AsiaCast

Asia Cast for Wednesday 15th April

In this bulletin…

- Outraged Chinese land seizure victims withdraw from CCP;
- New population of endangered orangutans discovered; and
- Australian unemployment rate higher.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China

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A quiet revolution is taking China by storm reports NTDTV. The “Tuidang Yundong” or “Quit the Communist Party Movement” has seen millions of current and former Communist Party members renounce their membership.

The communist regime in China commonly seizes land from its citizens and forces their eviction, and appeals to authorities are often met with arrest and beatings while in custody. However, this is forcing Chinese to be more creative in airing their grievances – by quitting the communist party and its affiliations.

Over 52.8 million people have already withdrawn by telephone or by posting their withdrawal on websites as well as posting notices or painting messages in public places within China.

You can find information on the withdrawals updated daily on The Epoch Times website at www.theepochtimes.com.

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Chinese authorities have released a National Human Rights Action Plan and although Amnesty International welcomed the plan, saying that it signals the growing importance the Chinese authorities place on the protection of human rights and adherence to international human rights standards, they say the plan fails to address many serious and on-going human rights violations.

The two-year plan promises the communist regime will do more to prevent illegal detention and torture, and to protect minorities and women and that a primary goal remains ensuring Chinese people have the right to make money.

According to Amnesty International, in several areas of civil and political rights, for example on death penalty, eradication of torture and freedom of religion, the new proposals simply repeat existing laws and policies that have failed to adequately protect human rights.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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New populations of the endangered orangutan have been found in the eastern edge of Borneo, in a steep mountainous corner of Indonesia by conservationists from Nature Conservancy.

It is believed that about 65,000 remain within the remote rain forests of two islands: Borneo and Sumatra.

The most recently discovered population has been found in Borneo, with 219 nests counted. This could raise the number of orangutan by a couple hundred to perhaps thousands.

The orangutan survey is part of a campaign to save orangutans from extinction and preserve up to 2.5 million acres of orangutan habitat; potentially saving 9,800 orangutans and preventing 700 million tons of carbon from being released into the environment.

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The biggest celebrity of Bhojpuri cinema has decided to enter politics. And like the hero he plays in movies, he plans to triumph over evil that has swept northern India.

Manoj Tiwari has starred in 51 movies since 2004 and his celebrity is being put to use in the coming elections where he plans to bring change to a region that is showing excessive violence to migrants that came to Mumbai looking for work, from outlying poverty struck areas.

The violence started when the leader of a small right-wing Hindu party, Raj Thackeray, accused migrants of swamping Maharashtra in search of jobs. This incited supporters to attack migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, beating them and destroying their property.

This was a wakeup call to Tiwari, who is attracting thousands to his speeches with promises of bringing movie business to the region as well as reopening sugar and fertilizer factories.

General elections in India are to begin Thursday where over 700 million are expected to participate.

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

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Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari signed into law on Monday, as part of a larger peace deal, this law implements Islamic law (or Sharia) to the troubled Swat Valley region of North West Frontier Province.

Last week the Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad had announced he was pulling out of the peace deal, saying the [Pakistani] government was not serious about imposing Islamic law to the region. Yet, the peace deal remained intact, commented the Pakistani Interior Minister, Rehman Malik.

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Australian unemployment rates have jumped from 5.2 per cent to 5.7 per cent, the highest since 2003 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Analysts expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut interest rates again, after it reduced them to a record low of 3 percent earlier this week.

Chief economist from St. George Bank, Besa Deda predicts the unemployment rate will peak between 8 and 9 per cent in the second half of the year and the Australian government said it expects the rate to peak at 7 per cent in 2010.

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

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Shen Yun Performing Arts show was at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary, the largest city in the province of Alberta, Canada.

In the audience was Mrs. Sumen, a former ballet dancer who now owns a ballet school in Calgary. This is what she had to say:

“It was beautiful, [the dancing was] very graceful, a nice group showing very good discipline. I liked the costumes and the beautiful energy.”

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.

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