AsiaCast

Asia Cast for Friday 27th June

In this Bulletin…

- North Korea destroys cooling tower at nuclear facility;
- Beijing’s ‘green’ Olympics accused of drying up region; and
- Natural disaster network to be set up in Asia Pacific region.

But first, here’s our original SOH news direct from China

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Two Chinese F-8 fighters are reported to have collided in mid-air during a training exercise over Qingshuihe County in Inner Mongolia. A tail was the only recognisable part of the aircraft left amongst the burnt wreckage of the crash site near to the region’s capital, Hohhot.

According to the Chinese authorities the pilots of both planes, which were from the Shenyang Military Region, ejected safely and only suffered minor injuries in the incident. The reason for the collision is still unknown, but the Chinese military is notoriously tight-lipped about such incidents.

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In Guangdong Province, Feng Qiusheng, an advocate for farmer’s rights from Taishi village, Fanyu County, was suddenly taken into criminal custody by local public security forces.

His father said he felt very uneasy about the way his son was taken away by the police who came to talk to him, led him away, and then sent the family a detention letter saying he was being punished with detention for being suspected of involvement in disturbing the social order.

Other rights advocates said that since the farmers in Taishi village collectively called for recalling the village officials in 2005, Feng Qiusheng has always been monitored and had his movements strictly controlled, and as such, he has had no chances of doing any remotely illegal.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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China’s ambition of hosting a ‘green’ Olympics in Beijing has further intensified the city’s demand for water from already strained supplies, according to a critical report.

Beijing has promoted its 2008 Games as a nature-friendly festival of sport, but water for the expanses of greenery and sparkling waterways greeting visitors in August will be pumped from four newly-built reservoirs in nearby Hebei province, depriving poor farmers of water for their crops, says Probe International, a Canada-based conservation group.

“With each new project to tap water somewhere else, demand for water only increases, and at an ever greater cost to China’s environment and economy,” says the group’s report.

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In a symbolic gesture of its commitment to talks on ending its nuclear programme, North Korea has demolished the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

The event took place a day after long-awaited details of the isolated state’s nuclear energy programme were handed over.

In return for this progress, the US has agreed to lift some of its economic sanctions.

State media reported North Korea’s Foreign Ministry had welcomed the US move on sanctions, regarding it as a “positive step”.

Some analysts have commented that there are still bigger issues to resolve: including the critical issue of actual weapons stockpiles, as well as suspected North Korean proliferation activities, particularly the supposed Syrian connection.

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Asian stock markets took a big fall today amid widespread alarm at oil prices spiking above $141 a barrel for the first time and Wall Street plummeting overnight from Thursday.

As the sell-off spread across the entire region, nearly every key Asian index was left in the red.
Shanghai’s benchmark plunged more than 5 percent to a 16-month low, which left institutional investors increasingly disappointed with the regime for not doing more to slow this year’s slide in Chinese stock prices, according to Xu Zhiyuan, strategist at Capital Edge Investment and Management in Shanghai.

“Investors are selling shares regardless of the loss,” he said.

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A 6.7 magnitude earthquake has been reported off the coast of India’s Andaman Islands. The quake’s epicenter was around 120km southwest of the Islands’ capital, Port Blair.

Despite causing panic among residents: according to Andamans police chief, Ranjit Narayan, it hadn’t caused any serious damage or injuries.

The Indian Meteorological Department described the quake as moderate and the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a bulletin saying there was “a very small possibility of a destructive local tsunami in the Indian Ocean.”

However, Narayan says no local tsunami warning has been issued.

The remote islands were among the many areas devastated by a massive tsunami in December, 2004

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A deal between Australia, Japan and the United States is set to lead to the creation of a network to deal with natural disasters in the Asia Pacific region.

Foreign ministers from the three countries have been meeting in the Japanese city of Kyoto.

Officials and agencies from all three countries will establish a network of contacts and information sharing to deal with major disasters.

Australia has offered to host a preliminary planning meeting of disaster relief officials from all three countries later this year.

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