Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Tuesday 17th February

In this bulletin

-San Francisco rally supports 50 million quitting CCP;
-Landmark Khmer Rouge trial starts; and
-Australia fire deaths rise to 200.

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The Epoch Times reports, that on Saturday, February the 14th at 12pm, Northern California’s Service Centre for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party held an assembly at San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square to support 50 million Chinese who’ve withdrawn from the CCP and it’s affiliated organizations.

Doctor Ma Youzhi, a representative at the Northern California’s Quitting the CCP Service Centre, was the first to make a speech.  He said that it was a really big day to celebrate 50 million Chinese comptriots who have publicly withdrawn from the Party and its affiliates.

One of the rally hosts, Doctor Zhang Xuerong, said that anyone who still has a conscience should step forward and publicly quit the CCP.

After the assembly, people from all over San Francisco Bay area held a parade in China town.

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Thirty years after the murderous regime of the Khmer Rouge fell;  the long-awaited UN-backed trial of a former Khmer Rouge leader in Cambodia has opened in a Phnom Penh court.

The head of the notorious prison camp, known as Duch – is accused of presiding over the murder and torture of at least 15,000 inmates.

The trial is the result of a decade of painstaking and often ill-tempered negotiations.

The opening day of the trial offered the first opportunity for the survivors, to see a leading figure in the Khmer Rouge face justice.

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Police have reported that the number of people who have died in Australia’s bushfires has reached 200 and will rise further.

In the south-east Victorian state, in the town of Kinglake, 11 more bodies were discovered, adding to the already gruesome number of lives lost.

The hundreds of fires that swept the state have destroyed more than 1,800 homes displacing 7,500 people.

Police suspect at least two of the fires were set deliberately, and have already charged one man with arson.

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to Tokyo on Tuesday that United States President Barack Obama will meet Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in Washington on February 24th.

Japan’s Foreign Minister, Hirofumi Nakasone said that “Prime Minister Aso gratefully accepts the offer.”

Ms. Clinton and Mr. Nakasone both brought up the issue of the global financial crisis at a joint press conference.  Mr. Nakasone said that the issue will be jointly tackled by the world’s first and second largest economies.

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Just a day after Japan’s Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, denied being drunk at a Group 7 summit in Rome, he has announced he is to resign.

Blaming the incident on cold medication, Nakagawa appeared incoherent, slurring his words at the meeting on the weekend, but insisted he had not been drinking.

However, on Tuesday, he said he would step down as soon as Japan’s politicians back a number of key budget bills.

Television footage of the G7 summit press conference was shown on the national news on the same day that official data showed Japan’s economy shrank at the fastest pace in almost 35 years in the last quarter of 2008.

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And now for our Divine Performing Arts quote of the day
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Hussein from Turkey was at the DPA Washington DC performance which was held at the Kennedy Centre Opera House on the 15th of February.

The shows in Washington are fortunate to have the live orchestra playing during the show, which was Hussein’s favourite part. This is what he had to say:

“The orchestra was awesome; they did a really good job. They had everything so good. I really liked them.”

Find out when the Divine Performing Arts show will be coming to your local city.

Visit www.divineperformingarts.com and don’t miss out on this fantastic show which only happens once a year.

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“Asia Cast … Keeping you across the top headlines from Asia and the world.”