Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Thursday 10th April

In this Bulletin

- 54 Burmese migrants suffocated to death
- Confusion as San Francisco Olympic Torch Run Starts and
- China’s TV Economy Program Pulled off Air

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Zambia on Wednesday called an emergency meeting of southern African leaders to discuss Zimbabwe, as fears grew in the region that an election deadlock would provoke bloodshed.

No results have emerged of the presidential election 11 days after the vote and the opposition says President Robert Mugabe is planning a violent response to his biggest defeat since taking power in 1980.

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More than 54 Burmese migrant workers suffocated to death, and another 21 seriously injured, having been found inside a cold storage container on the way to Thailand police said.

The victims were among 121 people crammed inside the container that was six metres long and only 2.2 metres wide, the commander of the local police station in the southern border province of Ranong, Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai, said.

The airtight container was normally used to carry frozen seafood.

The migrants were trying to enter Thailand by hiding inside the container, which was travelling across the border.

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Early results from the National Election Commission show the conservative party of South Korea’s new President has won an overall majority in general elections, with 153 seats in the 299-seat Parliament, according to final official figures.

Yesterday’s vote saw Lee Myung-Bak’s Grand National Party easily beat the liberal United Democratic Party, previously the largest group in Parliament, which won 81 seats.

The sweeping majority gives Mr Lee the power to push through sweeping reforms to revitalise Asia’s fourth largest economy.

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Confusion surrounded the start of the relay of the troubled Olympic torch through San Francisco on Wednesday, as thousands of China supporters and protesters converged along the planned route.

The first runner held the torch aloft and began the route, flanked by tall, blue-clad Chinese security officials.

But the group then promptly disappeared into a large waterfront warehouse complex—in what appeared to be a possible last-minute change of route by authorities to head off trouble.

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On April 2 the China Central Television (CCTV)’s program “Half An Hour For the Economy” broadcasted a scholar’s criticism of Chinese authorities’ failure to save the stock market.

The day after the broadcast, the program was pulled dropped from the schedule without warning and has not returned.

This is the first time the program has been halted without warning since it started broadcasting 18 years ago.

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More than 100,000 police have been deployed across Nepal to try and secure the country’s first election in nine years.

Polls open at 7:00am (local time) to choose a 601 member special assembly, supposed to write a new constitution, abolish a 240-year-old Hindu monarchy, and serve as a parliament for at least two years.

The vote is the centrepiece of a 2006 peace deal with Maoist guerrillas to end a decade-long civil war.

“Asia Cast… keeping you across the top headlines from Asia and the World.”

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