AsiaCast

Asia Cast for Tuesday 20th November

In this bulletin…
-More than seventy dead in PNG Floodings
-Twelve trapped miners die in Ping ding shan Coal mines
- Pakistan Court Rams Through Rulings for Musharraf

**************

The first public hearing will be held to try surviving members of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

The UN-backed court is hearing a plea for bail from Kang Kek Ieu, or Duch, the former head of a notorious prison.
Duch was the first of five senior Khmer Rouge officials to be arrested and charged by the court.

More than a million people are thought to have died during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule between 1975 and 1979.

*********************

More than 70 people have died and 50 are still missing after torrential rain caused extreme flooding in Papua New Guinea, reports from the Pacific nation say.

Officials have declared a state of emergency for the eastern province of Oro, which has been devastated by a week of heavy rain.

Roads, bridges and houses have been washed away and thousands of people are reportedly affected by the flooding.

Officials have appealed for donations of aid and medical supplies.

***************

The independent producer of a documentary about the persecution of Falun Gong that is scheduled to air on CBC Newsworld tonight says he was told Chinese officials have approached reporters at CBC’s bureau in Beijing about the film.

Peter Rowe, writer and producer of Beyond the Red Wall: The Persecution of Falun Gong, says an executive of CBC Newsworld told him Saturday morning about the pressure on CBC’s China staff.

“He said reporters in China were pestered about this film by Chinese authorities.”

The documentary was initially set to air on CBC Newsworld’s The Lens on Nov. 6, but was pulled hours before its scheduled airing time to be “reviewed,” according to CBC spokesman Jeff Keays.

*******************

There have been new developments in the closely watched case between Shanghai resident Dong Guo-ching and former Public Security Minister Zhou Hong-kang, according to sources in Beijing.

On November 14th Dong submitted his appeal papers to the Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court.
On November 14th The Epoch times published exclusively the appeals court submission.

The submission outlined the painful struggle of Dong’s family’s forced eviction from their home; the brutal treatment when he tried to appeal to the authorities and the arduous process he had to endure to bring forward the law suite.

*******************

On November 12th in Henan province, 12 miners trapped beneath the wells of Ping ding shan Coal Co.Ltd mines died after a gas leak, according to source in Henan.

Official Xinghua net quoted the chief engineer We Xiu-chun saying that “the bodies of all 12 miners have been found and emergency search operations has now ceased”.

Post incident arrangements are currently underway and an expert group of multiple units have been formed to conduct a full investigation into the causes of the incident.

***********************

Two major rivers in rice-growing provinces in South China are suffering from serious drought, with water levels on dropping to historic lows, state media says.

Rainfall since the beginning of October had dropped by 90 per cent in Jiangxi and 86 per cent in neighbouring Hunan, the country’s largest rice-growing province, from average figures, Xinhua news agency said.

Rice is a staple for most Chinese and a crop which needs a constant supply of water.

*********************

Pakistan’s Supreme Court, packed with government-friendly judges since the imposition of emergency rule, dismissed on Monday the main challenges to President Pervez Musharraf’s re-election last month.

Once the court clears Musharraf’s October 6 victory, he has vowed to quit as army chief and become a civilian president, although he remains under fire from the opposition and Western allies for setting back democracy in nuclear-armed Pakistan.

A bench of 10 judges struck down the five main challenges to Musharraf’s right to contest the election while still army chief. The sixth and final petition will be heard on Thursday.