Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Friday 21st September

New Zealand police have confirmed that the body they found in a car in Auckland is that of missing woman An An Liu, mother of the abandoned toddler nicknamed Pumpkin.

Police have issued an arrest warrant for the girl’s father, 54 year-old magazine publisher Nai Yin Xue, in connection with the death.

After abandoning his daughter at a train station in Melbourne, Mr Xue fled to the US where a manhunt has been launched to bring him to custody.

Questions are now being asked why Nai Yin Xue was able to leave New Zealand with his daughter despite a court order in place to stop him.

Immigration procedures are under way to quickly bring Qian Xun Xue’s grandmother from China to New Zealand to look after Pumpkin.

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Typhoon Wipha has weakened after slamming China¡¯s southern Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, with strong winds and torrential rain.

At least nine people were reported killed as the storm destroyed thousands of homes and triggered landslides.

The storm also destroyed thousands of houses, wrecked fish ponds and disrupted power to more than 100 communities, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and provincial officials reported.

The storm is expected to pass over the Yellow Sea toward the Korean peninsula.

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Following on from yesterday¡¯s article about the Buddhist monks in Burma protesting against decades of military rule, in more and more monasteries across the country, maroon-robed monks are invoking a 2,500-year-old Buddhist rite and refusing to accept alms from members of the military and their families or perform any religious duties for them.

The boycott is taken very seriously in the deeply devout Buddhist country, as the spurned alms-giver is denied one of the main routes to the merit that will eventually help him or her to achieve nirvana, or release from the cycle of rebirth.

The boycott is similar to the Christian notion of excommunication, although can be reversed at any point if the perceived wrong-doers mend their ways.

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In an audio message released on Thursday al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called on Muslims to “carry out jihad” against Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf.

While al Qaeda has previously voiced opposition to Musharraf, a key U.S. ally, bin Laden’s message comes during a key test of the Pakistani president’s grip on power.

Opposition leaders, including former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, are calling on Musharraf to step down as the country’s military ruler. Musharraf said he will abandon the post if he is re-elected in the October 6 presidential elections.

Bin Laden’s message is the third from al Qaeda this month.

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In another display of China¡¯s tightening grip on national and international media, a British journalist was detained after interviewing a petitioner in Henan Province.

The journalist for Radio Free Asia was allegedly held for six hours and released only after he handed over all the material he had gathered that day.

Public Security officials also ordered the journalist to confess to breaking the law.

The International media have again voiced their concern over China¡¯s control of the press.

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Another Student Body member in the US has confirmed that the Chinese Consulate controls the activities of many Chinese student bodies in the US and other countries.

Lijian Zhong, the former president of the Caltech Chinese Association at the California Institute of Technology says that the Chinese Consulate would give Association members instructions on statements to make to the media.

Lijian added that other Chinese student groups are controlled even more heavily than the Caltech club, which, by comparison, was relatively independent. Many student groups accept funding directly from the Chinese Consulates, and their leaders are under pressure to carry out the communist regime’s political directives overseas.

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In China, Guangdong City officials have announced the outcome of random health inspections conducted at ten large supermarkets across the city.

According to the report, more than a quarter of the foods failed inspections, which is worse than the year before.

All non-fermented soy products failed the inspection, almost 70% of deli meat failed, and many foods were found to contain large quantities of bacteria and E. Coli that exceeded safety standards.

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