By MARK MACKINNON, Toronto Globe and Mail

GUANGZHOU, China - For decades, China's citizens have lived with the controversial one-child regime imposed on them by the government. Now, pet lovers in this southern factory city are frothing over the latest official intrusion into their lives: a one-dog policy.

BEIJING - Was Mao Zedong the Abraham Lincoln of China?

In an attempt to convince President Barack Obama of its claim to Tibet, the Chinese government has likened the 1959 Communist takeover of the area to the American Civil War, inferring that Mao freed Tibetans from slavery much as Lincoln ended slavery in the United States.

China has never been a patient, wait-in-line kind of place.

The history of the vast and populous nation is a tale of chaos repeatedly triumphing over calm, order over disorder. On many occasions -- the Boxer Rebellion, the Cultural Revolution, the subway each day at rush hour -- things have degenerated into mob rule.

But that, Shu Xiaofeng swears, was the old China.

In 14 terse lines, saved on his hard drive in a file named "Many have suffered too much because of me," former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun tried to explain why he would kill himself a few hours later.

North Korea is preparing to launch a missile designed to reach as far as the west coast of Canada or the United States, while leader Kim Jong-il praises his country as an invulnerable "socialist fortress."

It is 6 o'clock on a Thursday night when the casualties of Japan's latest economic collapse start to arrive at the Manga Internet cafe.

Striking an unusually stark tone for a gathering of the country's rubber-stamp parliament, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned last week that China is facing a year of "unprecedented difficulties and challenges" that could spark social unrest if ambitious growth targets aren't met.

When the earth shook last May, Jiang Lucheng's wife of 25 years and their infant grandson were buried in the rubble of their home. At 55 years old, and no longer able to work because of a leg injury he suffered during the quake, Jiang felt his life was over.

When the earth shook last May, Jiang Lucheng's wife of 25 years and their infant grandson were buried in the rubble of their home. At 55 years old, and no longer able to work because of a leg injury he suffered during the quake, Jiang felt his life was over.

When the earth shook last May, Jiang Lucheng's wife of 25 years and their infant grandson were buried in the rubble of their home. At 55 years old, and no longer able to work because of a leg injury he suffered during the quake, Jiang felt his life was over.