Wild cattle gets a home in Hong Kong
One woman in Hong Kong has made it her life mission to save abandoned cattle from the slaughterhouse. Yeung Yeung gave up city life and used her savings to set up an animal refuge called Cow's Home, where she shelters and cares for some 100 wild cows, oxen and buffalos.

"I was very surprised and pained to hear how the cows were treated. Because mankind have been using them for cultivation for a long time, I felt we should provide them with a resting place," said Yeung Yeung, who is also the chairwoman of the World Animal Rights Charity Association.

Yeung Yeung names all her rescued bovines, and can even recognise each of them by face. A far cry from her former life in a regular nine-to-five job, she now spends around 19 hours each day feeding them and taking them out on the fields.

Yeung Yeung is presently hoping to get more donations and volunteers so she can set up an education farm elsewhere to promote the use of cow manure for organic farming, and the use of cows as draught animals so that they can once again serve and make a contribution to society. To find out more about Cow's Home Hong Kong, visit www.cowshomehk.org/ourmission_en.html.

China’s ‘unthinkable’ water diversion project
Chinese state media has announced government plans to embark on a water-diversion scheme in the province of Guizhou. The scheme, which has been touted as “the most difficult water diversion project in history”, has a budget of 6.2 billion yuan (US$907 million) and includes a curved, 63-kilometre canal, a 163-metre dam and a series of long aqueducts and tunnels in geologically complicated areas.

The South-North Water Diversion Project hopes to bring water to nearly half a million people as well as irrigate over 2,600 square kilometres of farmland in the drought-prone mountains of the southwest. It is also hoped that the project will ease chronic water shortages in Beijing and other parts of northern China.

When it is completed, the central route will distribute water from tributaries of the Yangtze River in central Hubei province to Beijing, while an eastern route will draw directly from the Yangtze itself to the port city Tianjin and other parts of the north

Rising deathtoll of children in Gaza
On 1 February, Israeli aircraft bombed several targets in Gaza, including an empty police station and tunnels along the strip’s border with Egypt. There were no reports of injuries.

The bombings seemed to bring an end to the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which was declared on 17 January, and overshadowed reports that Hamas might be ready to sign a one-year ceasefire brokered by Egypt.

Since Israel unleashed Operation Cast Lead on 27 December 2008, more than 5,015 people have been injured. Reports have estimated that the latest death toll in Gaza stands at 1,188 people, including at least 370 children and 85 women.

Children, who make up more than half of Gaza’s population, are the most defenceless victims of war between Israel and Hamas. United Nations officials have raised concerns over the rising death toll, which are predicted to rise with reports of fresh attacks.

Cold snap hits tropical Thailand
On 13 January 2009, more than half of Thailand was declared an emergency zone due to severely cold weather conditions. According to reports, temperatures fell to four degrees Celsius in some parts of Thailand, and at least five people have died as a result of exposure to the unusually cold conditions.

Forty-two provinces, mostly in the north and northeast, would be receiving special budgets to provide blankets and warm clothing for its people.

The Meteorological Department said that temperatures in Bangkok fell to 15 degrees Celsius during the same week, which was not far off from a 1974 record low of 11 degrees Celsius.

The department attributed the cold spell to intense cold air blowing in from China, which has left many worried for their uncertain climate in the future.