China's smog reaches U.S.

Pollution from China's booming industrial expansion is floating across the Pacific to the shores of the western United States, according to an AP report published Friday.

Particles from coal power plants and diesel vehicles and dust from deforested regions is carried on the trade winds for thousands of miles before settling on areas like California, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

On some days, a city like Los Angeles can expect up to 25 percent of its particulate matter from China. Some experts believe that China will one day account for a third of all California's air pollution.


Researcher Steven S. Cliff displays a set of rotating drums that separate aerosols from the air at his monitoring site atop Mt. Tamalpais State Park, Calif., Thursday, July 20, 2006. AP/Eric Risberg photo from Yahoo News.

China is also degrading air quality in nearby countries like South Korea and Japan, and the other growing Asian ndustrial powerhouse, India, isn't helping the Asian air quality situation either.

For its part, China expects to spend some US$162 billion over the next five years to address environmental problems, but many experts see the challenge the country faces as daunting giving the speed of economic growth.

Asian countries to push N. Korea resolution

Foreign ministers from 20 Asian and Pacific Rim countries agreed Friday to push implementation of a U.N. Security Council resolution urging North Korea to return to six-party nuclear talks.

The 10-nation meeting included the ministers of China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, all nations involved in the six-party talks. They were joined by ministers from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said Pyongyang was ready to return to six-party talks but only with certain conditions.

Pyongyang is demanding that Washington lift sanctions imposed on a Macao-based bank suspected of laundering money and counterfeiting for North Korea.

Candidates line up for next U.N. secretary general race

By tradition, Kofi Annan's replacement as United Nations secretary-general will come from Asia, which is next in the regional rotation.

So far, the announced candidates are from South Korea, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.


United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan addresses members of the Security Council during a meeting on the situation in the Middle East, July 20, 2006, at United Nations headquarters in New York. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer via Yahoo News.

In a secret poll, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and India's Shashi Tharoor, U.N. undersecretary-general or public affairs came out ahead of the pack, but it's still far too early to pick a winner.

Usually the winning candidate ends up being someone who emerges late in the race and who hardly campaigns at all. This is because early candidates often become the subject of infighting between the permanent members of the Security Council.