Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Thursday 23 April

In this bulletin…

- Desperate Chinese parents offer millions for the return of their missing children;
- Taiwanese unemployment reaches record high; and
- US seeks to draw Iran back to nuclear talks.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
**********************

China’s state-run media was ordered to keep quiet over miscarriages caused by toxic chemicals among women living in temporary housing following last year’s Sichuan earthquake.

SOH has discovered that the Dujiangyan People’s Hospital recorded more than 100 such miscarriages. Both doctors and the families involved suspect high levels of the chemical formaldehyde in mobile homes constructed out of MDF as the cause.

On April 17, the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department issued an order to all provincial media, “No interviews, no reports, or quotes on any of the hundreds of embryo deaths in Dujiangyan’s pregnant women suspected from high formaldehyde levels in mobile homes constructed with fibre board [MDF].”

Most of these mothers are earthquake victims who lost their children and want to start families again.

A full report on this story can be found at The Epoch Times website.
**********************

Parents of missing children in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province staged a march in protest of the authorities lack of action in trying to find the more than 1,000 children who have gone missing there in the last few years, according to The Epoch Times.

The demonstration was an eruption of a long-suppressed frustration. Parents have accused the police of indifference and cruelty when handling their cases.

Local police forcibly dispersed the crowd, wounding some demonstrators.
Losing a child is even more unbearable for parents in China because of the one-child policy. The desperate parents have formed a union to search for missing children and have offered a reward of 10 million yuan (US$ 1.46 million) for the return of any of the missing children.

**********************
And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
**********************

Despite a rise in unemployment in Taiwan to a record high of 5.8 per cent in March, the rate at which unemployment is growing has slowed down, a spokesman for the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Wednesday.

Measures taken by the government to create jobs had prevented the number of jobless surging past 6.2 per cent, said Huang Chien-chung, deputy director of the DGBAS fourth bureau.

The data indicated a rise in the unemployment rate for 11 consecutive months.

However, although unemployment is still rising, the growth rate is slowing, Huang said, citing as an indicator the growth rate for March job losses due to business contraction or closure, which he said was the lowest in the past seven months.

**********************

An Australian made plasma engine could be set to revolutionise space travel and maybe one day power a mission to Mars.

The thruster is the culmination of more than a decade’s work by Christine Charles and her colleagues from the Australian National University’s Space Plasma Power and Propulsion (SP3) Group in Canberra.

They have teamed up with an aerospace company to test their new engine on a satellite. The plasma thruster will be the first piece of Australian hardware sent into space in more than seven years and the first engine of its kind to be tested on a satellite.

The idea of plasma propulsion has been around for decades, but Dr Charles says their engine has a number of advantages over previous designs.

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

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States is laying groundwork for new sanctions against Iran if efforts to persuade Tehran to halt enrichment and return to negotiations on its nuclear program fail.

Clinton told Congress the administration’s conciliatory policy toward Iran is not open-ended and Tehran would face tighter sanctions if the effort was spurned or inconclusive.

The UN Security Council has approved three sanction resolutions against Iran because of its defiance of demands for transparency on its nuclear program, which it says is entirely peaceful.

Efforts by the previous administration for more sanctions were blocked last year amid resistance from Russia and China.

**********************

The first national park in Afghanistan has been established in a spectacular region of deep blue lakes separated by natural dams of travertine, and a mineral deposit.

Band-e-Amir is visited by thousands of Afghans and pilgrims, though foreign tourism stalled with the increase in violence since 1979.

Much of the Band-e-Amir’s wildlife has been lost, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. Declaring it a park should help protect the fragile environment.

The new park is near the Bamyan Valley, where 1,500-year-old giant Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taleban.

Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency (Nepa) said the creation of the park would help the region attract international tourism and obtain World Heritage Status.

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

A high school student from mainland China, who has been in Australia for about a year and a half, was in the audience at the Parade Theatre in Sydney, Australia on Sunday, April 19.

She watched the show wide-eyed, and said that the Shen Yun artists helped her understand the culture of her forefathers.

“I have understood more of China’s culture, past and present. When I was in China, I was very unclear about these things, or had some understanding but not very deep. But, after watching this show I had a better, deeper, and higher level understanding,” she said.

Experience true Chinese culture like never before as Shen Yun Performing Arts presents classical Chinese dance and music in gloriously colourful and exhilarating shows.

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

**********************