AsiaCast

Asia Cast for Friday 28th September

With nine people now reported dead as protests in Burma continue, the UN has announced it will send in a humanitarian force to try and quell the violence.

The dead included eight protesters and a Japanese man, identified as a video journalist working for APF News – with 11 demonstrators and 31 soldiers hurt.

The deaths came on the 10th day of protests, led by Buddhist monks.
China issued a plea for calm in Myanmar on Thursday after refusing to condemn the military-run government at the United Nations, while European countries urged Beijing to put pressure on its diplomatic and economic ally to stop the violence.

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According to police reports, Taliban insurgents have kidnapped two foreign officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Afghanistan province of Wardak.

A spokeswoman for Red Cross in Kabul said four staff had travelled to Wardak, southwest of Kabul, on Wednesday, but had not returned. She declined to say if they had been kidnapped.

Taliban rebels kidnapped two German engineers in Wardak in July and killed one after he suffered a heart attack. The other German is still being held.

In August the ICRC helped facilitate talks between the Taliban and South Korean officials that led to the release of 19 Korean hostages after more than a month of captivity.

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Tropical Storm Lorenzo has officially been upgraded to a hurricane and is expected to make land in Mexico early on Friday.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the Mexican Gulf coast from Palma Sola to Cabo Rojo, the Hurricane Center said, meaning winds of at least 74 mph were expected within the warning area within the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Karen, churning in the Atlantic, has been weakening, and is expected to be downgraded over the next 24 hours.

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The World Trade Organization has opened a formal investigation into allegations China is providing a safe haven for product piracy and counterfeiting.

The investigation into China’s lack of enforcement of intellectual-property rights is the culmination of years of agitation in Washington and elsewhere over one of the world’s biggest sources of illegally copied goods ranging from DVDs, CDs and designer clothes to sporting goods and medications.

Diplomats leaving a meeting of the WTO’s dispute settlement body said an investigative panel was set up. China blocked the panel’s establishment last month, but was prevented under WTO rules from delaying the investigation a second time.

Beijing has said it is stepping up its fight against imitations of U.S. copyrights and trademarks, and heavily criticized Washington earlier this year for starting the case, saying it could damage trade relations between the countries.

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China¡¯s official media of the Communist regime have reported on concerns raised by experts about the flooding and erosion of soils along the banks of the Three Gorges.

The Three Gorges Dam, once boasted by the Communist regime as the country¡¯s greatest engineering achievement since the construction of the Great Wall, has long been considered a potential environmental concern due to the hasty construction and necessary resumption of hectares of agricultural and ecologically important land.

Despite condemnation from the Director of Three Gorges Construction Committee, Government authorities have not yet established a plan to counter to degradation caused by the dam.

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Hundreds of Taxi drivers in China¡¯s Shanxi province have gone on strike in protest of new management policies which requires all 261 registered taxi drivers in Jinbian City to now pay the equivalent of twenty thousand US dollars to register their business for eight years.

The taxi drivers are protesting because they had signed previous agreement in 1999 which was supposed to have given them permanent ownership and management rights.

There were around two thousand unregistered taxis in Jinbian city, and the drivers think that large amount of illegal business is closely related to the policy of the City Council. Many drivers say they cannot afford to pay the new fees.