PEKING -- China launched a massive publicity campaign Sunday to calm fears of doomsday catastrophes and Indians braced for predicted earthquakes and riots this week when all nine planets in the solar system line up on the same side of the sun.
Major Chinese newspapers, including the authoritative People's Daily, pitted science against speculation that the Earth will stop spinning and major earthquakes and climate changes will occur during the 'planetary alignment' expected by Wednesday.
In India, the Sunday Herald newspaper voiced the fears of the superstitious with a headline asking 'Is Doomsday Close?' and predicting nine major events.
The planets will move into a 96-degree fan-shaped area on one side of the sun by Wednesday in what the China Youth Daily called a rare natural event. The last time it took place was in 1803, and the next time will be 2357.
Attempting to dispel widespread fears and worries among the Chinese, the People's Daily and other newspapers quoted scientist Zheng Ying as stating 'there is no regular cause-effect relation at all between this astronomical phenomenon and natural disasters like earthquakes.'
Zheng, a researcher at the prestigious Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, assured readers 'the gravitational pull of heavenly bodies is but a very minor external factor that triggers earthquakes.'
Similarly, the China Youth Daily said, 'claims that the alignment of the nine planets would make the earth 'put on the brakes' and stop spinning, case big earthquakes and influence climatic changes are all groundless.'
In New Delhi, the Sunday Herald said the positioning of the planets will cause 'labor unrest and death of a prominent labor leader' and that it is a 'bad time for critical writers.'
A 'strange epidemic affecting the abdomen will stalk India,' and 'a southern state will create problems,' the newspaper said in a reference to political conflicts.
The newspaper warned of an 'earthquake in Assam or Bihar' -- two states in eastern India -- but also gave the good news that there will be 'an increase of foreign trade.'
Ominously, prediction number seven merely said 'communal unrest' - which means religious riots among Hindus, Moslems, and others.
The prediction of 'accidents' was self-explanatory though vague. But 'a great leap forward' appeared to represent optimism on any social, economic, or political level.
Other Indian newspapers earlier published reports by Western scientists that the event will not result in any noticeable affect for those on Earth.
'The world will survive March 10,' proclaimed an editorial in the Statesman newspaper.
