CHINA DUST STORMS

Chinese women near late communist leader Mao Tse-tung's portrait on Tiananmen Gate wearing plastic bags to protect their hair and face during a severe dust storm on Wednesday, March 20, 2002. Dust storms choke northern China nearly every spring, often blown off the dry expanses of the Mongolian desert plain. The first "shachenbao," or "sand-dust tempest," of 2002 struck Beijing this weekend.(AP Photo/Str)