Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Saturday 30th May

In this bulletin…

- Former Communist leaders memoirs sell out;
- Pakistan says Swat valley under control;and
- Swine flu confirmed in Vietnam

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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An outcry by a Shanghai resident has uncovered a kidnapping style arrest made by Communist Party officials.

The victim, Shen Peilan, was kidnapped by 8 men in front of her church, says Jin Yuehua, an eyewitness. Mrs Shen’s husband told SOH that local police simply informed him that she had been taken by Communist Party representatives.

It is suspected that because Mrs Shen had recently begun to petition to the government regarding their illegally demolishing her family home, she has now been targeted by police and officials.

Her husband told SOH that the kidnapping happened on May 21^st, and to this day he has had no information at all about her condition or whereabouts.

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The memoirs of a former Chinese Communist Party chief are selling like hotcakes in Hong Kong. In a land which still strives for freedom, the book that entails Zhao Ziyang’s memoirs over his time is selling out in all bookstores and retailers are ordering massive quantities to keep up with demand.

The book clearly shows Zhao’s ousting by Communist hardliners after he stated that the June 4^th 1989 Tiananmen square event was a tragedy.

Zhao secretly recorded his memoirs and spoke of rejected the governments claims that the protests were an anti-Communist conspiracy.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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The town of Mingora in the Swat valley of Pakistan has been recaptured by Pakistan forces, military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told a news conference.

Recapturing Mingora, 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, would raise the prospect that some of more than 2 million people who have fled the conflict zone could soon begin to go home, alleviating a humanitarian crisis.

The security forces have secured an area of up to 70 km (44 miles) north of Mingora, including the town of Bahrain, though before the news conference he told Reuters there were still pockets of resistance on the outskirts of Mingora.

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The first case of H1N1 swine flu has been confirmed in Vietnam, a Vietnamese doctor said on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Vietnamese student who returned home from the United States is at present in hospital in a relatively good condition says doctors at the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City

Initial tests at the city’s tropical diseases hospital were positive for H1N1. The Pasteur Institute re-confirmed the presence of the virus, the doctor, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

The H1N1 virus has infected at least 15,600 people globally and killed 113, most of them in Mexico

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You’re listening to Asia Cast on the SOH Radio Network
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The Interior Ministers from the G8 industrialised nations on Friday discussed closer cooperation in fighting organised crime and greater aid to African states to tackle drug trafficking cartels and rising maritime piracy.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, hosting the two-day meeting which concludes on Saturday, said delegates proposed greater data sharing on criminal networks and tougher measures to confiscate the assets of mafia groups.

On the issue of piracy, which has become a major international concern off the eastern coast of Africa, ministers proposed closer police cooperation to pursue those responsible and the establishment of international tribunals to hear the crimes.

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US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday that the United States would not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea and sternly warned it against transferring any nuclear material.

In a speech to an Asian defense conference in Singapore, Gates also said the threat from North Korea, which this week detonated a nuclear device and launched a series of missiles, could trigger an arms race in Asia.

Gates also stated that the United States will not stand idly by while North Korea builds the capacity to wreak destruction on a massive range of targets including the United States itself.

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