Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Saturday 28th July

Spielberg ‘may quit Olympic role’
Chinese parents take ‘bad vaccines’ case to court and
China¡¯s food prices increase significantly.

Unless China takes a tougher stance against Sudan, film-maker Steven Spielberg has threatened that he may quit as artistic director of the Beijing Olympics.China, a major investor in Sudan’s oil industry, has been criticised for not sending UN peacekeepers to the country’s troubled Darfur region.

The film-maker wrote to Chinese president Hu Jintao in May, calling on China to pressure Sudan into accepting UN peacekeepers, but this is the first time he has said he is considering leaving his Olympic role.

His letter followed criticism from actress Mia Farrow, who attacked his involvement in the 2008 Olympics in an article in the Wall Street Journal in March. She wrote, ¡°Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games?¡± comparing the director to the Nazi-backed filmmaker who chronicled the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

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The spotlight is once again on the safety of China¡¯s drugs and food safety after three children who suffered severe brain damage after being vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis have had their case heard in a Chinese court.

Ordinary citizens suing powerful state companies are rare in China and this case is especially sensitive as it calls into question the standards and safety of Chinese medicines.

The father of one of the three, Mr. Yu Tongan says that their chances of winning are zero because the opponents are mighty, but he won’t back down. Mr. Tongan says that as victims we have to stand up not only for ourselves but to tell the world such things are happening to us and many, many other children.

Passed by mosquitoes, Japanese encephalitis can result in paralysis, seizures, coma and death.

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Recently in China food prices, mainly in meat, grains and eggs, has significantly risen, with the price of noodles increasing by up to fourty percent.

Some analyses show that the price hike for noodles was the indication of inflation and would push up the other commodities prices.

Wu Huilin, a senior researcher from Taiwan Economical Research Institute, singled out, extensive poisoned food, decreasing of supplies and slow appreciation of RMB in Mainland China caused the crisis of high cost of imported goods, price hike and inflation.

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The Wuhan city local government in Hubei Province has been selling the property at Hualou Street without obtaining the right of ownership or asking for permission from the local residents. The local government has also prohibited national media to report this event.

Recently, the local government violently pressed residents and human rights defenders who have been protesting against the forcefully relocating at the Hualou Street by the Chinese Communist Regime. At least ten residents and five human rights defenders have been arrested.

The government has refused to help the local residents from being forcefully relocated and in turn they have announced that they will quit the Chinese Communist Party in protest against the illegal housing demolition.

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Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian Prime Minister John Howard have agreed to commence a joint feasibility study on the merits of a free trade agreement (FTA).

In memory of the victims of the bombings in 2002 the two leaders opened an Australian-funded eye hospital in Bali today.

The hospital also operates two mobile clinics and is designed to provide a state-of-the-art hospital and teaching centre.

It is hoped that it will eradicate the blindness caused by easily curable cataracts that afflict many thousands of poor Balinese.

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Baek Jong-chun is expected to meet Afghan government officials to discuss negotiations to send in a Seoul envoy to save the twenty-two South Korean hostages held by Taliban captors, who were abducted a week ago.

The militants have already shot one of their captives and threatened to kill others unless the Afghan government released jailed insurgents.

The body of pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, fourty-two, was found in Ghazni on Wednesday.

Mr. Baek, South Korea’s chief national security adviser, was set to arrive shortly after a new deadline set by the captors expired.

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