AsiaCast

Asia Cast for Sunday the 15th

China has suspended imports from several key United States meat suppliers after months of international scrutiny over the safety of Chinese food and drugs.
Officials said they had found salmonella and growth-enhancers in several imported United States chicken products.
Last year, fifty one deaths in Panama were blamed on medicine tainted with Chinese chemicals and, this year, some United States pets died from food with Chinese gluten.
China this week also executed a top official for approving unsafe drugs.
Beijing has vowed to improve its quality control by streamlining its fractured monitoring system.
Apart from pet food and cough syrup, international concern has also been raised over Chinese toothpaste, tyres, jewellery, seafood and toys.United Nations inspectors are starting to verify that North Korea has really closed down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, the top United States nuclear envoy has said.
North Korea’s announcement was welcomed by both the United States and South Korea.
North Korea agreed to close the reactor in February in return for economic aid. Under the deal, Pyongyang got its first heavy fuel oil shipments on Saturday.
If confirmed, the shut-down would be the first stage in disabling the North’s nuclear program.
It may take the inspection team up to three weeks to complete the task.
A North Korea diplomat later confirmed that the closure had taken place.
North Korea was promised heavy fuel oil in exchange for the shut-down at the six-party talks in Beijing in February.

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A suicide car-bomber killed eight Pakistani paramilitary soldiers and wounded twenty recently in an attack that might have been linked to an army assault on a radical mosque in the capital.

The attacker rammed his car into a paramilitary convoy in the attack on the Afghan border, twenty kilometres southeast of the region’s main town.
It was the second attack on security forces in northwestern Pakistan
The attacks followed the storming of a radical mosque in Islamabad on Tuesday in which seventy five supporters of radical clerics, including militant gunmen, were killed.

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Australian police have charged an Indian doctor linked to the suspected United Kingdom bomb attempts.
He has been charged with providing “reckless support” to a terrorist organisation.
He is alleged to have provided a mobile phone SIM card to two of his second cousins, both detained in Britain.
The inquiry is linked to the suspected attempted car bombings in central London and Glasgow airport last month.
A major investigation has been under way in the United Kingdom since two cars containing petrol, gas cylinders and nails were discovered in central London on the twenty ninth of June. They failed to explode.
The president and opposition leaders in Tanzania have launched a national campaign for voluntary HIV/Aids testing by being tested in public.
It is one of the most high-profile campaigns by African leaders to fight the disease.
The politicians are hoping the public will follow their lead.
The launch, in Tanzania’s commercial capital, was witnessed by thousands of residents as well as foreign diplomats and development partners.
The government’s initial target was to have tested four million people country-wide by December.
Tanzania’s Health Minister, said testing would be confidential and that all those who tested positive would receive care and free anti-retroviral drugs.

A Falun Gong practitioner, has been detained in Beijing Womens Prison because of her faith in Falun Dafa. Recently, she¡¯s been on a hunger strike for about one hundred and fifty days.

Now, no one knows whether she is still alive or not. Her parents have been to Beijing Womens Prison several dozens of times. They wanted to see their daughter but were refused again and again. They also hoped the prison guards could treat their daughter fairly, as she was beaten so badly and no one has taken any responsibility on the incident.

However, until today, they haven’t received a word from the prison. The parents, who both are over sixty years old, appeal for the attention from the society, as they hope no more tragedy will happen in Beijing¡¯s Women¡¯s Prison.