Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Thursday 4th September

In this Bulletin…

- Chinese scholars call for Moon Festival to become Freedom of Speech Festival
- Tropical Storm Ike strengthens into a hurricane; and
- 400,000 year old mammoth skull unearthed.

-But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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According to Radio Free Asia, fourteen scholars from provinces across China, including those from media, legal and academic sectors, published an open statement, in a call for the traditional ‘Moon festival’ to be designated as a Freedom of Speech Festival.

The statement brought up the legends of ‘The Chinese Moon festival’, and that the moon-cake originated from people’s pursuit of freedom, under a violent dictatorship.

In conclusion, the statement read, “One aspect of the ‘Moon festival’, is that it should be regarded as a time when Chinese people respected traditions, customs, family and relatives. From another aspect, the Moon Festival should also be esteemed as a time for freedom of speech in China.

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News from China: Since April this year, the collapse of medium to small enterprises in Zheng jiang Province has become more frequent.

After June, large scale, privately run manufacturing companies have also began to feel the pressure. In the first half of 2008, total corporate profit increase, relative to the same period in 2007, has dropped 17.8 percent.

More than 10,000 large-scale enterprises experienced net loss. Experts predict the trends for the second half of 2008 as pessimistic.

In the past 30 years, China has experienced macroeconomic adjustments every three to five years. However, the recent development is much different from the past. Firstly, inflation has taken the most serious turn in 15 years. Secondly, rises in the Chinese Currency’s value has placed pressure and caused difficulties in foreign trade.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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Rescue efforts continue to be cut off to thousands in villages devastated by a monsoon-swollen river in northern India.

Aid workers say villagers are now entering a critical stage with food running out and people forced to drink the muddy flood water.

Many villagers in the area, submerged after the Kosi river breached its defenses in Nepal and swung east, have lost their lives trying to make it to safety.

State government issued warnings to villagers to evacuate when the river first broke through its flood walls thus keeping the death toll low, with some 100 people drowned so far even though the floods have affected 3 million.

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The Philippine government has got rid of the peace panel that has been negotiating with southern Muslim rebels, officials say.

Instead Manila would shift towards direct dialogue with local communities in a bid to end the violence, a presidential official said.

The move follows recent lethal clashes in the southern island of Mindanao.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in fighting which erupted after the Supreme Court blocked a controversial autonomy deal with the rebels.

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Tropical Storm Ike has strengthened into a hurricane in the open Atlantic and Tropical Storm Hanna is to follow as it heads to the southeast U.S. coast.

Hanna’s torrential rains had already submerged parts of Haiti, stranding residents on rooftops and prompting President Rene Preval to warn of an “extraordinary catastrophe” which could rival a storm that killed more than 3,000 people in the flood-prone Caribbean country four years ago.

Hanna is forecast to move over the central and northern Bahamas on Thursday, strengthening back into a hurricane before hitting the U.S. coast near the North Carolina-Virginia border on Saturday.

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An “extremely rare” fossilised skull of a steppe mammoth has been discovered in southern France.

This 400,000 year old skull in the Auvergne region could shed much needed light on the evolution of these massive beasts that stand about 3.7m tall.

Many isolated teeth of steppe mammoth have been found, but only a handful of skeletons exist; and in these surviving specimens, the skull is rarely intact.

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