Beijing (AFP) Feb 18, 2009Chinese police have detained more than 20 Tibetans in southwestern China after violently breaking up protests in support of the exiled Dalai Lama, activist groups said on Wednesday. The clashes marked the first reported major outbreak of unrest in the run-up to the highly sensitive 50th anniversary next month of a failed uprising against Chinese rule that sent the spiritual leader into exil ... more
China bird flu not pandemic, but be prepared: UN
Beijing (AFP) Feb 18, 2009A recent string of bird flu infections in humans in China posed no pandemic risk as the cases were unrelated, but authorities need to remain alert, UN experts said on Wednesday. "The strain we see now is not a pandemic threat," Hans Troedsson, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) representative in China, told journalists. Troedsson spoke at a press conference in the wake of eight human ... more
Walker's World: Who falls faster?
London (UPI) Feb 18, 2009For the past month there has been something of a race between East Asia and Eastern Europe to see which is collapsing faster in the global recession. Until this week the catastrophic decline in Asia's export trade appeared to make it the more likely candidate. Taiwan's exports fell 42 percent year on year in December, and its economy shrank by almost 7 percent in the fourth quarter last ... more
