Free Republic

A chinless jawbone from eastern China that displays both modern and archaic features could represent a new branch of the human family tree.A fossilized jawbone discovered in a cave in eastern China bears a curious mix of ancient and modern features, according to a detailed analysis that compares it with dozens of other human specimens. The finding, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, indicates that the 300,000-year-old bone could have belonged to an as-yet undescribed species of archaic human1. Scientists excavating a cave called Hualongdong, located in Anhui province in eastern China, have unearthed remains of 16 individuals...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese rioted in a dispute sparked by a lopsided roadside brawl, set fire to cars and wounded six police officers in an outburst likely to worry communist leaders in Beijing desperate to cling on to power. The official Xinhua news agency, in a rare report on a local disturbance, blamed Sunday's riot in Chizhou in dirt-poor eastern Anhui province on a few criminals who led the "unwitting masses" astray. The violence was the latest in a series of protests which the Communist Party, in power since 1949, fears could spin out of control and become...

China Reports Two Confirmed SARS Cases 7 minutes ago By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer BEIJING - China reported two confirmed SARS (news - web sites) cases on Friday and said one of two other people suspected of having the disease has died, apparently the first SARS fatality in the country since July. Hundreds of people have been quarantined. The confirmed cases both had worked in laboratories in Beijing for China's Centers for Disease Control and were probably infected there, Xinhua said. They were identified as a 31-year-old man from Beijing and a 26-year-old woman in central Anhui province, the...