AsiaCast

Asia Cast for Saturday 28th March

In this Bulletin…

- Chinese regime uses internet clean-up campaign to shut down cyber dissidents;
- Beijing’s water supply drying-up; and
- Earth Hour 2009 a big hit around the world.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China

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The Chinese regime has been using the excuse of eradicating vulgar content accessible to Chinese Internet users to crackdown on cyber-dissidents, according to a Radio Free Asia investigation.

In January, China’s State Council Information Office and related information offices launched a special Internet censorship campaign.

The famous Niubo website as well as the Fatianxia website, which are both renowned for publishing truthful information on sensitive matters remain banned.

But some pornographic websites are already back up and running. Liu Yiming, a member of the Independent Chinese Pen Centre said, “A lot of websites contain pornographic materials which cannot possibly escape the eyes of cyber-police, and yet they do not block these websites. What matters the most to them is sensitive, political content.”

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Experts have warned that Beijing could be facing a disastrous water shortage in the next five to ten years, says <!– @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } –> The Epoch Times.

North China’s Hebei Province provides most of Beijing’s water. Li Qinglin, head of the Heibei Water Resources Department has said that a severe water shortage caused by overexploitation and drought could cause a major population decrease and economic instability in Beijing.

Li said the province’s water levels are only half that compared to the 1950s, yet they now need to support 28 million people in Beijing and Tianjing; both areas with high water consumption. The exploitation of groundwater has caused subsidence in over 40,000 square km, he said.

The continuous drought in North China since 1999 has only aggravated the situation.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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An urban tsunami caused by a burst dam has killed at least 77 people near the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Rescue workers have resumed searching for more than 100 people feared missing after about 400 homes were deluged in the Tangerang district early on Friday.

Visiting the scene, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised to help families reconstruct their homes and pledged to rebuild the dam.

Residents likened the onrush of water to the impact of a tsunami.

Torrents of water mixed with boulders and debris crashed through a 70 metre gash in the dam, destroying hastily erected flimsy wooden houses as well as more solid concrete buildings.

Hundreds of soldiers, police and volunteers have been involved in the search for survivors and bodies.

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At least 51 people were killed and over 100 injured by a suicide bomber who targeted a mosque in the strife-torn tribal region of Pakistan on Friday.

The casualty toll was expected to rise in the blast, which occurred near the Afghanistan border in the Bigiari area of Jamrod sub-division in Khyber Agency.

This is the latest assault in a region populated by Islamic militants in Pakistani safe havens along the Afghan border.

While no claim of responsibility has been made for the strike, the bombing is believed to have been carried out by hard-line anti-US Muslims against co-religionists seen as cooperating with the United States, other Western nations, and their allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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You’re listening to Asia Cast on the SOH Radio Network

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Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is preparing to hand power to his deputy Najib Razak and has said he will offer his resignation to the nation’s king on April 2.

Najib was declared leader of the United Malays National Organisation on Thursday, promising to introduce radical reforms after disastrous elections a year ago that jeopardised its half-century grip on power.

Abdullah delivered a blistering assessment of the party this week, saying it was in decay and that it had become contaminated by greed, complacency and internal rivalries.

He endorsed Najib’s vision for an overhaul of the party and said, “I want to retire with an open heart and not have any hard feelings”.

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As Earth Hour 2009 came around on Saturday, Sydney Harbour plunged into darkness, with the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge turning their lights off for an hour in a global call for swift action on climate change.

The 25-hour energy-saving marathon officially began in Sydney shortly after 0930 GMT with a spectacular switch to darkness for an hour before spreading across the world for more than 80 countries to take part at 8:30 pm local time.

Some 371 landmarks around the world joined in the global power down, including the Vatican, Niagara Falls, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Las Vegas casino strip, the Acropolis and Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium.

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And now for our Shen Yun Performing Arts quote of the day

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The performance at the Lodz Grand Theatre in Poland attracted theatre goers from cities as far away as Warsaw and Kracow. Among them was Mr Ozdoba, who owns a building company. This is what he had to say about the show.

“I liked it all, the costumes, the dance, the music, everything was nice. The performances were very beautiful, especially the one about Falun Gong [Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution]. That is something, I think that also related with our culture. I think this was the most outstanding dance. It tells a story. Probably it was the spiritual message that made it most understandable for us.”

SOH is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. For more information please visit www.shenyunperformingarts.org.

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