Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Thursday 31st December

In this Bulletin…

- Chinese authorities to monitor karaoke music parlours;
- Japan advised to reduce its budget deficit; and
- Australian bushfires blamed on powerlines.

But first we have our Shen Yun quote of the day

[audio]

For more information, please visit www.shenyunperformingarts.org.

Our SOH focus on China is next

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Chinese authorities in the city of Chongqing are implementing a surveillance system in more than 150 local karaoke parlours, reports NTDTV.

The move is part of a campaign to monitor what music the public is singing along to at thousands of karaoke places across the country.

If a song deemed obscene or politically sensitive is played, the system will directly alert local authorities. The song will then be deleted.

A Henan deputy inspector said politically sensitive songs would be those relating to issues like Xinjiang or Taiwan independence, or those with lyrics that poke fun at political figures.

Watch this story at NTDTV.

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A factory in China’s Guangdong Province has shut down after more than 40 children were found to have lead poisoning.

According to a statement from local authorities in Qingyuan municipality, they have started health checks on all children living near the Aokelai Power Company factory in Yinyuan district.

The city’s environmental bureau ordered the factory to close on Saturday after tests showed excessive amounts of lead in its discharge water.

In recent months, there have been similar reports of lead poisoning in Yunnan, Fujian, and Shaanxi provinces affecting more than 3,000 children.

Watch this story at NTDTV.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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Japan was advised by Moody’s Investors Service to reduce its budget, according to a Reuters report.

The report cited an interview with Moody’s Japan Sovereign analyst Tom Byrne.

He said reducing the budget deficit in the medium term would safeguard the country’s credit ratings and prevent an increase in yields on government bonds.

He also said investors might demand a risk premium to buy Japan’s bonds should they reach a turning point and become concerned about the nation’s capacity to meet its obligations.

Byrne told Reuters, reducing the budget gap would be difficult without a rebound in economic growth.

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Pakistan’s Taliban is claiming they carried out the suicide bombing which killed 43 people in the commercial capital, Karachi, on Monday.

A spokesman for the terrorist group threatened to carry out more such attacks in the coming days and also target government installations.

Meanwhile, fire tenders in Karachi were still struggling to control the fires that erupted following Monday’s attack, officials said.

Arsonists set on fire nearly 2,000 shops and warehouses between Light House and Boulton Market in central Karachi.

Traders said hundreds of shops were gutted and that they had lost merchandise worth more than $350 million US dollars.

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

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Australia’s Tourism Forecasting Committee is predicting that the number of Indian students studying in Australia is projected to fall by about 20 percent next year.

They said Indian students are choosing to stay away due to a series of attacks in mid 2009 they deemed racist.

While Indian students saw the attacks as racist, police in Australia blamed the attacks on opportunistic criminals.

The drop in the number of Indian students is expected to cost almost $70 million AUS.

Australia’s higher education industry is its third biggest export earner after coal and iron ore.

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Western Australia has declared a natural disaster of bushfires which roared across the state, northeast of the capital, Perth.

The most damaging outbreak of property was around Toodyay, where 2,900 hectares were scorched and 37 homes lost.

Officials believe downed power lines might have sparked the Toodyay blaze.

More than 10,000 hectares of bush had gone up in flames around Badgingarra, according to fire officials. They said no homes had been lost in Badgingarra, but damage was estimated to be in the millions of dollars.

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