Nguyen Tan Dung set to become new Vietnam prime minister

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said he would resign soon as Vietnam prepares to enter the World Trade Organisation (WTO) this year.

Nguyen Tan Dung, Phan's deputy and long groomed for the position, is widely seen as the prime minister's successor.


Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai leaves the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh before a National Assembly session on May 16. Reuter's photo from Yahoo News.

Phan helped transform war-torn Vietnam into Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economy. His successor, Nguyen, is a former state bank governor with the same eye on expanding Vietnam's presence in the international economy.

Hanoi is moving energetically toward joining the WTO and hopes to reach industrialized nation status by 2020 and to eradicate poverty by 2010, while maintaining a "socialist orientation."



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British group warns global warming threatens millions

A London-based charity group warned Monday that flooding, drought, famines and violence caused by global warming would impact millions of people over the next century.

The group focuses especially on poorer regions and said that wealthy nations must do more to address the problem. One suggestion was to convert regions like sub-Saharan Africa to sustainable forms of energy like solar and wind rather than fossil fuels.

Although the report concentrated on effects in the developing world, the most recent headline-catching news related to global warming consequences comes from the United States and the Gulf of Mexico.

The unusually devastating hurricane season in the Gulf including Hurricane Katrina has been blamed by some experts on increased warming of the ocean's waters.


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Some ignore evacuation orders, look for signs from Merapi

Despite government calls for an immediate evacuation, some people near the fuming Mount Merapi in Indonesia are not convinced.

A few are waiting for signs or supernatural signals that will supposedly tell them when the volcano will erupt.

Others know of the danger but are pressed to guard and tend to their animals and crops.


Glowing crater of Mt. Merapi at night. AFP photo from Yahoo News.

Many Indonesians still hold on to animist beliefs regarding volcanoes and make offerings to the volcano spirits during full moons.

Insular Southeast Asia has hosted the greatest eruptions in the experience of modern humans to include the largest historical eruption at Mt. Tambora on Sumbawa in 1815, and the Mt. Toba eruption some 75,000 years ago that some suggest may have caused the last Ice Age.



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