Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Wednesday 28th November

In this bulletin …..
-Bush launches Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
-Pakistan human rights lawyer freed from house arrest and
-Global Human Rights Torch arrives in Portland.

With a handshake, leaders of the United States, Israel and the Palestinians Tuesday launched immediate peace talks with the goal of forging a treaty within 13 months.

President Bush made the dramatic announcement at the opening of a 44-nation Middle East peace conference, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas standing at his side.

Bush, suffering ailing job approval ratings and needing a legacy boost, arranged for a handshake between the two leaders next to the podium where he announced the agreement to start talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state.

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After two weeks of house arrest in her home in Lahore, Pakistan, Ms. Asma Jahangir, renowned human rights lawyer and United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, has been released.

On November the third, upon imposing a state of emergency, President-General Pervez Musharaf suspended the constitution, dismissed the Chief Justice, censored the media, and arrested opposition leaders and lawyers. One of these lawyers was Asma Jahangir.

Ms. Jahangir is a founding member of the politically independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a renowned human rights lawyer with the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

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This week Portland opened up its heart and stepped forward to stand up for human rights in China when it welcomed the Global Human Rights Torch Relay.

Mayor of Portland, Councillor Gilbert Wilson, along with the Global Human Rights Torch Relay team, boarded the town’s vintage tram to make a symbolic journey of welcome.

On the steps of the Portland council offices, Councillor Wilson, resplendent in his mayoral robes, officially welcomed the Torch.

The relay is traversing 37 countries and hundreds of cities around the world seeking to bring an end to all human rights abuses fuelled by the Chinese regime.

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The United States and Iraq have agreed to start formal negotiations next year about the future relationship of the two countries, including the size and role of American forces.

Luitenant General Douglas Lute, White House deputy national security adviser says the non-binding pact, agreed to by President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, lays out a “common sheet of music with which to begin the negotiations.”

The State Department would take the lead in the talks, which aim to reach agreement on the nature of the U.S.-Iraqi relationship after the U.N. Security Council mandate expires. The talks are expected to begin early next year and conclude in July.

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The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, says his people should have a role in finding his successor.

Speaking in Amritsar, northern India, he told the BBC that Tibetans would also have to decide if the institution should continue at all after his death.

The Dalai Lama’s successor is usually chosen by senior Buddhist officials.

Analysts say the 72-year-old is considering breaking this centuries-old tradition in order to reduce the influence of China in the process.

Traditionally, Buddhist elders congregate after the death of the current leader and identify a young child to succeed him, after being guided by dreams and signs.

The Dalai Lama warned that when he dies, China would try to promote its own candidate.

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A Philippine coast guard told how two Chinese fishing boats sank in rough seas in a typhoon off the Philippines, leaving 12 people missing.

The coast guard said that the ships sank off Palawan Island in the South China Sea on Tuesday night (local time).

Earlier, Chinese official media said it had sent three vessels and a helicopter to pick up more than seven-hundred fishermen left stranded by the typhoon on and around islands in the South China Sea.

Typhoon Hagibis, which has weakened to a tropical depression, killed 14 people in the Philippines last week, went west toward Vietnam and then made a dramatic U-turn over the South China Sea before returning to the Philippines.