Asia: Disasters make it the year of living dangerously

While Asia is no stranger to natural disasters, scientists say more extreme weather-related disasters are in store - droughts, floods and typhoons - owing to climate change as temperatures increase, Karl Wilson reports to China Daily. "Despite all these calamities, countries are still not fully prepared to respond adequately when disasters hit them," said Vinod Thomas, a senior vice-president of the World Bank. "External agencies often do not acknowledge these risks as a systematic threat to their assistance. For example, almost half of the countries borrowing from the World Bank for disaster response did not mention disaster prevention in their development plans. This situation must change," he continued.