One night in Sanya costs more than six days in Maldives

The latest quotation list of Sanya hotels shows, five-star hotels near Sanya Bay in China's Hainan province charge more than 15,000 yuan (about 2,197U.S. dollars) per day, and some hotels even charge more than 20,000 yuan (about 2,929.7 U.S. dollars) for one night. Living in high-end hotels in Sanya for the night now costs you the same as 4 to 5 days in some overseas tourist destinations.
 

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Waste Not Biofuels Cause One Billion People To Go Hungry

As we begin the new decade, despite an abundance of food, worldwide, more than 1 billion persons are living with hunger. A Special Issue of Agricultural Water Management, "Investing in Water For Food, Ecosystems and Livelihoods", published by Elsevier, provides insight and recommendations regarding causes and potential solutions to the hunger crisis.
Investments in agriculture have not kept pace with the need, particularly in developing countries. Feeding the world in 2050 will require a substantial increase in food production and notable increases in household incomes in most developing countries.
Based on work completed in 2007, as part of the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, the articles in this special issue provide an updated perspective on the investments and interventions needed to improve both irrigated and rainfed agriculture, and to achieve global food security goals.
Furthermore, the authors shed light on the challenges and opportunities we must seize without delay, if we are to feed the world successfully by 2050 and beyond.
The researchers, addressing both supply and demand issues, warn that reducing the number of hungry and undernourished people in the world will not be easy, given that most of the additional births each year occur in developing countries.
Guest Editors David Molden and Charlotte de Fraiture, both from the International Water Management Institute (www.iwmi.org), commented: "We cannot think of a more pressing question or a more challenging issue in our time. Even if we solve the climate change issue tomorrow, we will still need sufficient food and fiber to support 9 billion people in 2050. To do this, we must manage land and water resources with great care and we must make wise investments and policy choices from today onward, with little room for making mistakes."
Gilles Jonker, Executive Publisher Agricultural Sciences at Elsevier added, "We are excited to publish this Special Issue and to support the endeavours of the Editors and Guest Editors in calling attention to the global food security situation and to the need for investments in relevant fields of agriculture."
 

Five Maldivian jihadists in Pakistan brought home
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH, 2010
Miadhu Daily has received reports that 5 of the 9 Maldivian jihadists detained in Pakistan was brought home.
The source, a senior official of the government revealed that the government is also working to bring the remaining four to the Maldives.
When questioned if they were detained in the Maldives, the source refused to answer saying that it is something to be decided by the relevant authorities.
The source also said that Maldivians does not join jihadists simply because they like it or endorse it, but a major problem is the propaganda by the jihadists for new recruits.

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Lashkar threat brings Maldives closer to India
New Delhi, 06 February (Asiantribune.com):
The Maldives will formalise its counter-terrorism agreements with India after renewed fears that Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is trying to establish a base in remote parts of the Maldives.
Indian intelligence bureau sources have been quoted as saying that the LeT “has nearly 1,000 operatives active in the Maldives”, and that there was no way the group’s operations “can be curbed unless there is very good intelligence sharing with the Maldives.” The sources claimed that in the last three months “there has been an increase in LeT activites in the Maldives, and several persons from [the LeT's] Kerala group have slipped into the country and are busy setting up operations there.”
 

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