MORE ASIAN NEWS

"CORRUPT OFFICIALS" PUNISHED IN COMPUTER GAME

[Agence France-Presse, August 2, 2007]

An online game in which players can torture and kill corrupt officials that Chinese authorities set up to teach people about the perils of graft is a roaring success, state media said today. “Incorruptible Fighter,” developed by the Government of east China's Zhejiang province, was launched just over a week ago and has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, the Southern Metropolitan Daily reported. “I feel a great sense of achievement when I punish lots of evil officials,” one gamer surnamed Sun was quoted as saying in the China Daily.

A notice posted on the website today said it had crashed because of overwhelming demand. “The game is currently under hardware and software updating as the online players have exceeded the limit of the server and the program,” the notice said, promising it would soon be up and running again. The game, which lets players get ahead by killing officials by means of “weapons, magic or torture,” is based on well-known incidents taken from Chinese history.

But the parallels in modern China of people struggling against seemingly insurmountable corruption are clear. To advance to a new level, the player must enter an “Anti-Corruption College” to be lectured in more detail about ancient cases, the Southeast Business newspaper said. Along the way, Internet vigilantes are rewarded for the capture, torture and killing of not just corrupt officials, but also their sons and daughters. Once the player has punished enough corrupt officials, graduating through successive layers of vice, he or she enters into a graft-free paradise. “We want game players to have fun but also to learn about fighting corruption, folklore and history,” said Qiu Yi, a local official in Ningbo, one of Zhejiang's most prosperous cities.

Some experts have asked, however, if the game is targeted at the right people. “Government officials should be the ones getting anti-corruption education, not local youngsters,” Peking University professor Wang Xiongjun told the China Daily.

President Hu Jintao has identified corruption within the Communist Party as one the greatest threats to its legitimacy as rulers of the country, and the Government regularly authorises the real-life killing of people for graft. The former head of China's food and drug watchdog, Zheng Xiaoyu, was executed last month for corruption, with his killing hailed by the state-run press as a warning to other corrupt party members.

RATS ON THE MENU TO COUNTER PLAGUE IN CENTRAL CHINA

[Reuters, July 16, 2007]

Live rats are being trucked from central China, suffering a plague of a reported two billion rodents displaced by a flooded lake, to the south of the of country to end up in restaurant dishes, Chinese media has reported. "Recently there have been a lot of rats ... Guangzhou people are rich and like to eat exotic things, so business is very good,'' the China News Service quoted a vendor as saying.

Some vendors had asked people from a village in Hunan province, near Dongting Lake, to sell them live rats, the Beijing News said today. "The buyers offered 6 yuan (9c) for a kilo, but as to where they will sell the rats, they would not say,'' the newspaper quoted a local resident as saying, adding that villagers had to catch the rats live. "If we want to do that, there is no problem. We could catch 150 kilos of rats in one night … but we will not do this against our conscience,'' the villager was quoted as saying.

Some Guangdong restaurants were promoting "rat banquets,” charging 136 yuan ($20.70) for one kg of rat meat, the newspaper said. Local governments in Hunan have been grappling with the rats, which had already destroyed 1.6 million hectares of crops and could spread disease, according to media reports. A lack of snakes, also a popular dish in the south, and owls, a traditional Chinese medicine, was held partly responsible.

Chinese media reported last week that some internet users from Guangdong had offered rat recipes as a way to deal with the problem. Scientists have also blamed China's massive Three Gorges Dam project and climate change for the Hunan rodents' flight to dry land.

INDIAN ACTOR JAILED FOR ACQUIRING ILLEGAL WEAPONS

[Reuters, Mumbai, August 1, 2007]

An Indian court jailed the Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt for six years for acquiring illegal weapons from gangsters involved in India's worst bombing outrage that killed 257 people in 1993. Dutt, 48, was cleared of conspiracy charges in the serial blasts in India's financial capital, Mumbai, but was found guilty of unauthorised possession of an automatic rifle and a pistol.

"It was an eminently dangerous act," Judge Pramod Kode said. "With the punishment of a minimum of five years and maximum of 10 years it can in no way be a minor offence or a less grave nature." Dutt's trial has transfixed India and fans of Bollywood, the world's largest film industry in terms of ticket sales. Dutt has millions of dollars riding on him in films already in production or planned.

The actor is the most high-profile among 100 people, mostly Muslims, found guilty in the bombing trial, one of the world's longest-running court cases. The 1993 Mumbai attacks were ordered by India's most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, a Muslim, to avenge the razing of a 16th-century mosque by Hindu zealots in 1992 and subsequent Hindu-Muslim riots in India.

Ibrahim and his senior associates have not faced trial because they fled the country soon after the blasts, police say. Ibrahim is believed to be in hiding in Pakistan, but the Government in Islamabad has denied this. Dutt's lawyers had urged that the actor, who found fame playing gangsters and anti-heroes, be set free for his good behaviour during his bail. However, the court rejected the defence's argument.

The son of the legendary film couple Sunil Dutt and Nargis, the heavy-set actor has been on bail since 1995 after more than a year in prison during initial investigations into the blasts. He is expected to appeal.

MASSIVE MIGRATION TO DHAKA, BANGLADESH

[World Bank, June 28, 2007]

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is the fastest growing mega-city in the world. Annually, the city draws an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 mostly poor migrants who provide critical employment for the city’s industries and services. Urgent measures are required to address the vital needs of the rapidly growing urban poor.

The demand for workers and services in the growing industries of Dhaka has prompted large scale migration from rural areas for better opportunities. The migrants contribute to the city’s economic development by providing necessary labor to manufacturing and services. This has, however, also put pressure on the city’s infrastructure, public services and habitable land.

This study reflects a comprehensive analysis of poverty in Dhaka focusing on understanding the characteristics and dynamics of poverty, issues of employment, land and housing, basic services, and crime and violence. This study aims to provide the basis for an urban poverty reduction strategy for the Government of Bangladesh, local authorities, donors, and NGOs.

FACTS

* Poverty affects a third of Dhaka's residents mostly living in slums.

* Adequate access to shelter, basic services, and a living wage are major challenges for the poor.

* Crime and violence have become a major problem in Dhaka, particularly affecting the poor.

* The institutional deficiencies in Dhaka impede effective city management and poverty concerns.

Read the full report HERE

LIFE AFTER LIFE IN NORTH KOREAN GULAGS

[SMH, June 22, 2007]

As a boy, Shin Dong-hyok believed everyone in the world inhabited a North Korean prison. He was born in Camp 14 in South Pyongan province and expected to die behind its razor wire. Mr Shin, now 24, was innocent of any crime. The world's last Stalinist state not only jails anyone suspected of opposing its "Dear Leader," Kim Jong-il, but also locks up the next three generations of their family. Because an unknown ancestor had been a suspected dissident, Mr Shin was born a prisoner to inmate parents. But at the age of 22, Mr Shin managed to escape and make his way to South Korea. His experience provides a rare glimpse of life inside the world's most isolated, repressive state, where a chain of labour camps comparable to the Soviet Gulags holds perhaps 200,000 people.

When he was 13 his mother and brother acted without his knowledge and made a failed attempt to escape. "After that my life began to fall apart," Mr Shin said. "On the day my family tried to escape I was brought into the underground torture chamber."

Guards bound the hands and feet of the 13-year-old and roasted him over a fire. The burns still scar his back. Then he was forced to watch as his mother and brother were executed in public on April 6, 1996. "Afterwards, me and my father could not mingle with other prisoners, and we had to work even harder than the rest."

Yet for the first time Mr Shin encountered an inmate who had not spent his entire life inside Camp 14. "During the time I spent with him, I learned so much about the outside world." Mr Shin and his companion resolved to escape. In January 2005 they were assigned to work in a clothes factory in a lightly guarded area of the camp. They scaled the barbed wire fence. But neither realised that thousands of volts ran through the barrier. Mr Shin's companion was electrocuted, while he crawled through a gap in the barbed wire torn by his dead friend, suffering terrible leg burns.

He eventually reached the South Korean consulate in Shanghai, where he was given asylum. Christian Solidarity Worldwide arranged for him to visit London and meet political leaders on Tuesday. The human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, QC, said a "mass of evidence" suggested that the regime was guilty of crimes against humanity.

He called for an international commission of inquiry to establish "whether there is a case for the prosecution of certain North Korean officials." Christian Solidarity Worldwide estimates as many as a million people may have died in North Korea's prison camps.

JAPANESE MAN OLDEST TO CLIMB MOUNT EVEREST

[Reuters, May 29, 2007]

A 71-year-old Japanese man has become the world's oldest person to climb Mount Everest, topping a feat set by a compatriot last year. Former school teacher Katsusuke Yanagisawa reached the summit last Tuesday, a mountain tour group who organised his climb said today. It said he climbed from the Tibetan side of the Himalayan peak. "I feel at ease. I was able to break the record thanks to friends who supported me," Mr Yanagisawa was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency.

His age would make him the oldest person to have climbed the 8850m (29,035 feet) peak, an official at the Japan Mountaineering Association said. The list of climbers who have conquered Everest include a blind person, a man with an artificial leg and the youngest, a 16-year-old boy.

The previous record for the oldest climber was a 70-year-old man from eastern Japan who reached the summit in May last year. Japanese are frequent climbers of Mount Everest. Nearly 2000 people have climbed the peak and at least 202 have died trying to do so.

JAPAN AND IWC AT LOGGERHEADS OVER COMMERCIAL WHALING

[Agence France-Presse, May 29, 2007]

Japan’s compromise offer to break an impasse over its controversial plan to lift a 20-year moratorium of commercial whale hunting has been flatly rejected by the other key powers. The failure to break the deadlock threw the polarised 75-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) into disarray as it opened annual talks in the Alaskan capital of Anchorage on the fate of the majestic creatures.

Japan said it would consider shelving plans to hunt humpback whales in the next Antarctic season under a highly criticized research program if its request for whale hunting by coastal communities in four Japanese towns was allowed. "We might come up with a package that will satisfy all member countries but we like to see acceptance of our coastal whaling proposal,” said Joji Morishita, Japanese alternative commissioner to the IWC.

Japan wants to kill 50 humpbacks from stocks that migrate along the Australian and New Zealand coasts into the tropical Pacific, drawing flak from the two countries as well as environmental groups concerned over the fate of the iconic mammals. Tokyo's compromise plan was immediately dismissed by a so-called "like-minded'' coalition of anti-whaling nations Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Argentina, Germany and the US. They said the fate of the whales was not up for bargaining.

Japan's humpback hunt request was a "very, very provocative act," Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said, warning that diplomatic ties between the two allies could be affected if Tokyo proceeded with the move. An Australian petition with 30,000 signatures protesting the Japanese plan was presented to the IWC meeting. The fate of the endangered mammals was not "a matter of horse trading and negotiations," Britain's Biodiversity Minister Barry Gardiner said, pointing out that Japan's humpback hunting plan ran counter to principles of science upheld by the ICW.

Japan last year won a non-binding resolution in favour of commercial whaling, but fell short of the numbers needed to overturn the moratorium. Anti-whaling nations are said to have a slim majority this year. The commission will decide this week whether to allow Japan's plan for traditional coastal communities to catch whales under the same rules allowing the aboriginal peoples to hunt the giant creatures.

Environmental groups deem the Japanese proposal as a form of commercial whaling but Tokyo says it is based on the "same language of subsistence whaling'' undertaken by indigenous peoples. Tokyo is already under fire for allegedly using research as a thinly disguised and subsidised exercise in commercial whaling.

Mr Morishita warned of serious repercussions if Tokyo's request was rejected amid speculation that political pressure at home could force the Asian nation out of the IWC. "Unless we see clear, tangible progress at this meeting, my Government will have a difficult time to continue at IWC ... we will be asked to reconsider our approach,'' he said.

Some groups felt that failure by key powers to engage Japan in the IWC could boomerang. The meeting will also consider a US request to renew bowhead whale hunting quotas for its native Alaskan communities as well as aboriginal subsistence hunts by Russia, Greenland and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Although the IWC imposed a ban on commercial whaling in 1986 it has a policy of allowing certain indigenous peoples to hunt otherwise protected whales to satisfy longstanding cultural and subsistence needs.

The US and the other four countries seeking to renew aboriginal quotas had wanted to forge a joint package in a bid to gain swift IWC approval, some groups said. But Greenland spoiled the party as the Danish territory reportedly wanted to add a new species, humpback whales, to its quota and also expand the number of bowheads for its aboriginal hunters, they said.

VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS CONTINUES IN INDIA

[Mission Network News, May 15, 2007]

Christians in India are taking a more proactive approach to their safety as attacks against them are occurring at an alarming rate. Their plight has been highlighted in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from the All India Christian Council (AICC).

In the letter, Dr Joseph D'souza, president of AICC, complains of large mobs brutalizing Christian pastors "in various parts of the country" over the last two weeks, reports the Religious Intelligence. A Tamil pastor was punched and another attacked in Maharashtra, while another pastor was attacked in front of his daughter in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Dr D'souza said that the Christian community was "traumatized" by these events.

However, he said that politicians have responded only with "a smug silence from all governments. There is little doubt now that Hindutva extremists are running a series of planned attacks against the Christian community for over a year now," said Dr D'souza, referring to the rape of women in Madhya Pradesh in May 2006, apparently the sole reason being their Christian faith.

He said that Hindutva leaders had encouraged the violence, while no voice of authority had spoken out, "much less to caution them of punishment under the law of the land." In addition, said Dr D'souza, not a day goes by without reports of anti-Christian violence in Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra, Maharashtra and Himachal. "The most heinous of all of these reports is sexual violence against Christian women, particularly in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh," D’souza said.

“It is not enough for the central Government to say that the issues involved were matters for each state. In all this violence, the community has never retaliated or taken recourse to any form of violence. There never has been a communal riot involving Christians anywhere in the country."

"The fault indeed squarely lies with the Central Government, which was voted to power by Dalits, minorities, and the majority poor who hoped that the new UPA Government would at least insist upon the rule of the law and protect the minorities and Dalits. The lack of protection is all the more painful as the vast majority of Christian workers and communities in north India are Dalits, tribals, or from the most backward castes. These are the communities which are bearing the brunt of the attacks," he warned.

A repeal of the anti-conversion law in Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh were important first steps to restoring human rights to Christian groups, he urged. He also called for state governments to give protection to Christian places of worship and to prosecute the perpetrators of hate crimes.

Meanwhile, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is made up of Dalits, took control of one of India's most populous states. The BSP won 206 seats of the 403-seat assembly in Uttar Pradesh, surpassing opinion poll forecasts.

The Indian government has banned discrimination against the Dalits, formerly known as "untouchables," but prejudice still continues. It's unclear what this will mean for Christians in this state. Pray that God will use this government to allow more religious freedom.