what sells the newspapers?

as i was browsing through the straits times online earlier, i couldn't help but noticed the number of not-so-positive-news articles easily outnumbered the good news... here is a summary...

1. Asia tops disaster deaths in 2006, Europe rate up
"GENEVA - Asia was the world's most dangerous region for natural disasters in 2006, accounting for three-quarters of more than 21,000 deaths, a UN-backed report said.

The report, compiled by the Belgian-based research centre CRED and the UN's disaster reduction agency ISDR, covered disasters such as floods, tidal waves, landslides, storms and earthquakes.

In Europe, it said, deaths caused by extreme weather rose 5 per cent to 15 per cent of the global total. "

2. Millions to go hungry, waterless: Climate report
"CANBERRA - Rising temperatures will leave millions more people hungry by 2080 and cause critical water shortages in China and Australia, as well as parts of Europe and the United States, according to a new global climate report.

By the end of the century, climate change will bring water scarcity to between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people as temperatures rise by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius, a leaked draft of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Ipcc) report said. "

3. Climate change could kill Great Barrier Reef
"SYDNEY - Australia's famed Great Barrier Reef, treasured as the world's largest living organism, could be killed within decades by global warming, scientists warn in a report leaked on Tuesday.

The World Heritage site, stretching over more than 345,000 sq km off Australia's east coast, will become 'functionally extinct', the scientists are quoted as saying in The Age newspaper. "

4. Russia finds H5N1 bird flu strain in southern yards
"MOSCOW - Russia has recorded its first cases this year of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu in dead domestic birds, the country's animal and plant health agency said.

Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement on Monday the virus was detected in dead birds found in three domestic yards in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia.

'Yes, it's H5N1,' a spokesman for the agency said, when asked to confirm the strain of the virus. "

5. Paris Hilton wants nude photos website shut
"LOS ANGELES - Paris Hilton filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles demanding the closure of a website where visitors can pay to view nude photos and other items that formerly belonged to her.

Hilton's suit alleged that the website - parisexposed.com - which displays photos, home videos, diary entries and audiotapes of her conversations, as well as images of her passport - is 'one of the most reprehensible invasions of privacy of a celebrity'.

The site includes topless pictures of 25-year-old Hilton on holiday and also shows her frolicking in a bath-tub."

WHAT?! no more secret home videos of paris hilton?! =P

SOURCE: THE STRAITS TIMES ONLINE (31ST JAN 2007)