Riots -- check.
Earthquake -- check.
Flood -- check.
Plague -- check.
Such a concentration of woes in this high-profile year has fanned rumors and superstition.
First there was the freak snowstorm in February. Then the Tibetan riots in March. Then in rapid succession the controversial torch relay, Sichuan earthquake, widespread flooding and an algae bloom that's tarnishing the Olympic sailing venue. Just when it seemed that nothing else could go wrong this year in China, the locusts arrived.
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....MORE
