Mark Magnier at the Los Angeles Times reports on an infestation of locusts that is threatening the Olympics, set to open in just over a month:
Locusts? What is going on here? The litany of near-biblical woes would seem to lack only a famine, frogs and smiting of the first born.
The Middle Kingdom’s parade of problems has threatened to put a major damper on China’s anticipated moment of glory less than five weeks before the start of the 2008 Beijing Games.
“This sure has been a weird year,” said Ma Zhijie, 20, who works in a coffee shop. “There are so many disasters, it’s hard to know what’s happening.”
