AsiaCast

Asia Cast for Sunday 19th October.

In this bulletin

- Riots in China supporting ‘ national hero’ Yang Jia;
- Global summit to remedy financial crisis to be held in US; and
- Trust issues hamper resolution in Zimbabwe.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China

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Over 1,000 people gathered in front of Shanghai High Court to support Yang Jia on Oct. 13. Yang Jia , who stood up to police harassment with violence, killing six, has received much public sympathy. Many police officers and plainclothes agents were present. At about 9:00 a.m., the police arrested around 40 petitioners and people in the surrounding area.

According to petitioners, Yang’s lawyer proposed in court that Yang was mentally unstable and requested a forensic psychiatric assessment, but this was rejected by the judge.

Ms Zeng, a petitioner, told the Epoch Times reporters that many petitioners shouted slogans like, “Overthrow the Fascist government! Overthrow the Chinese Communist Party!” and “Yang Jia is a hero!” . The policemen recorded them with a video recorder and then arrested them all. She added that Several Shanghai residents were also beaten.

Ms Zeng also expressed how wide the base of support was. The oldest petitioner was well within her seventies and some of the youngest were around 20 years old. A message left on Yang’s MySpace account was reported to have read: “You have done what most people want to do, but do not have enough courage to do.” The police are universally unpopular in China, being seen as nothing more than gangsters.

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Epoch Times. A China Customs report released on October 13th showed that between January and July of this year, more than 52 percent of toy exporters went out of business.

Among the 3,631 exporters that shut down, half were small-sized toy producers.

According to the report, low profit margins, rising currency value, and rising production costs, were the causes of the small-sized toy producers’ shutting down.

Big name toy producers have in the past had to recall millions of toys due to poor quality.

According to Toronto Star’s October 4th test report, of the 18 retailers in the greater Toronto area, lead was found in about one in every four toy products purchased. Lead was also found on items billed as lead free.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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On October 12^th, China’s state-run CCTV network, pulled a talk show discussing the recent milk scandals, allegedly under the order of the Central Propaganda Department.

China’s toxic milk has become a great embarrassment for China’s milk manufacturers. Three of the country’s top milk manufacturers were set to give a public apology during the show on Chinese Central Television (CCTV) last Sunday evening. But many were disappointed to find out that the show had been completely replaced with another episode.

On the following Monday morning, CCTV explained that an equipment failure prevented the intended milk broadcast, but insiders have stated that the program had been sent a direct order to cut the episode.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) called CCTV Channel 2 and the programme studio, but no one answered. According to the Beijing Evening newspaper, there was no equipment failure. They say such an issue is unlikely to happen, especially since CCTV had already announced the show that morning.

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A senior U.S. administration official has said that President George W. Bush will announce on Saturday that the United States will host a summit to discuss the financial crisis and its global effects.

The announcement came as Bush prepared to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy—who has advocated an emergency summit—and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at the Camp David presidential retreat on Saturday.

White House aids have stated that Bush is intending to directly tackle the immediate crisis with the Camp David meeting.

Fears of a full-blown recession were fueled by figures showing sharp declines in U.S. consumer confidence, and stock markets around the world remain uneasy as they wait to see if the crash will ease.

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You are listening to Asia Cast on the SOH radio network.
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A trust issue is dogging progress in the power sharing deals that are in progress between Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai has told thousands of supporters at a rally that the deal that has been made is fine but now that it has come to implementation, there are issues arising.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai again failed to reach agreement on forming a cabinet after four days of talks which ended on Friday.

Officials from regional grouping SADC will meet in Swaziland on Monday to try to help the rival parties end the deadlock.

Tsvangirai threatened to pull out of talks on Sunday after Mugabe allocated powerful ministries such as defence, finance and home affairs to his own party.

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Doctors have been baffled by an unexplained rash on people’s ears or cheeks and are on alert for a skin allergy caused by too much mobile phone use, the British Association of Dermatologists said on Thursday.

Citing published studies, the group said a red or itchy rash, known as “mobile phone dermatitis,” affects people who develop an allergic reaction to the nickel surface on mobile phones after spending long periods of time on the devices.

Safety concerns over mobile phones has grown as more people rely on them for everyday communication.

Nickel is a metal found in products ranging from mobile phones to jewellery and belt buckles. It is one of the most common causes of allergic contact dermatitis according to the Mayo Clinic in the United States.

Earlier this year Lionel Bercovitch of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island tested 22 popular handsets from eight different manufacturers and found nickel in 10 of the devices.

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