Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Thursday 22nd January

In this Bulletin…

- Contaminated pork is latest foodhealth threat in southern China;
- South Korea orders investigation into deadly blaze; and
- Aid workers abducted in Phillippines “in good health”.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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Chinese authorities prevented some mourners from attending a memorial ceremony for Zhao Ziyang, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

Zhao was a popular figure among the people, partly due to his sympathetic stance towards the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protesters; a stance that saw him cast out of the Communist Party and put under house arrest for fifteen years until his death in 2005.

His family had set a mourning hall up in their Beijing home to allow people to come and pay their respects, but not everyone was allowed in. His daughter,Wang Yannan, told Voice of America that she didn’t know what criteria the authorities used in deciding who could enter Zhao’s home.

Zhao’s name has been a taboo since 1989; when he died China’s media was not permitted to even mention that he once led the Communist Party.

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Some slaughterhouses in Guangzhou City have been disguising diseased pork and sending it to market, putting the health of unwary consumers at risk, according to local reporters.

Police in Guangzhou have broken up a ring of pork dealers who were involved in the unsavoury practice. At one slaughterhouse around two tons of diseased pork were seized.

Reporters found that the meat was being soaked in an unknown chemical to mask the odour and make the meat appear fresh.

A pig that died from foot and mouth disease can be purchased for about $10. Once processed, the meat can be sold for thirty times as much.

Most of the spoiled and diseased pork has been bought by small restaurants, street vendors, and meat packers looking for a cheap deal.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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An investigation has been ordered into a deadly fire that broke out during a stand-off between police and protesters in the South Korean capital Seoul.

The Tuesday morning blaze left six people dead, including a police officer, and injured some 20 others, according to Lee Suk-hee, a Seoul police spokesman.

The fire erupted after Seoul Police Chief Kim Seok-ki ordered police commandos to storm a building where protesters were staging a sit-in against an urban development project, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The incident threatens to spark a political controversy.

It comes just two days after President Lee replaced the country’s police chief, who had been widely criticised for being too hard on anti-government protesters.

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The spreading of bird flu to humans continues to be a problem across parts of Asia. The latest incidents have occurred in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta where two people have died.

Separately, both went to a market, fell sick in December with high fever, a cough and breathing difficulties and were sent to hospital, according to a statement on the health ministry’s website.

Indonesia has been the country hardest hit by bird flu, accounting for nearly half of the disease’s worldwide fatalities.

The H5N1 virus typically spreads from birds to humans through direct contact, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to kill millions in a pandemic.

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Three staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross abducted by gunmen in the southern Philippines are alive and well, the organisation has said in a statement.

Telephone calls made by the three from Friday to Monday have confirmed they are still being kept together.

But they also relayed a message from their abductors demanding that the military stop searching for them.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also quashed rumours that any ransom demand had been made, stressing the organisation does not pay ransoms.

Initial reports, and statements by the chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, Senator Richard Gordon, suggested the kidnappers were from the notorious Abu Sayyaf gang, which is based in the area.

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