Asia-Cast

Asia Cast Thursday 20th September

In several Burmese cities, thousands of Buddhist monks have joined a series of escalating protests against the military government.

In the western port city of Sittwe, nearly 2,000 monks demanded the release of four monks arrested on Tuesday.

About 1,000 monks marched through Mandalay, and several hundred more in Rangoon, the former capital.

They want a government apology for the violent break-up of a recent rally, triggered by protests over price rises.

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A fire broke out at a Japanese nuclear plant that closed down recently after it was damaged by an earthquake in July.

The fire at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata prefecture was sparked by a fault in a cooler on the roof of the plant, a spokesman said.

Workers extinguished the flames and there was no danger of a radioactive leak.

The plant – Japan’s largest – has been closed since the area was struck by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake in July.

Shogo Fukuda, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Company, which owns the plant, says that the fire injured no one.

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On September 14th almost ten thousand workers from Luyang White Horse Corporation, a textile factory, gathered in the city for three days straight blocking traffic in protest against the corruption of the executives from the corporation.

The Chinese Communist Party sent more than a thousand police, which beat the workers and forcefully dispersed the crowd.

This protest was triggered when during a meeting the workers were told that the company has been declared bankrupt.

The company could only compensate workers one hundred and sixty US dollars for every year of employment.

Those that had worked for ten years were only entitled to one thousand six hundred US dollars.

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On September 16th, more than ten people forced human rights lawyer Gao Zhi Sheng from his home.

The Chinese Communist Regime is apparently planning to take lawyer Gao Zhi Sheng away from Beijing for a long time.

On the 14th officials threatened Gao zhi Sheng not to contact anyone outside of China.

Since the beginning of August, there has been at least thirty police around Gao¡¯s home twenty-four hours a day.

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The U.N. Security Council has authorized NATO-led troops to stay in Afghanistan for another year.

It has also given the Japanese government support in its domestic political dispute over refuelling American and other naval ships in the Indian Ocean.

The vote was 14-0 with Russia abstaining in the resolution.

The International Security Assistance Force has close to 40,000 soldiers in Afghanistan to combat the country’s former Taliban rulers, toppled by U.S. and Afghan forces in 2001.

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The United Nations has yet again blocked Taiwan’s request for membership of the world body, despite a huge high-profile campaign by the island.

A key UN committee has rejected a proposal from Taiwan’s allies to put its bid on the agenda of the general assembly, meeting now in New York.

China, which claims Taiwan as a province, adamantly opposes UN membership for the island.

Taiwan and Mainland China split in 1949 amid civil war.