Zheng

A Philadelphia man who was stopped in Hanover was charged Tuesday with transporting a load of untaxed cigarettes, the state comptroller's office said yesterday. Agents for the comptroller's office stopped Zong Zhan Zheng, 41, on Monday night on Route 295 near Arundel Mills Boulevard driving a 2004 Honda Odyssey containing 4,751 packs of untaxed cigarettes, according to the comptroller's office. The cigarettes were valued at $19,099. Zheng was charged with transportation of untaxed cigarettes, a felony, and unlawful possession of them, a misdemeanor.

Huainan, China -- For days, the rain had come in warm, drenching sheets. It swelled the Huai River and turned the heavy, clay soil along its watershed into a sticky muck that sucked the shoes off people's feet. Zheng Zhaojun, who has lived here all of his 32 years, knew the danger the river posed. So when the Communist Party secretary for his village came calling, Zheng moved quickly. "They told us the water is rising fast, go," Zheng recalled as he stood in the doorway of the blue canvas tent that has been his family's temporary home for nearly two weeks.

NEW YORK -- China's most-wanted man, dissident Zheng Yi, arrived here yesterday after being smuggled out of the country by an underground railroad of anti-government sympathizers and spending five months waiting for a visa to enter the United States.The 45-year-old novelist was accompanied by his wife, Bei Ming, who told reporters of their 3 1/2 -year odyssey: "In the past, under the totalitarian system, it would have been impossible for a wanted person to hide for three years. But the party has lost the heart of the people."

BEIJING -- The heightened anger and fear felt by the average Chinese over the safety of food, medicine and other consumer products were vividly on display here yesterday after the execution of the former head of China's food and drug safety agency. Within hours of an announcement that Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, had been put to death for taking bribes from pharmaceutical companies, China's Internet lit up. "Good job!" said an anonymous posting on Sina.com, a major Chinese web portal. "He deserves it," said another writing as Lgzxm2005.

An analysis of nearly four decades' worth of research on health and hair dyes suggests that today's coloring agents pose only a nominal, if any, risk of cancer. Hair dye risks have been long linked to a family of chemicals called aromatic amines, which are carcinogenic. But a team of Spanish and Canadian scientists, which pooled results from 80 studies, found that certain cancer-causing compounds are no longer used, lowering health risks. "In the 1970s, dye makers were using more toxic chemicals, such as 2,4-diaminotoluene and 2,4-diaminoanisole, which are no longer used," said Mahyar Etminan, an epidemiologist at Royal Victoria Hospital in Quebec, whose work helped deem the dyes safer than previously believed.

BEIJING -- The heightened anger and fear felt by the average Chinese over the safety of food, medicine and other consumer products were vividly on display here yesterday after the execution of the former head of China's food and drug safety agency. Within hours of an announcement that Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, had been put to death for taking bribes from pharmaceutical companies, China's Internet lit up. "Good job!" said an anonymous posting on Sina.com, a major Chinese web portal. "He deserves it," said another writing as Lgzxm2005.

Rupert Murdoch, the media baron whose News Corp. owns the Weekly Standard, the New York Post and the Fox News Channel, is a lightning rod for debates about whether news outlets reflect their owners' politics or their quest for profits. Murdoch does little to disguise his political tilt to the right. In the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly, however, liberal media critic James Fallows makes a forceful case that Murdoch's influence stems from his willingness to please governments whose good graces are important to his corporate well-being.

The Chinese national killed in a van accident on Interstate 895 Monday afternoon was the director of a drama troupe visiting the United States, an official at the Chinese Embassy in Washington said yesterday.Liu Huai Zheng, 65, who was killed when the van in which he was riding crashed near Washington Boulevard, was director of the Chengdu Drama Troupe in Sichuan Province, said Xiao Guang Guo, second secretary of the embassy's Cultural Office.Guo said he was unsure whether the actors traveling with Zheng were in the United States to perform.

Huainan, China -- For days, the rain had come in warm, drenching sheets. It swelled the Huai River and turned the heavy, clay soil along its watershed into a sticky muck that sucked the shoes off people's feet. Zheng Zhaojun, who has lived here all of his 32 years, knew the danger the river posed. So when the Communist Party secretary for his village came calling, Zheng moved quickly. "They told us the water is rising fast, go," Zheng recalled as he stood in the doorway of the blue canvas tent that has been his family's temporary home for nearly two weeks.

Blogs that practice journalism often fall short of basic journalistic standards. But the medium as a whole has made great strides recently. A controversy that bubbled up over the past few weeks encapsulates this struggle and shows the hurdles bloggers face in their quest for legitimacy. First the bad: Last month, Microsoft and computer processor company AMD quietly teamed up for a ground-level PR campaign. Their plan was to drum up support for the release of Windows Vista and for AMD processors by giving away high-end laptops to dozens of bloggers to review on their sites.

Blogs that practice journalism often fall short of basic journalistic standards. But the medium as a whole has made great strides recently. A controversy that bubbled up over the past few weeks encapsulates this struggle and shows the hurdles bloggers face in their quest for legitimacy. First the bad: Last month, Microsoft and computer processor company AMD quietly teamed up for a ground-level PR campaign. Their plan was to drum up support for the release of Windows Vista and for AMD processors by giving away high-end laptops to dozens of bloggers to review on their sites.

When she got married at 23, Yun Zheng got detailed answers about sex, a subject her parents never discussed with her in China. When Zheng registered her marriage, a government official showed her an informational video on relationships, families and sexual intimacy, she recalled. For Zheng's 10-year-old son, though, sex education will begin in his fifth-grade classroom at Northfield Elementary School in Ellicott City. Though Zheng said her son may be too young to learn about changes in his body, she plans to let him participate in the class, resigned to the cultural and educational differences in America.

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia - For proof that China's surging textile exports to the United States this year have been putting people out of work, look no further than the rows of unmanned sewing machines in Zheng Chenli's shut-down factory - in Mongolia. Zheng's MCX garment factory was one of about 80 textile plants owned or partially financed by foreigners, including more than 20 plants financed by entrepreneurs from China, that operated here for years, solely to get around quotas that capped China's exports of clothing to the United States.

An analysis of nearly four decades' worth of research on health and hair dyes suggests that today's coloring agents pose only a nominal, if any, risk of cancer. Hair dye risks have been long linked to a family of chemicals called aromatic amines, which are carcinogenic. But a team of Spanish and Canadian scientists, which pooled results from 80 studies, found that certain cancer-causing compounds are no longer used, lowering health risks. "In the 1970s, dye makers were using more toxic chemicals, such as 2,4-diaminotoluene and 2,4-diaminoanisole, which are no longer used," said Mahyar Etminan, an epidemiologist at Royal Victoria Hospital in Quebec, whose work helped deem the dyes safer than previously believed.

BEIJING - Languishing in a prison cell in Beijing, unable to see his lawyer or his family since his detention in September, is Zhao Yan, a journalist who infuriated Chinese authorities with his strident and persistent advocacy for peasants' rights. But that's supposedly not why he is in jail. Consigned to a Shanghai prison cell is Zheng Enchong, a lawyer who similarly infuriated authorities for fighting on behalf of urban residents being forced from their homes by a rich developer and his well-placed friends in city government.

A Philadelphia man who was stopped in Hanover was charged Tuesday with transporting a load of untaxed cigarettes, the state comptroller's office said yesterday. Agents for the comptroller's office stopped Zong Zhan Zheng, 41, on Monday night on Route 295 near Arundel Mills Boulevard driving a 2004 Honda Odyssey containing 4,751 packs of untaxed cigarettes, according to the comptroller's office. The cigarettes were valued at $19,099. Zheng was charged with transportation of untaxed cigarettes, a felony, and unlawful possession of them, a misdemeanor.

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia - For proof that China's surging textile exports to the United States this year have been putting people out of work, look no further than the rows of unmanned sewing machines in Zheng Chenli's shut-down factory - in Mongolia. Zheng's MCX garment factory was one of about 80 textile plants owned or partially financed by foreigners, including more than 20 plants financed by entrepreneurs from China, that operated here for years, solely to get around quotas that capped China's exports of clothing to the United States.

BEIJING - Languishing in a prison cell in Beijing, unable to see his lawyer or his family since his detention in September, is Zhao Yan, a journalist who infuriated Chinese authorities with his strident and persistent advocacy for peasants' rights. But that's supposedly not why he is in jail. Consigned to a Shanghai prison cell is Zheng Enchong, a lawyer who similarly infuriated authorities for fighting on behalf of urban residents being forced from their homes by a rich developer and his well-placed friends in city government.

Rupert Murdoch, the media baron whose News Corp. owns the Weekly Standard, the New York Post and the Fox News Channel, is a lightning rod for debates about whether news outlets reflect their owners' politics or their quest for profits. Murdoch does little to disguise his political tilt to the right. In the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly, however, liberal media critic James Fallows makes a forceful case that Murdoch's influence stems from his willingness to please governments whose good graces are important to his corporate well-being.

SHANGHAI, China -- Her hopes did not last long; but for a few days in June, Jiang Meili dared to believe that corrupt officials would be punished for their misdeeds here in China's capital of industry. In a city that has lofty ambitions as an Asian business center -- and the deep-pocketed property speculators to go with them -- the businessman once believed to be the richest man in town, property and stock market tycoon Zhou Zhengyi, was in detention. Authorities were investigating him in connection with hundreds of millions of dollars of loans obtained from the Bank of China, according to state and Hong Kong news reports.