Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Thursday 28th August

In this Bulletin…

-After the Olympic’s closing ceremony, situation of victims in Sichuan remains unchanged;
-100 passengers aboard a hijacked plane, freed; and
-Severe flooding has left more than 2 million people homeless.

-But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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After the grand lavish Olympic Games the earthquake victims in Sichuan still live in temporary tents day after day without seeing any prospects ahead.

According to a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on the 27th August, a woman named Li Gui-lan of Dujiangyan City lost her husband to the quake,and now resides with her unemployed son and daughter-in-law in a tent making a living by selling red beans with a daily income of only 2 yuan.

Another victim in the quake disaster area said: we heard there arrived some relief materials, including aids from overseas. But we have received nothing and we have all been told to rely on ourselves for survival.

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According to Yunnan Seismological Bureau, from the 20th to 21st August, Yingjiang County of Yunnan Province was struck incessantly in varying scale of aftershocks.

As of the morning of 27th August, 691 aftershocks had hit the area, and left five people dead and 128 have been injured.

Nearly 3,500 school complexes had become dilapidated buildings. 460,000 people are affected in 70 villages of 8 counties.

The deputy of Yunnan Seismological Bureau stated at an earthquake forum held in Ying-Jiang County on 27th August that the tremors experienced in Ying Jiang County are the most severe ones that have occurred in over a century.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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All 100 passengers aboard a hijacked plane have been freed but they continue to hold seven crew members hostage. “The passengers have started to leave the plane,” a Libyan official said on condition of anonymity.

The Sun Air Boeing 737 with some 100 passengers on board was hijacked shortly after takeoff from Darfur’s largest city Nyala on Tuesday (local time) bound for the Sudanese capital.

It was granted permission to land at Libya’s isolated World War II-era Kufra airport after running short of fuel.

The passengers were reportedly given water but no food and some fainted when the aircraft’s air conditioning failed in the sweltering desert heat.

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Zimbabwe’s opposition said it will not join any new government with President Robert Mugabe until power-sharing talks are concluded, after the 84-year-old declared he would name his own cabinet.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change described Mr Mugabe’s intention to form a government regardless of the opposition as “a declaration of war against the people”.

Mr Mugabe’s move leaves the power-sharing negotiations - stalled for the past two weeks - in tatters, and outlines the scale of the task facing mediator Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, to get them back on track.

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In the eastern Indian state of Bihar, food riots have erupted after severe flooding has left more than 2 million people homeless.

The Kosi River in Bihar broke its banks and changed course last week, flooding hundreds of villages and towns.

At least 2 million people are homeless and Indian authorities are struggling to reach those in desperate need of food and rescue.

Looting and food riots have been reported with villagers fighting over limited food and medicine at a relief centre.

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The world has made progress on ways to save tropical forests and other elements of a planned U.N. pact to slow global warming, the U.N.’s top climate official said as 160-nation talks in Ghana ended on Wednesday.

Governments are trying to find a deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 37 developed nations to curb greenhouse gases until 2012. Neither the United States nor China, the top two greenhouse gas emitters, have limits under Kyoto.

Countries came up with proposals to raise tens of billions of dollars in funds for forest protection — such as a Saudi Arabian call for a levy on the logging industry and a proposal by the Pacific island of Tuvalu to tax air tickets and shipping .

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