Wikipedia meet

Taipei has been selected as the site for the annual gathering of people who post information on the Internet site Wikipedia.  This year’s conference will run from Aug. 3-5 and will focus on the value the information website brings to the world, which was recently detailed by Wikimedia Taiwan Chairman Teng Jie, who called Wikipedia a valuable commodity in today’s world. “In the past, people thought nothing good would come out of a bunch of Internet surfers getting together,” he said.

Mice invasion

Nearly half a million people have been evacuated from a potentially deadly flood zone surrounding central China’s swollen Huai River. Large flooding triggered landslides, which have killed at least 360 people so far this summer, mainly in southwestern Sichuan province, and have caused billions of dollars in monetary damages.

In another flood-hit part of China, residents were battling an invasion of field mice driven from their holes by rising waters.

Residents were rushing to contain and kill an estimated two billion mice that ravaged crops in 22 counties around Hunan’s flooded Dongting Lake.

In a country with some of the fastest broadband speeds and a wide Internet penetration, it is now illegal for political candidates in Japan to create new websites or update existing web pages between now and election day, which is on July the 29.  So instead, the loudspeaker vans are out on the streets again.

The candidates sit inside, waving regally wearing white gloves, smiling and politely asking for votes.  Usually Japan allows its politicians to use the internet to communicate with voters.

Baby woes

South Korea may have the world’s lowest birth rate by 2050 with only nine children for every 100 people, predicted a report from South Korea’s National Statistical Office. The birth rate is the average number of children per female during her baby-bearing ages of 14 to 49, which, according to reports, will dwindle. The report forecast South Korea’s population to shrink 0. 96 per cent every year from 2045 to 2050, from the current 48 million to 42 million.