridity signal in the Ledi-Geraru faunal community," research team co-leader and study co-author Kaye Reed of Arizona State Universitysaid in a statement. "But it's still too soon to say that this means climate change is responsible for the origin of . We need a larger sample of hominin fossils and that's why we continue to come to the Ledi-Geraru area to search."

Another report announced today (March 4) suggests that a key fossil of , which until now was the oldest known member of , is an unexpected mix of primitive and advanced traits. This makes it a good match for the new LD 350-1 fossil, the researchers say.

"These findings raise more questions than they answer," Villmoare said. "Hopefully these questions will be answered by further fieldwork."

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Dusky woodswallow seen for the first time in New Zealand

© Satoshi Kakishima and Tomoe Morimoto

Japanese bird-watchers Satoshi Kakishima and Tomoe Morimoto on their first visit to New Zealand, spotted a Dusky Woodswallow on Stewart Island

A Japanese couple who made a rare sighting of a bird on their first trip to NZ have had their sighting officially confirmed.

Japanese bird spotters Satoshi Kakishima and Tomoe Morimoto spotted the Dusky Woodswallow while on Stewart Island realising it was something different.

Birds New Zealand Southland region recorder Phil Rhodes said in September last year he got an email from a Japanese couple about their unusual sighting.

"I advised them that it was a dusky woodswallow and that it had never been seen in New Zealand and that it was a special bird."

Rhodes asked the couple to put forward an unusual bird report through to Birds New Zealand.

Because it's so rare it has to go through a committee who decide whether it is exactly what this person thinks it is.

The Japanese couple were very grateful and very amazed they had found a new species in New Zealand, Rhodes said.

"It was just an off chance that they were in the right place at the right time and had the foresight to take a photo of it."

A few people looked around since the sighting but couldn't find it, Rhodes said.

The sighting was confirmed a couple of days ago by Colin Miskelly from Te Papa museum and that it has been accepted as a new species to New Zealand, Rhodes said.

It's great for birders and birding, he said.

"It's common in Australia but it must have got blown over here on it's migrationary route."

It would survive here for a while but because it was the only one of it's species it would just die out, he said.

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Ukraine gas blast: 30 feared dead in Donetsk coal mine

© Baz Ratner/Reuters

Emergency vehicles exit the Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk.

Methane gas explosion hits notorious Zasyadko shaft in rebel-held Donetsk

More than 30 people are thought to be dead after a methane gas explosion at a notoriously dangerous coal mine in eastern Ukraine.

There were conflicting reports over the number of casualties but Vladimir Groysman, Ukraine's parliament speaker, told MPs that 32 miners had been killed at the Zasyadko mine in rebel-held Donetsk.

Vladimir Tsymbalenko, head of the local mining safety service, also told Reuters that more than 30 people were killed. "Rescue workers have not yet come to the place of the explosion, they are removing the poisonous gas and then will go down," he added.

Rebel media quoted a local emergencies ministry spokesperson saying that one miner had died and fourteen were injured after the explosion on Wednesday morning, with scores still trapped underground.

Ivan Prikhodko, a city official in Donetsk, told the DAN news agency: "All I can say at the moment is that 32 people are underground, and one person has died. Until the rescue workers reach them, to say they are dead is at the very least unethical."

© Baz Ratner/Reuters

Family members wait outside the Zasyadko coal mine.

The Zasyadko mine was the scene of Ukraine's worst mining accident in 2007, when 101 people died in a methane explosion. Fifty miners were killed and 40 injured in a similar explosion at the mine in 1999. Such blasts are a common occurrence in outdated shafts in the former Soviet Union.

Coal mining is one of the chief industries of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian rebels have been fighting government forces since April.

A ceasefire was signed at a summit of the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine in Minsk, Belarus, on February 11, but sporadic fighting has continued.

Mines have been affected by power cuts and artillery strikes during the conflict.

In January, 500 miners at the Zasyadko shaft were briefly trapped underground after electricity transformers supplying it were hit by shelling.

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