Saturday, April 16, 2005

Asia and the Far East

After several small earthquakes in Indonesia scientists are watching the seismic activity around the locations of 5 volcanoes. Volcanic activity can be triggered by earthquakes. Denmark's crown prince and the country's prime minister on Saturday visited a shelter for hundreds of villagers left homeless when the December 26 tsunami battered the coast of southern Thailand.

Anti-Japanese protests continue in China in reaction to a book, published in Japan, which 'downplays their atrocitities against the Chinese' in past conflicts. 20,000 rampaged through Shanghai on Saturday, attacking the Japanese Embassy, overturning cars and damaging Japanese shops. The Japanese government has demanded an apology from the Chinese authorities for failing to prevent the rioting. Rioting which the Chinese media has been prevented from showing. As the protests intensify, the authorities are concerned the protests may 'snowball out of control' according to Christopher Lockwood of the Economist on CNN's Insight. Technology does circumvent the authorities ban to some degree and the threat to expell the western media hangs in the air. "This is a real serious situation" says Lockwood, "China do a lot of trade with Japan" and the continuing protests are not going to help this. "It's a big problem".

Pakistani's President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is in India this week for talks on Kashmir.

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