Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Wednesday 29th October

In this Bulletin…

- Hong Kong calls for tighter controls after melamine found in eggs from China;
- Internet giants address human rights issues with new guidelines; and
- North Korea threatens to reduce the South to “debris”.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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Security guards hired by a timber company in Jiangxi Province recently attacked locals suspected of stealing timber, killing two people, reports NTDTV.

Hundreds of police were dispatched to the area the following day, only to be met with thousands of angry residents who set fire to the Lu Hai Forestry Company’s building, injured police and set fire to their cars.

“The situation was out of control. In the afternoon the police used tear gas. The villagers started to fight back without any fear. When the police saw the situation becoming more intense they ran away,” said Mr Chen, an eyewitness who spoke to NTDTV.

Villagers accuse the company of destroying the local environment and suspect local officials may be involved.

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Hong Kong’s Center for Food Safety recently confirmed that eggs imported from a company in China contained 4.7 parts per million of melamine, says The Epoch Times. This is almost double the safety limit of 2.5 parts per million.

All supermarkets have been requested to stop selling and importing eggs from the Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group.

Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said, “Livestock feed might have been tainted by melamine, so officials will examine all meat and poultry imported from mainland China and pay special attention to animal organs, such as chicken kidneys and pork kidneys.”

Chen said authorities should not allow any trace of the contaminant in the food supply to prevent a potential panic from the public.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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Chocolate coins from China, known to be contaminated with melamine and recalled in Canada, are still on sale in the U.S., according to The Epoch Times.

Sherwood Brands chocolate coins, imported from China, were found to contain melamine earlier this month. The specific lot number was recalled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Sherwood Brands is based in Rockville, Maryland, and is selling the same coins in U.S., where, as yet, they have not been tested or recalled.

According to Paula Cesrochers, Sales Support Manager with Sherwood Brands in Rhode Island, the product is being tested by labs in China. In a statement, the company said that they have stopped production and import of the coins from China.

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In a move to clean images tarnished by dubious business dealings in China, leading Internet companies are establishing new guidelines that seek to limit what data they should share with authorities worldwide and when they should do so.

The Global Network Initiative guidelines, call for Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to try to reduce the scope of government requests that appear to conflict with free speech and other human rights principles.

It is unclear how much of an impact the guidelines will have as many of the key points are open to interpretation or are left to individual companies to implement, but they are an important step in the right direction.

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You’re listening to Asia Cast on the SOH Radio Network
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North Korea has warned South Korea to stop its confrontational activities or face being reduced to “debris”.

The statement said “the puppet authorities had better remember that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything opposed to the nation and reunification to debris, not just setting them on fire.”

The North cited the remarks by a South Korean general about a pre-emptive strike against the communist country and the defence minister about North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s health condition, and the propaganda leafleting by civic activists.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s spy agency says a North Korean soldier has defected to South Korea through the heavily fortified border dividing the two countries.

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As Thailand’s Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat made his first official tour of the country’s far south, he declared that separatist violence in the majority-Muslim region had eased.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in rebel attacks by shadowy insurgent groups operating in the region since January 2004. Successive governments have struggled to quell the unrest.

Earlier this month Somchai said his new government was committed to tackling the ongoing insurgency by reaching out to the different communities and promoting economic development.

Independent monitoring group Deep South Watch reported 18 deaths in the south during the first two weeks of October and said that was the lowest number of fatalities in that time period in four years.

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