Food Safey for China

China Faces Challenges in Providing Safer Food
Implementing a 21st-century food safety system in China poses a challenge. It is difficult to standardize and monitor production practices in a sector composed of 200 million farm households who typically have 1-2 acres of land divided into 4-6 noncontiguous plots. Farmers have only usage rights to their land, so they lack ownership incentives to make costly investments.
Many of China’s food safety problems can be traced back to the farm level. Farmers rely on heavy use of chemicals to coax production out of intensively cultivated soils and deal with pest pressures, a practice that contributes to food safety problems. China has one of the world’s highest rates of chemical fertilizer use per hectare, and Chinese farmers use many highly toxic pesticides, including some that are banned in the United States. Farm chemicals are sometimes mislabeled. The Chinese government is tackling this problem by encouraging farmers to buy agricultural chemicals only from approved outlets. Some farmers have little understanding of correct chemical use; for example, they may fail to wait the prescribed number of days between the last application of a pesticide and harvest, resulting in excessive residues in the harvested product. Antibiotics are widely used to control disease in livestock, poultry, and aquaculture products. Industrialization and lax environmental controls have also led to concern about the potential for heavy metal contamination of food products. Untreated human and animal waste in fields and water raises the risk of microbial contamination.

Corrupted Politics

The former Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has been banned from politics for five years. His committe of the Thai Rak Thai party, consisting of 111 members, is also banned from politics. This is on several accounts of bribery so that he may win last years elections. Thaksin banned from Thai politics. His opponents, the Democratic party was also accused but the judge found them innocent. Thai Court Clears Democrat Party. Thaksin encourages followers to accept the ban. Before the ruling Thaksin told supporters to "respect the rules of the game" and "the rule of the law". Apparently he didn't. Thaksin 'accepts Thai politics ban'.

15 Killed in Thailand

Soilders were negotiating with Muslim protestors. A truck of 12 soilders was leaving the negotiation and heading towards the base. A roadside blast killed 8 soilder instantly and 2 others died on the way to the hospital.
Also nearby gunmen opened fire on a group of villagers after evening prayers at a mosque.

Ten soldiers killed in Thai blast

U.S. seeks to break deadlock in North Korea talks

Arms control negotiators from the United States and China met today in an effort to revive a stalled agreement under which North Korea would begin to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/world/asia/30cnd-korea.html

North Korea fires missiles to show off military might

North Korea's first missile tests in nearly a year were aimed at showing off its military might and increasing pressure on the South over rice aid, observers said Saturday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070526/wl_asia_afp/nkoreamilitarymissile_070526053134

Bhutanese Protest at India-Nepal Border

10,000 Bhutanese refugees demonstrated at the India-Nepal border today. Yesterday Indian troops had fired upon the refugees killing one in an attempt to prevent the Bhutanese from crossing Indian territory to get back to Bhutan. More here.

South Korea pressing North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea -
South Korea' name pressed communist
North Korea' to redouble its reconciliation efforts Tuesday, as the estranged neighbors opened high-level talks amid rifts over the North's nuclear program and the South's delayed rice shipments. More here http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070529/ap_on_re_as/koreas_talks

South Korean Rumors Say Kim Jong-il's Health Deteriorating

South Korean intelligence officials are investigating information that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health has deteriorated recently, a source said.
More here http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200705/200705280017.html

Small Indian Town Bombed, 6 Wounded

In a town just north of New Delhi, 3 lunch boxes packed with explosives went off today wounding 6 people. The town was the site of a Muslim/Hindu clash earlier this year. More here.

Indian Slum Population Doubles

Over the last two decades the number of people living in squalor in India has doubled. In 1981 there were 27.9 million people living in the slums. 20 years later that number has grown to 61.8 million. More here.

Earthquake!

A 6.1 earthquake struck Laos near thailand's border on Wednesday May 16 at about 4 p.m. The quake was felt hundreds of miles away in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, where the buildings were shaking. No injuries have been reported so far.

North Korea unveiled new ballistic missile

This new missile was shown during a military parade in the North. It is said to have about 3,000 miles in range.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2007/May/theworld_May365.xml&section=theworld

Bush promises help to Japan over North Korea abductions

Here's the link to the article.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/276188/1/.html

Value of the Rupee is "Madness"

The Indian Rupee is up almost 10% versus the U.S. Dollar. According to some experts, this sharp increase in value is "madness" and will not last. Others are hopeful that the increased appraisal will help India's economy grow stronger. More here.

More Test Firings in India

India has test fired another nuclear-capable missle. The medium range armament can travel up to 95 miles and has already been inducted into India's arsenal. More here.

Amnesty

The Organization of the Islamic Conference is meeting in Bangkok to propose to the Parliament that amnesty be given to the people involved with the violence in south Thailand. This is in hopes to end the ongoing violence. The violence has gotten worse over the last six months. Would granting amnesty stop the violence? I'm very skeptical. Amnesty Story.

Thailand Underwater

Smith Dharmasaroja, head of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Centre is predicting that Thailand's capital, Bangkok, will be 1/2 to 1 meter underwater by 2025. They mocked him before for predicting a tsunami. In 2004 over 5000 people in Thailand where killed by the tsunami. Bangkok is only about 3 to 5 feet above sea level, so this is not a totally absurd prediction. What is causing this problem? Two things. One is that the land is sinking. The pumping of underground water is causing the land to sink about 10cm a year. The other reason is global warming is causing the sea to rise. Flood Story.

This week there is a UN conference in Bangkok where they are discussing many ways to end global warming. Nuclear energy and biofuels seems to be the two big ideas to cut down on carbon emissions. But is it too late to save Thailand? Mass migration plans are being discussed as well. UN Meeting Story.