31.   Known as Senkaku in Japanese, the uninhabited islands lying midway between Taiwan and Okinawa are also claimed by China and Japan.

32.   Legal experts say that under international maritime law, uninhabited small islands cannot be used as starting points for declaring the exclusive economic zone.

33.   Relations were strained last year by a bitter dispute over a group of uninhabited islands that China calls the Diaoyus and Japan calls the Senkakus.

34.   Road, bridge and tunnel links opened last April to the site, built on an uninhabited island.

35.   Serving his fourth term in office, Gayoom has instead banned political parties and crushed all forms of opposition to him by banishing dissenters to uninhabited islands.

36.   That brought a scramble to acquire uninhabited islands filled with guano off South America and in the Caribbean.

37.   The Kermadecs, a group of uninhabited islands between New Zealand and Fiji, have a remote-controlled weather station located on the main Raoul Island.

38.   The reported collisions occurred near a chain of uninhabited islands over which China, Taiwan and Japan claim sovereignty.

39.   The showdown occurred near a chain of uninhabited islands over which China, Taiwan and Japan claim sovereignty.

40.   The six who landed briefly were part of the largest protest flotilla ever to sail to the uninhabited islands, known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese.