China Uses 'the Pill' to Stop Gerbil Overpopulation

Turns out to be a capybara, the world's biggest rodent

(NEWSER) - Turns out that a giant 100-pound rodent recently spotted in California is ... well, a giant 100-pound rodent. Called a capybara, it was photographed by a water treatment plant worker who posted the pics—which quickly went viral, the Los Angeles Times reports. "He seemed pretty content," said one worker of the creature, which was wandering around the watery facility. "He was pretty happy in there." (See the photos here .) More»

But human rights groups doubt government story

(NEWSER) - Chinese authorities are blaming Muslim extremists with links to Pakistan for the burst of violence in the western region of Xinjiang that killed 11 people Sunday, reports Reuters . Leaders of this latest uprising in the restive region joined the so-called East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) while in Pakistan, says Beijing, and received training in weapons and explosives. "The members of this group all adhere to extremist religious ideas and adamantly support Jihad," wrote the Kashgar government on its website . More»

Regional officials reportedly disregard official national policy

(USER SUBMITTED) - China's one-child policy, long a staple of its public policy for urban, ethnic Han Chinese, officially exists on the national level as a series of monetary incentives for those who hold to it and monetary punishments for those who run afoul. Numerous interviews and investigations, however, consistently uncover the policy as it is often applied: through forced, sometimes very late-term, abortions. More»

(USER SUBMITTED) - As part of a plan to control population explosion, China's health authorities plan to sterilize 10,000 people in southern China over the next four days. The campaign in Puning City calls for people who already have at least one child to be sterilized; many who decline the surgery are expected to be sterilized against their will, a practice which Amnesty International says "amounts to torture." More»

One-child policy and preference for sons skews gender ratio

(NEWSER) - China has made astounding advances in recent decades, but a destabilizing gender imbalance threatens the country's progress. The one-child policy combined with a marked preference for sons has led to skewed gender ratios: in some areas, up to 168 males for every 100 females. Authorities fear young men who are unable to find a woman to marry will turn to crime, war, and the vast prostitution market, the Daily Mail reports. More»