Asia-Cast

Asia Cast Thursday 27th September

Crowds of Buddhist monks and civilians filled the streets of Myanmar’s main city on Wednesday, defying warning shots, tear gas and baton charges meant to quell the biggest anti-junta protests in 20 years.

Two Buddhist monks and a civilian were killed, hospital and monastery sources said, as decades of pent-up frustration at 45 years of unbroken military rule in the former Burma produced the largest crowds yet during a month of protests.

The United States and the European Union condemned the violence against demonstrators and asked the U.N. Security Council to consider sanctions against Myanmar when it met on the crisis on Wednesday.

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Since the beginning of September, the Beijing security Bureau has forcefully abducted a large number of Falun Gong practitioners from their homes and work places without any warning or justification.

Police had not shown any form of identification during the arrest process, and illegally crossed region boundaries to abduct Falun Gong practitioners.

Most of the practitioners are in Beijing Police Station Fen Tai branch and the persecution is still continuing.

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China’s Three Gorges Dam could end up as an environmental disaster unless emerging problems are treated urgently, senior officials have warned.

The dam’s head of construction, Wang Xiaofeng, said ecological problems like soil erosion, landslides and water pollution could not be ignored.

In some areas ill-judged development was making things worse, he said.

Critics have long warned, the dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric project, could cause huge environmental damage.

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More rain and a slow relief effort have deepened the humanitarian crisis caused by record floods in Africa, which have affected more than a million people.

The worst floods in three decades have now affected 22 countries, displacing hundreds of thousands and starkly raising the risk of epidemics since the deluge hit parts of the continent in July.

The worst-hit country since unprecedented downpours swept across the continent in August has been conflict-wracked Sudan, where the United Nations said up to 625,000 people could be in need of emergency aid.

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International law enforcement agencies have been invited to help protect the Cambodia ancient temples.

US homeland security and FBI agents are among those who may be advising the new national heritage police force.

They are hoping to put an end to the rampant looting that has seen many monuments stripped of their statues.

Peace has not been kind to many of Cambodia’s ancient monuments. As decades of conflict ended in the 1990s, looting accelerated dramatically.

The local authorities and the United Nations’ cultural organisation, Unesco, moved quickly to protect the world-famous Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples.

But more remote sites were left to their fate.

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New international talks are under way in Beijing aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear programme.

Envoys from the six countries involved in the talks will discuss exactly when and how Pyongyang will disclose and dismantle all its nuclear facilities.

North Korea tested a nuclear device last year, but then agreed to end its nuclear programme in return for aid.

It has already shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.
The six-party talks involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

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Rescuers are searching for bodies after a bridge collapsed in Vietnam on Wednesday, killing at least 42 people and injuring 80 more.

The accident happened in Can Tho, some 170 km south of the commercial centre of Ho Chi Minh City.

About 250 construction workers were working on the bridge at the time. Some are still missing.

Rescuers worked through the night cutting through steel and concrete as they searched for victims.

It is not clear what caused the collapse.

The bridge was being built over the Hau River at a cost of $300m, and was expected to be finished next year.