AsiaCast

Asia Cast Thursday 22nd November

In this Bulletin
- Philippine’s Presidents orders thousands to be evacuated
- Japanese workers on strike and
- Remains of a 20 million year old crocodile found by cave explorers

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The Philippine’s President has ordered the evacuation of thousands of people ahead of a powerful tropical storm, officials said

In one province alone, officials estimated that up to 200,000 people would be evacuated to gymnasiums, churches and schools by Friday when Tropical Storm Mitag was forecast to make landfall.

And in Vietnam, the government said Tropical Storm Hagibis was expected to hit the country’s southern region Saturday.

Mitag could became a “super typhoon” with winds of more than 138 mph by the time it hits land in the Philippines, chief government forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said.

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Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied outside Hungary’s parliament on Wednesday after 10,000 workers staged strikes to try to halt the Prime Minister economic reforms.

Led by a six-hour stoppage by the powerful railway union, strikers blocked roads, halted trains and two bus lines, closed Budapest’s airport and shut some schools.

But parallel protests were smaller than expected and the government did not budge.

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Thousands of Japanese support workers at US military bases across Japan are protesting and will strike over a planned pay cut.

The workers carried out a half-day nationwide walkout in response to a proposal to reduce their benefits.

The staff are paid by the government in Tokyo, which wants to cut costs.
It is the first such strike since 1991, but a US military official said that critical operations at bases were not being affected.

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China state media reported that a landslide has killed one worker and left two missing near China’s Three Gorges dam.

The accident happened in Badong County, a hilly area next to the dam’s 660km (410 mile) reservoir, where the group were working on a railway tunnel.

The cause of the accident was not known, Xinhua said, but it comes amid growing warnings the dam is threatening its surrounding environment.

Experts have warned of an increased risk of landslides around the dam.

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The former first secretary of the Chinese Embassy in Japan, Wang Qingqian, was secretly sentenced to death, suspended for two years, on charges of leaking China’s military secrets to a Japanese national at a military court this spring, according to Japanese media outlets.

Wang is a standing council member of the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC), a people-to-people organization affiliated with the Chinese military.

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The European Union and Southeast Asian countries have agreed to a joint declaration calling for the release of political detainees in Burma.

The joint declaration also said the two groupings would be mindful of the different levels of development and capacity in moving towards a free trade deal.

The Association of South East Asian Nations signed a historic charter on Tuesday that paves the way for free trade and economic integration, but its summit this week was over shadowed by controversy over member Burma’s crackdown on protesters.

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A New Zealand man is demanding compensation from the Fiji government, claiming security forces bashed and wrongly detained him over an assassination plot.

Businessman Ballu Khan is seeking Aus 29.9 million in compensation, saying he suffered serious injuries when he was bashed by the military and police during his arrest on November 3.

Khan was one of 17 people arrested over an alleged plot to assassinate Fiji’s coup leader and self-appointed Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, and senior members of his interim government.

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In central Cuba, Cave Explorers have found the remains of what is believed to be a 20 million-year-old, 10-metre-long crocodile.

The team from the Speleological Society of Cuba also found bones believed to be from prehistoric dugongs, the Escambray Daily reported.

The remains, thought to date back to the Miocene Epoch were found in the Cayajana River about 350km east of Havana.

More bones, yet to be identified, will be excavated from the site at a later date, the daily quoted officials as saying.

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