Picture of the Day

A man shines a light on the ice of the threatened Amur river in Khabarovsk, about 6,100 kilometers (3,800 miles) southeast of Moscow, late Thursday, Dec. 22, 2005. A toxic spill from a chemical plant explosion in China reached the Russian city of Khabarovsk on Thursday, a regional government official said. The anxiously awaited slick, which extends for 180 kilometers (110 miles), entered the city limits toward evening, said Natalya Zimina, a spokeswoman for the regional administration. She added that pollution levels were within the norm.
You know, it is ironic how post-Soviet Russia demonstrates openness and transparency even under democratically questionable presidency of Vladimir Putin, while communist China descends further and further into Orwellian totalitarianism - where in this case we might not know for a long time what actually happened and how many actually died as a result of it ... oh and for those of us not well familiar with politics - communism is just an extreme form of liberalism ...