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Asia Beat: Jun 18 08
SEOUL, South Korea BANGKOK, Thailand
Striking truck drivers are threatening to block South Korea’s largest port to protest surging fuel prices, deepening the woes of the government already reeling from public outrage and violent protests over the resumption of U.S. beef imports amid fears of mad cow disease. The truckers, demanding fuel subsidies, temporarily shut down the port on the weekend causing $14 million in economic losses.
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej used his weekly television address this week to give tips on cooking with garlic, hoping to ward off protests by farmers of the pungent bulb. The colourful and controversial premier, using ingredients such as shrimp paste, chillies and mackerel, urged people to buy local rather than imported garlic, and rattled off his favourite garlic-infused dishes. Samak’s new government is facing the threat of protests from truck drivers, rice farmers, fishermen and now garlic growers, who want state assistance to battle soaring inflation and high fuel prices.
BEIJING,China
Flooding in southern China has killed at least 55 people and forced more than one million to flee their homes, the government says. Torrential downpours have swamped nine provinces and more rain is in the forecast. Among those provinces worst hit is Sichuan, still reeling from last month’s massive earthquake, which claimed 87,000 lives. China’s civil affairs ministry says nearly 1.3 million people have now fled their homes in the hardest hit regions as the bad weather continues. The flooding has submerged large areas of farm land and destroyed 6,600 homes in Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces.
KARACHI, Pakistan
Saying it has no case against him, Pakistan has released a leading al-Qaeda suspect jailed over an attempt to kill former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Qari Saifullah Akhtar was accused of involvement in a double-bomb attack on Bhutto in Karachi last October in which some 135 people died. Bhutto escaped that attack but was killed in Rawalpindi in December. Akhtar was freed last week without charge and has returned to his home village in Punjab, where he must report to a police station every 14 days.
KURHARA, Japan
Four people were killed on the weekend when a powerful earthquake struck in northern Japan. One hiker was killed by debris, a construction worker at a dam was struck by falling rock, a recreational fisherman was buried in a landslide and one man was killed when he ran from his home in fright only to be struck dead by a passing truck. Fourteen people remain missing.
BEIJING, China
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma has held successful talks with the president of the People’s Republic of China and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu Jintao, in Beijing. The ANC said in a statement Zuma is visiting China to strengthen party-to-party relations between the ANC and the CPC. China is boosting its relations with resource-rich Africa, while the ANC prez discussed troop training initiatives.
YANGON, Burma
Torrential rains caused a landslide that killed 12 miners on the weekend in Mogok, military-ruled Myanmar’s "Valley of Rubies" gem zone. Four members of one family were also swept away in flooding caused by the monsoon season downpour in the foothills of the Shan Plateau. Mogok, about 1,000 km north of Yangon, is the source of the former Burma’s famed "pigeon’s blood" rubies, said to be the world’s finest. Conditions in the mines around Mogok, which is off-limits to foreigners, are said to be horrendous, with workers toiling for a pittance at the bottom of make-shift pits hewn out of the hillside.
TOKYO, Japan
The man behind a recent stabbing frenzy in Tokyo had a harsh upbringing by an overbearing mother who once forced him to eat off the floor, his brother said in remarks published this week. Accusing his mother of psychological abuse, the younger brother of Tomohiro Kato, 25, said his brother could never meet their mother’s expectations and turned violent at age 15. Kato’s upbringing has come under scrutiny as experts try to find the cause of the nation’s worst crime in years.
DISPUR, Assam
The monsoon rains lashing much of Asia have also created tragedy in India, where the number of people killed in landslides and floods caused by the heavy rain in the north east has risen to 23, officials say. They say hundreds of homes have been destroyed in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam leaving thousands of people displaced. Officials say that at least 50,000 people in one district in Assam were taken by boat over the weekend from flooded areas to higher ground. The Assam state government is mobilizing the army to aid with rescue.
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