Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Thursday 24th April

In this Bulletin

- Pro-China demonstrators assaults people as torch passes through Canberra
- Jailed Chinese Mongolian Dissident Claims Torture and
- Ganzi Tibetans forced to hold the national flag, leading one Tibetan to commit suicide

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

The presence of over 500 police and a steel fence sealing off parts of the city meant that Canberra’s Olympic torch relay was to pass through smoothly.

However a gang of pro-China demonstrators assaulted people and tore down pro-Tibet banners in the wake of today’s Olympic torch relay in Canberra, an onlooker has claimed.

Pro-China demonstrators vastly outnumbered pro-Tibetan protesters in Canberra today, with Chinese flags dominating Reconciliation Place and the route of the relay.

One spectator says he and others were assaulted by group of Chinese supporters who were following the torch’s progress from behind the barriers.

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

Rice prices have escalated in Asian trade amid concern that export bans by key producers will hit demand.

Millions of people who were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago, but now are,” said the head of the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran.

Curbs are in place in India and Vietnam to protect domestic supply and there are fears that Thailand, the world’s largest producer, could follow suit.

The global food crisis is a “silent tsunami” with an extra 100 million people facing poverty, the UN said.

***************************
You’re listening to Asia Cast on the SOH Radio Network
***************************

Chinese officials have discarded claims by US authorities that Chinese imports are to blame for deaths among users of the drug heparin.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says a contaminant sourced to a Chinese factory has been found in heparin supplies in 11 countries.

The FDA is linking the contaminant to severe allergic reactions, and deaths, among users of the drug in the US.

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

An ethnic Mongolian jailed in China for separatism and spying says he is being regularly tortured in prison for a crime he did not commit, according to a letter pleading his case with the Chinese authorities.

Hada was tried behind closed doors in China’s northern Inner Mongolia region in 1996 and jailed for 15 years for separatism and spying and his support for the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance, which sought greater rights for ethnic Mongolians.

Amnesty International considers Hada a prisoner of conscience and has expressed fears about his well-being.

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

Recently the Chinese Communist authories launched campains including “patriotic education” in the Tibetan areas, in addition to raising the national flag above temples’ roof tops.

Monks are also requested to make oath under the national flag in order to make a clean break from the Dalai Lama.

Due to ongoing harassment by Chinese communists militaries, monk Szeged aged 29 from Gede Temple in, Tibet was driven to commit suicide in the evening of 16th April.

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

Dozens of policemen from anti-riot brigade of Chengdu Public Security Bureau, at around 2:00am on Monday, armed with shields and batons, rushed into the commissioned properties of former employees of Kangding Transport Company, driving dozens of retirees from their homes.

These workers said they responded a few decades ago to the call of the government to work in Ganzi, Tibetan Autonomous Region as a support of the national frontiers By 2004, ever since the company underwent a system restructuring, their welfare housing, superannuation, medical insurance have not been protected.

Now the retirees have been evicted from their homes and will appeal to Beijing authorities.

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

Today marks the last day the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular will be performing in Seattle before continuing on to Vancouver.

A fascinating and important chapter in Chinese cultural history is unfolding as the Divine Performing Arts seeks to revive arts inspired by traditional Chinese beliefs in a series of shows performed worldwide.

The Spectacular is a “song and dance show with class,” as an audience member once described it.

The show manages to strike a balance between the more refined traditional Chinese dance forms and the simple pleasure of rousing music, impressive large-scale dances with dozens of dancers moving in synch, and stunning costumes and backdrops.

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