Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Sunday 3rd January

In this Bulletin…

- Beijing reappoints politician at centre of health scandal;
- Burma to review democracy leader’s house arrest; and
- Afghan parliament rejects majority of parliamentary nominees.

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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The appointment of a disgraced politician to a new department has drawn criticism in China. The head of the national body responsible for quality controls and inspections was forced to resign over China’s toxic milk scandal.

State-run media has said that Li Changjiang has been reappointed to a top post in the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications.

News about Li’s reappointment has been hard to take for parents of the hundreds of thousands of children who were poisoned by melamine tainted milk. The mother of one of the victims told Radio Free Asia there wasn’t any justice.

Watch NTDTV for more details on this story.

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The introduction of a new law in China’s northwestern Xinjiang is drawing criticism from overseas. The legislation has been drawn up to deal with ethnic unrest.

The law on education for ethnic unity in Xinjiang goes into effect in February. It prohibits organizations and individuals from airing views deemed to disrupt national unity. But as yet there has been no indication of what exactly constitutes a disruption of national unity.

Beijing often uses vaguely defined laws to imprison dissidents. Critics said the new policy won’t resolve tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese.

NTDTV has more on this.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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The Burmese Supreme Court will be reviewing Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal against her house arrest.

Burma’s democracy leader is challenging a lower court decision upholding her sentence of 18 more months of house arrest. Burma extended her 14 year-long detention last year after she was convicted of briefly sheltering an American man who swam uninvited to her lakeside home.

Aung San Suu Kyi can not participate in next year’s elections if she is under house arrest. The vote will be Burma’s first elections in two decades.

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Tens of thousands of Filipinos evacuated amid fears of a volcanic eruption have been told they can head back home, for now.

Some 50,000 people around the Mayon Volcano were evacuated after the Philippine Institute of Vulcanology and Seismology said an eruption was imminent.

The volcano is on the main island of Luzon. The lowering of the alert level means that people evacuated from an eight-kilometre danger zone can return home.

However the institute has said that the volcano is still quite active. It warned that people should remain outside a six-kilometre permanent danger zone.

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

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The Afghan parliament has turned down most of the nominees for the president’s new cabinet.

Nominees for justice, health, energy, commerce, economy and women’s affairs were among others rejected.

The vote is one of the few occasions when parliamentarians have genuine power to hold the executive to account, analysts say.

Many nominees were criticised as having been picked for reasons other than their competency.

Western officials have repeatedly emphasised that tackling corruption is key to stabilising the country, following President Hamid Karzai’s controversial re-election last year.

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Iran has said it will start producing nuclear fuel if its counterproposal to a nuclear exchange plan drafted by the UN is not accepted. Tehran said the West had until the end of the month to decide.

The warning from the Iranian foreign minister shows Iran is getting tougher over its controversial nuclear program. There are fears in the West that the announcement shows Iran has nuclear ambitions. But Tehran insists the program is only for peaceful, electricity production purposes.

Some see the foreign minister’s warning as a message to the Iranian people in case the West imposes any sanctions against Tehran.

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