Over 12,000 people are believed to be dead after a massive magnitude-7.9 earthquake that struck the Sichuan province of China on Monday, May 11^th. Twenty-six thousand are still believed to be buried in the rubble in the aftermath of what has been called the deadliest earthquake in China in 30 years. 

To have, or not to have children: that is the question for many industrialized nations.  Susan S. Cheung examines the baby boom in the United States and compares the statistics in the UK and Hong Kong.

If history is anything to go by, the anti-China protests during the Olymipic torch relay serve to do nothing more than create a wider gulf between China and the rest of the world. Instead of persuading China to change its policy on a variety of subjects, it has just fuelled the nationalist bubble around China, turning the anti-China protests into an exercise in PR rather than politics. Leon Lau shares his perspective.

Susan S. Cheung looks at the digital divide between generations and deciphers the language of "text-speak".