Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Friday 1st January

In this Bulletin…

- Tibetan ‘living Buddha’ jailed by China;
- Bus crash kills 18 in Bangladesh; and
- Cambodia issues arrest warrant for Sam Rainsy.

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A Tibetan Buddhist lama was sentenced to more than eight years in jail by China, for illegal possession of ammunition and embezzlement.

Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche was charged with illegal possession of ammunition and embezzlement. His lawyer, Jiang Tianyong said he denies all charges.

On May 18 in 2008 he was arrested. Just a few days after more than 80 nuns in Ganzi held a demonstration against an official campaign to impose patriotic re-education on their convents; in which they were required to denounce Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Phurbu Tsering is a living Buddha from Ganzi, a part of southwest China’s Sichuan province dominated by ethnic Tibetans.

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In an editorial published on New Year’s Day, North Korea stated its commitment to lasting peace and a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

With the international community trying to coax Pyongyang back to six-party negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear program the editorial may be a hopeful sign.

North Korea has refused to return to the talks conducted by the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan. North Korea insisted that they wanted to talk directly with the US government.

In April, Pyongyang declared the talks finished in anger, over international criticism of its nuclear and missile tests last year.

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A bus crash has killed at least 18 people in the Faridpur district of south-west Bangladesh.

In heavy fog the bus skidded off the road before hitting a tree and landing in a ditch.

The local police chief said that 56 people were injured and taken to hospital. Some were in a serious condition.

Each year around 4,000 people die in road accidents in Bangladesh, with officials blaming poor roads and bad driving.

Police inspector Israfil Hawlader said the driver appeared to have lost his way on the foggy highway.

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In northwest Pakistan a missile strike killed two people. It is the latest in a string of suspected US drone attacks on the region, a Pakistani intelligence official said.

At 8:50 am local time a guided missile was fired at a car carrying militants in the village of Naurak, about 15 kilometres  east of Miran Shah in North Waziristan.

Three other people were injured in the attack. It was not immediately clear whether those killed and injured were militants.

The largely independent tribal region is near the rugged border with Afghanistan. The border area has been the scene of heavy fighting between Pakistani forces and the Taliban. The Islamic militia that also is battling US forces in Afghanistan.

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US President, Barack Obama sent a letter of support to the CIA after seven staff were killed by an Afghan bomber.

Mr Obama’s condolence message praised the work of those killed.

Among those killed included the head of the CIA’s base in Khost Province, near the border with Pakistan.

The Taliban said one of their members wearing an explosive vest and an army uniform had carried out the attack.

It has been the worst against US intelligence officials since the American embassy in Beirut was bombed in 1983.

A total of 90 CIA employees have been honoured for their deaths in the agency’s service since its inception in 1947, according to the Washington Post newspaper.

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An arrest warrant against opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been issued by the Cambodian government for failing to appear in court over a border dispute.

Mr Rainsy is believed to have encouraged villagers to uproot markers on the frontier with Vietnam in October 2009.

Mr Rainsy has claimed that Vietnam is encroaching on Cambodian territory, a highly sensitive issue.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been stripped of his immunity from prosecution in November by the Cambodian parliament.

In an email from France, Mr Rainsy told Reuters he would not appear in court because the case against him was politically motivated.

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