1. Marshall Islands - The Government has welcomed international assistance in response to a drought situation which is affecting up to 3,700 people living in the islands north of Majuro. An UNDAC team is being deployed, as have international assessment teams and OCHA staff.
   Source: OCHA

2. China - Heavy flooding in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have killed 6, displaced 17,000 and affected more than 420,000.
   Source: GLIDE, Media

The Global Overview collates information from a range of sources and displays it in a manner that allows for quick comparison of different humanitarian crises.

1. DPR Korea - Crisis Watch classifies the situation in DPR Korea as "deteriorating" in response to recent decisions by the authorities there to cut off communications with the Rep. of Korea; an order to ensure its rockets are combat-ready and targeting US bases in the region, and its declaration that it was in a "state of war" with the Rep. of Korea. Source: ICG

Source:China Meteorological News Press

Yang Xiaohua, member of National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from Hong Kong hopes to see unified early warning signals of natural disasters among mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Yang has worked in Beijing in 1980s and traveled a lot between mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. In face of extreme weather, he always felt troublesome because of different warning signals of same weather in these regions.

NATURAL DISASTERS IN 2012

After an intense year of natural disasters in 2011, countries in the Asia-Pacific region welcomed a reduction in the number of events in 2012. OCHA and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters recorded 93 natural disaster events in 2012, in which over 3,200 people were killed and more than 75 million people were affected. China and the Philippines experienced the most disasters in 2012.

Typhoon Bopha hits Philippines banana harvest hard

About one quarter of the banana crop in the Philippines, a major food export for that country, has been destroyed by Typhoon Bopha, according to early damage assessments. Furthermore, banana growers fear the storm may have served to spread “Panama Disease,” which has been described by some researchers as “one of the most destructive plant diseases in modern times.”

BANGKOK, 11 December 2012 (IRIN) - The good news: fewer people died from natural disasters in Asia in 2012 than in previous years. The bad news: between January and October, natural disasters still claimed more lives here than anywhere else in the world - and experts predict the trend will continue as populations and industries expand in a region that already houses the world’s largest number of urban residents.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The growing incidence of natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific—where four of five cities globally classified as at extreme risk are located—threatens to undermine seriously rapid economic progress, calling for a much stronger focus among governments on disaster prevention, says a new study from Independent Evaluation at the Asian Development Bank.

Cuba recibió una donación de 400 mil dólares estadounidenses de parte de China a fin de contribuir a la recuperación de los territorios afectados por el huracán Sandy.

La entrega simbólica de la ayuda se concretó mediante un canje de notas firmadas la viceministra del Ministerio de Comercio Exterior y la Inversión Extranjera, Ileana Nuñez, y el embajador de China en Cuba, Zhang Tuo.

La viceministra agradeció el donativo y aseguró que será incorporado a los fondos destinados a enfrentar las secuelas dejadas por el huracán.