Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Wednesday 13th May

In this bulletin…

- Millions celebrate World Falun Dafa Day;
- China launches hardened computer operating system; and
- Pakistan military dealing with humanitarian crisis.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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May 13th is World Falun Dafa Day and millions are celebrating in over 80 countries worldwide because of the immense positive impact practicing Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) has made in their lives.

Universal principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance as taught by the practice are the backbone of Falun Dafa’s philosophy and practitioners aspire to live by these virtues in daily life, striving to achieve, over time a state of kindness, selflessness and inner balance.

In Taiwain for World Falun Dafa Day, 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered to form a three-dimensional image of the book Zhuan Falun, commemorating 17 years since the practice was first introduced to the public and celebrating the spread of the practice since.

Find out more about the events celebrated worldwide at The Epoch Times.

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A new operating system (OS) known as “Kylin” has been installed on Chinese regime and military computers and according to the Kylin web site, the OS has already achieved one of the highest national data security standards.

A private security specialist in the U.S. has warned that China is equal to the United States and Russia in military cyber warfare and that the new, hardened OS Kylin warrants action as China is preparing to wage a cyber warfare with the US

However, a Chinese student only known as “Dancefire” has debunked the level of security claimed by Kylin’s makers by pointing out that not only are different versions of Kylin’s kernel virtually the same, but also, that most of the kernel code – 99.45 per cent – is identical to that of OS FreeBSD 5.3 and is therefore plagiarized.

FreeBSD is a Unix-like operating system that was descended from Unix via the University of California’s Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) and is open-source and freely distributable.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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Taiwan’s share prices fell sharply by 3.23 per cent Tuesday, due to selling pressures after eight days of gains amongst optimism over cross-Taiwan strait affiliations.

Only one of the eight major stock categories, construction, gained ground advancing .4 per cent.

The other seven major stock categories lost ground, with banking and financial shares dropping the most at 5.5 percent.

57 stocks remained unchanged while losers outnumbered gainers 1,805 to 426.

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Pakistan military spokesman General Athar Abbas says Pakistan’s military is currently dealing with more than one million displaced people since last year.

The number includes 500,000 who were displaced from their homes since last August, before the recent military actions against Taliban militants in the northeastern region.

The military has set up headquarters to manage 1.3 million and has set up hospitals in many of the refugee camps and plans to build camps near conflict zones.

Curfews have been enforced in the conflict zone but are eased from time to time to allow civilians to travel. Vehicles of all kinds can be seen filled with people fleeing from the conflicts, yet they are not allowed back in to the region to transport more people out.

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You are listening to Asia Cast on the SOH Radio Network
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World Wildlife Fund’s conservation group warns in a new report, integral coral reefs in the Southeast Asian area could disappear completely unless fast action is taken to control global warming.

The group reports that 40 per cent of reefs in the Coral Triangle have already been lost and unless swift action is taken the rest could be lost as well. The Coral Triangle is likened to the Amazon rain forest in terms of its biodiversity.

The group says the area is thought to contain 75 per cent of the world’s coral species and if it is destroyed the fish that people rely on for food could be gone as well.

The report’s author says, in the last 40 years the loss of 40 percent of coral reefs and mangroves is probably an underestimate and that the loss is due to a .7 degree change in terms of temperature.

He wonders what is going to happen when the temperatures exceed two or four or six degrees.

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And now for our Shen Yun Performing Arts quote of the day
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Shen Yun Performing Arts was at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on Saturday, May 9. Known as the “First Lady of Motown,” original member of musical group “The Miracles,” Claudette Robinson had this to say about the show:

“Everything was absolutely fantastic … the dancing, the singing, the musicians. And that instrument with the two strings [the erhu.] Oh my goodness, it was just incredible. It was like, how could that much sound come out of an instrument with just two strings? And the young lady that was playing it was fantastic and amazing. I can’t say enough about it. You know, for a musician, because I love music, it was just incredible. And the singers were phenomenal.”

She also said, “It’s one of those rare, rare things that you just have to see… I’m so happy to have been here today and been a part of it, to just enjoy it.”

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.”