Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Monday 14th December

In this Bulletin…

- Warning over Beijing’s rewriting of Taiwan’s history;
- Nepal close to landmark human rights trial; and
- Diplomatic row between Thailand and Cambodia set to reignite.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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According to a Health Bureau official from the Chinese army  the number of cluster outbreaks of H1N1 swine flu has been increasing in the People’s Liberation Army.

Fifty one cluster outbreaks, some involving hundreds of people, were recorded in a report published by the Chinese regime’s Ministry of National Defense. This was confirmed by several Chinese military hospitals late last week.

A doctor from the Guangzhou Military General Hospital told The Epoch Times the hospital’s fever clinic treats 40 to 60 patients per day. A quarter of these patients are military personnel.

The Epoch Times found similar situations at other hospitals in Jinan and Chengdu. None of the doctors the newspaper contacted said they knew what the death toll was.

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A government watchdog in Taiwan has said that Taipei must not allow Beijing to create its own version of Taiwan’s history.

Huang Huang-hsiung urged the government to carefully deal with Chinese efforts to develop systematic research on Taiwan’s contemporary history. He said Taiwan has done too little to interpret its own history.

Huang, an expert on Taiwanese history, warned that China’s interpretation of historical events and developments related to Taiwan, such as the Sino-Japanese war and the conflict between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, could become the mainstream interpretation in the future.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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A major in the Nepalese army has been arrested for the murder of a 15-year-old girl during the Maoist insurgency.

Military police detained the major as he arrived at Kathmandu airport after being expelled from the African state of Chad by the UN peacekeepers he had been serving with.

More than 13,000 people died during Nepal’s civil war. So far no one has been prosecuted for abuses of human rights.

If the military decides to release the major into civilian custody, he will be the first high-level officer to be tried in a civilian court for human rights violations.

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At least 31 prisoners have been freed from a jail in the southern Philippines by a group of suspected Islamic militants.

The region’s vice governor said about 30 gunmen had used sledgehammers to break through the jail’s concrete perimeter wall before using bolt-cutters to cut through padlocks on cell doors.

Two people, including a prison guard, are believed to have been killed during a gunfight as the prisoners escaped.

A military commander said those that escaped included suspected members of a Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and suspected militants from the Abu Sayyaf group.

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The diplomatic row between Thailand and Cambodia over Thaksin Shinawatra is likely to reignite after the former Thai premier arrived in Cambodia Sunday.

Thaksin’s visit to Cambodia last month to take up a government economic advisory role caused a diplomatic row when Cambodian premier Hun Sen refused to extradite the tycoon to Thailand to serve a two-year jail term for corruption.

Thaksin was ousted from power by a coup in 2006.

He was escorted from a small private jet at Phnom Penh International Airport into the capital by a convoy of cars under tight security.

A spokesman for the Thai government said Bangkok would submit a new extradition request for Thaksin.

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The crew of a Georgia registered cargo plane arrested in Thailand face charges of transporting weapons of war.

The five men, one from Belarus and four from Kazakhstan, were detained Friday when the plane flying from North Korea made a stop in Bangkok to refuel.

The arrests followed cooperation with international intelligence agencies who had been tracking the aircraft over the past week.

Reports say authorities uncovered 35 tons of weapons onboard the aircraft.

North Korea faces widespread criticism over allegations of violating United Nations sanctions by selling weapons to nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

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