AsiaCast

Asia Cast for Tuesday 30th October

-The Human Rights Torch Relay comes to Washington
-Pollution causing rise in China birth defects and
-China boom will be stronger for longer

The Global Human Rights Torch Relay arrived in Washington on Saturday the twenty-seventh of October holding a rally at the Capitol Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, bringing its message that ‘Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot co-exist in China.’

The speakers for the day included Mr. Elijah Cummings the Maryland congressman who stated what the Olympics really stands for. Attorney Terri Marsh stressed the point that human rights conditions leading up to the Olympics in ten months have taken a turn for the worse.

Other speakers at the rally included Danielle Wang, 28, from Austin, Texas, who spoke of her loving father who was dragged away in the middle of the night of July 20, 1999—the day that Falun Gong was banned in China.

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Environmental pollution in China is believed to be the cause for the sudden rise in birth defects amongst children.

According to a Chinese Government report, birth defects have increased in the country by nearly 40 per cent since 2001 and officials are blaming the alarming increase on environmental degradation.

The coal-rich province of Shanxi has been hit the hardest and the director of the area’s family planning agency told a Chinese newspaper that increase is linked to large-scale coal and chemical industry emissions.

The report says that 2 to 3 million Chinese babies are born with visible defects every year and a further 8 to 12 million would develop defects within months or years after birth.

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The Chamber of Commerce and Industry says Western Australia’s economy will continue to grow on the back of China’s insatiable appetite for resources for at least the next 20 years.

The Chamber’s economist John Nicolau says a Chinese database, equivalent to research by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, shows that demand for raw materials will continue for at least the next two decades.

Mr. Nicolau says China is undergoing an astonishing urbanisation trend and a city the size of Perth is being constructed every month.

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Helicopter gunships bombed Kurdish rebel positions in southeast Turkey on Monday and the government flexed its military muscle with big national day parades and fly pasts in major cities.

Turkey has massed up to one-hundred thousand troops, backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and combat helicopters, along the Iraqi border in readiness for a possible large-scale incursion to hunt down three-thousand guerrillas who use the region as a base.

The White House said it was pressing Turkey and Iraq to keep up talks aimed at averting a major cross-border operation.

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When the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra (INSO) holds a concert in Baghdad, organisers don’t like to advertise: in fact they would prefer as few people as possible know about it. Welcome to the bravest orchestra in the world.

The INSO, established in 1959, has survived decades of war, international sanctions, government neglect and vicious sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and forced millions to flee for their lives.

It saw its music library and instrument store looted after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, and one of its main concert venues was destroyed by U.S. missiles.

Some members have been kidnapped or killed in sectarian violence, others have received death threats and 29 have joined the exodus of more than 2 million people who have fled Iraq. But amid the discord, the orchestra seeks harmony.

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Tropical Storm Noel lashed the Dominican Republic causing fierce flooding and killing at least eight people.

Three other people have been reported missing as heavy rains and damaging thunderstorms hit the island of Hispaniola, which the country shares with Haiti. Noel is expected to drop as much as 50cm of rain across the island before heading north-west toward the Bahamas.

Manuel Antonio Luna Paulino of the Dominican emergency services agency said many people had been caught off guard by the ferocity of the storm. At least five of the dead are believed to have drowned.

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