Asia-Cast

Asia Cast for Friday 14th April

In this Bulletin …

- US and CCP begin human rights dialogue behind closed doors;
- Thai red-shirt leader shot dead; and
- How will Jessica Watson cope on land?

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 Obama administration and Chinese authorities will sit down for the first time for its human rights dialogue. Many human rights groups are calling on the United States to press the Chinese regime on its human rights abuses.

Human Rights Watch says the situation in China is deterioration. The NGO asked the US government to raise pressing issues.

Zhang Erping, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Centre says that the Chinese regime seek a private dialogue on their human rights issues, because they are afraid of the public exposure of what they have been doing to their citizens, especially the Falun Gong practitioner in China.

For more on this story watch NTDTV.

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The competition for power in China between former top leader Jiang Zemin and current leader Hu Jintao is now decisively being won by Hu.

A scholar who has been working years to expose Jiang’s wrongdoings says a key indicator in Jiang’s falling status is his failure to attend the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Expo.

Chinese scholar Lu Jiaping says it was vitally important to Jiang to attend the opening ceremony and as he didn’t it would appear he would not be able to attend any other important occasion in the future.

For more on this story read The Epoch Times.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast
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A key protest leader of the red-shirts has been shot whilst being interviewed by journalists.

It is unknown whether Thailand’s military or government was behind the shooting. However the government made it clear that they would shoot at what they call armed terrorists. There has been no claim of responsibility for the shooting.

Guards say Major General Khattiya Sawasdipol is in a critical condition.

The shooting of Khattiya increased violence on the streets with more gunfire after the shooting. However it’s not clear whether the shooting was from Red Shirt retaliation.

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Three suspected terrorists were captured in central Java in a raid early Thursday.

A national police spokesman said the raid was linked to an operation earlier in the week where Indonesian police killed five suspected terrorists and captured a sixth in a pair of stings in and around Indonesia.

A group accused of having ties to the al Qaeda Aceh was targeted in the earlier raids. It is a militant Islamic organization that has operated a training camp in the majority-Muslim Indonesian province of Aceh.

Over the past two weeks a total of 27 suspected terrorists have been arrested.

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You’re listening to Asia Cast on the SOH Radio Network
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The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says a serious disease is affecting opium poppies in Afghanistan.

He says that this year’s opium production could be reduced by a quarter compared with last year.

He said the fungus has affected about half of the countries poppy crop. Ninety-two percent of the world’s opium is produced by Afghanistan’s.

Opium prices have now gone up 50 per cent in the region.

Farmers in Afghanistan are unsure to what is damaging the crop.

Some believe Nato troops are responsible for the outbreak, but it has been denied by the head of drugs and crime from the UN office that this is true.

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Jessica Watson, the youngest teen to sail solo around the world will arrive in Sydney harbour tomorrow. Her grandfather says he is worried how she will cope on land after being at sea for so long.

Billy Watson, Jessica’s grandfather says he was never concerned about her safety while she was at sea.

He says they are happy for her to be home but worried how she will be after a few days on dry land. He says it will be a huge change for her.

When she arrives in Sydney Harbour tomorrow tens of thousands are expected to be there to welcome her.

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“Asia Cast … Keeping you across the top headlines from Asia and the world.”