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Asia Beat : May 15 08
YANGON, Myanmar Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis are pouring out of Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta in search of food, water and medicine. Aid workers have stated that thousands will die if emergency supplies do not get through soon. Buddhist temples and schools on the edge of the storm’s trail of destruction have become makeshift refugee centres for women, children and the elderly, just some of the 1.5 million people left clinging to survival. An estimated 100,000 have died already, as the ruling junta still refuses to let foreign aid workers into Myanmar. BANGKOK, Thailand COTABATO CITY, Philippines
Thai police have seized nearly 21,000 fake passports and have arrested 12 people in what they describe as being their largest counterfeiting bust ever. Most of the 20,904 documents seized were fake passports that had not yet been completed, however, 2,300 were finished passport versions from France, Suriname, Norway, Belgium, Italy and Myanmar. The suspects arrested include seven people from Myanmar and one from Indonesia.
Malaysian peacekeepers are withdrawing from the Philippines’ troubled south, raising worries that decades of Muslim rebellion in the mainly Catholic nation may resume. Twenty-eight of 41 Malaysian peacekeepers were extracted by two army transport planes on the southern island of Mindanao last weekend, while only 60 members of an International Monitoring Team, including soldiers from Brunei, Libya and Japan, will remain on the ground until August.
SINGAPORE
A woman eager to show her pre-teen son the importance of charity, took a wad of Singapore-dollar notes out of her purse and handed them over to workers at a local Red Cross House. While the workers were thanking her, the woman, overcome with emotion for the victims of the Burma cyclone, gave more money, for a total donation of $74,000.
TOKYO, Japan
Chinese President Hu Jintao completed his trip to Japan – the first by a Chinese president in 10 years – with a tour of two ancient Buddhist temples and a leading electronics company. During his five-day visit, Hu held a formal summit with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, pledging to work together on everything from climate change to North Korea to territorial disputes. In their most concrete agreement, Hu offered to loan a pair of pandas to Japan following the recent death of 22-year-old giant panda Ling Ling at Tokyo’s largest zoo.
BEIJING, China
A strain of hand, foot and mouth disease has killed four more children in China, bringing the death toll in recent weeks to 34, state media said, while also praising a doctor who alerted authorities to the epidemic. An eight-month-old girl and a boy under two, who both died in southern China, were among the latest victims of an outbreak international experts have warned has yet to peak. In the current outbreak, the disease has been linked with enterovirus 71 (EV71), which can cause a severe form of the disease characterized by high fever, paralysis and meningitis.
HONG KONG
A Hong Kong jewelry tycoon has been jailed for more than three years for bribing travel agents to bring tourists to his company’s showrooms. Tse Sui-Luen, the 70-year-old founder of the TSL jewelry empire, was sentenced to three years and three months for offences including conspiracy to offer advantages to agents, false accounting and theft. The tycoon’s 38-year-old son, Tommy Tse, was imprisoned for five years for the same offences.
MANILA, Philippines
The world food crisis may do for The Philippines’ population explosion what years of external pressure has failed to do: advanced
birth control. One of the world’s largest rice importers, Manila has been hard-pressed to meet its import target this year of 2.7 million tonnes, as prices have soared due to bad weather, the rise of the biofuels industry, urbanization, and heavy global demand. For the first time, President Gloria Arroyo, long backed by the powerful Catholic Church, is now discussing the promotion of "birth spacing."
TAIPEI, TAIWAN
Incoming Interior Minister Liao Feng-Teh died Sunday from aheart attack while hiking in the Taipei region. Liao, 57, who had been handpicked by incoming President Ma Ying- Jeou, was reported to have suffered from altitude sickness during a recent sightseeing trip in China. Liao was a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party, which returned to power after losing out to the pro-independence
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