Word: asia
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...found not only that the frequency of catastrophe is increasing because of climate change, unsafe cities and environmental degradation, but also that the brunt of tragedy is borne by poor countries least equipped to deal with such misfortune. In 2008, 98% of natural disaster - related fatalities occurred in Asia, according to the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based research group. At a World Health Organization summit last month, health ministers from Southeast Asia announced that from 1998 to 2009, 750,000 people had perished from natural disasters in their region alone...
...write off Than Shwe as the deluded head of a hermit regime is a mistake. The junta has shrewdly adapted to 20 years of breakneck growth in Asia, first drawing investment from Southeast Asian neighbors - until a new regional giant emerged. "In 1988, nobody in the Burmese military knew how quickly China would grow economically," says Seekins. "But as this was happening [the regime] took advantage of that situation to promote close ties to China." Burma joined ASEAN in 1997, gaining further allies against Western criticism and more trade opportunities (Thailand gets most of its natural gas from Burma...
...During pro-democracy protests in 1988, the U.S. deployed a naval taskforce off Burma's coast and later lumped the country with Iran and North Korea as an "outpost of tyranny." Whether real or perceived, Western hostility has prompted the junta to take two concrete actions: building one of Asia's largest standing armies, and seeking closer links with China and Russia, both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council...
...this metastasizing body has dominated debate for years, as its members have tried to figure how to make the damn thing work. The attention of political leaders has been directed inward, at just the time when tectonic movements outside Europe - the revival of political Islam, the economic rise of Asia - have both threatened and diminished Europe's centrality in world affairs. (Read: "Irish Ayes on Lisbon Treaty Have Europe Smiling...
Nearly 13 million babies worldwide are born prematurely each year--10% of total births--and a million die as a result, according to a March of Dimes report. Using World Health Organization data, the group found that 85% of premature births occur in Africa and Asia. The U.S. preterm rate, meanwhile, has jumped 36% in the past 25 years...