RFA in the News (August 2010)

2010-09-01

ASSOCIATED PRESS (CANADIAN PRESS, TIBETAN REVIEW, PHAYUL, NEW TANG DYNASTY TELEVISION)

Aug. 30 “Chinese media: Police accidentally killed Tibetan”

Chinese police fatally shot a Tibetan protester during a demonstration last week, state media reported Monday, saying the man was hit by stray warning rounds. The incident is apparently the same one reported by U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia over the weekend when the broadcaster said at least four Tibetans were killed and 30 others wounded when police opened fire on demonstrators protesting the expansion of a gold mine they blamed for causing environmental damage.

ASSOCIATED PRESS (AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, ASIA NEWS, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, BANGKOK POST, TIBETAN CULTURE & NEWS, DAILY CALLER )

Aug. 28 “Report: 4 Tibetans fatally shot in mine dispute”
At least four Tibetans were fatally shot and 30 others wounded when Chinese police opened fire on demonstrators protesting the expansion of a gold mine they blamed for causing environmental damage, a media report said Saturday. The shooting took place Aug. 17 in southwestern China's Sichuan province not far from the border with Tibet, according to the report from U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia.

KBS

Aug. 27 “UN to provide food aid to flood victims”

Radio Free Asia says that the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) will provide 60 tons of vitamin-fortified biscuits to 23-thousand flood victims in Sinuiju, North Korea.

The city bordering China has been damaged by the flooding of the Amnok (Yalu) River.

Citing a WFP official, the U.S. broadcaster said that 250 grams of biscuits will be given to each person per day for ten days and whether to extend the provision will be determined by survey results on the flood conducted by a joint U.N. team.

HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Aug. 23 “Make China account for its dismal human rights record”

The Obama Administration should make defense of universal liberties a central part of U.S. public and private diplomacy with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

… Starting in 1998, the State Department reports discuss each year how Chinese authorities “continued to jam” the Chinese, Uighur, and Tibetan-language broadcast services of news organizations such as the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

DEUTSCHE WELLE

Aug. 20 “China says police were target of bombing in far west”

A bomb attack that killed at least seven people in China's far western region of Xinjiang targeted local police, officials said on Friday.

… US-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia on Friday quoted a senior city police officer as saying on condition of anonymity that at least four police officers were killed in the attack, including three with non-Chinese names.

TIBETAN REVIEW

Aug. 18 “Protesting monks helped to escape arrest by Tibetan onlookers”

To monks staged a demonstration on the streets of Lithang Town in Karze Prefecture of Sichuan Province on Aug 12, carrying a Tibetan national flag and a picture of the Dalai Lama while shouting slogans in support of the exile Tibetan leader, reported Radio Free Asia online Aug 15. It said a large number of Tibetans who happened to be in town covered the two monks when police arrived, thwarting their attempts to identify or arrest them.

ASIA NEWS

Aug. 17 “China: Milk leads to premature breasts in babies”

China's Health Ministry has denied any link between a wave of cases of premature hormonal and sexual development in infant girls and a popular brand of milk powder, saying that a clinical probe revealed 'no evidence' to support the claims by parents.

… Wuhan resident Deng Xiaoyun told Radio Free Asia that even though her daughter’s “hormone levels have gone down a bit now;” she still wanted experts to explain why.

PUNCHLINE MAGAZINE Blog

Aug. 16 “Monday Comedy Links”

… Last week we told you about a popular Chinese comic Guo Degang and his assistant who beat the piss out of a television reporter. Degang supported his assistant in his actions. Now China is supporting banning Degang. [Radio Free Asia]

PHAYUL

Aug. 16 “Public cover helps protesting monks evade arrest in Lithang”

Police in Lithang County are on the hunt for two Tibetan monks who, despite their open protest at a busy market place, escaped arrest Thursday. Radio Free Asia reported the two monks made rounds of the town’s market place carrying a picture of the exile Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and the banned Tibetan national flag.

BOSTON GLOBE

Aug. 16 “EDITORIAL - North Korea: Winning isn't everything...”

There have been notorious taskmasters in the American sports world — think of the late Yankee owner George Steinbrenner or the old Green Bay Packers’ coach Vince Lombardi.

… The team was made to stand on stage for six hours in the Palace of Culture and submit to what Radio Free Asia called “harsh ideological criticism.’’

REUTERS (Also in ASSOCIATED PRESS, BBC, CNN, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, LOS ANGELES TIMES, BOSTON GLOBE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, DAILY TELEGRAPH, SIDNEY MORNING HERALD, KOREA TIMES, KOREA HERALD, DONG-A ILBO, CHOSUN ILBO, ASIA NEWS, ESPN, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, FOREIGN POLICY)

Aug. 11 “FIFA Opens Investigation into alleged N. Korea punishments”

FIFA have launched an investigation into allegations that the North Korean World Cup coach and players were reprimanded by the government after their early exit from this year's tournament in South Africa.

Last month, Radio Free Asia said that the Korean squad, apart from two foreign-based players, were subjected to "harsh ideological criticism" after they lost all three matches and conceded the most amount of goals by a team at the World Cup.

KOREA TIMES

Aug. 11 “NK launches mobile phone services in several cities”

The North Korean government has launched mobile phone services in several cities outside Pyongyang, giving ordinary citizens their first chance to own a cell phone, a report said Wednesday.

According to Radio Free Asia, cities near the border with South Korea have been excluded and high prices will likely preclude the vast majority of citizens from going mobile. The services opened Aug. 1, the report said.

EPOCH TIMES

Aug. 10 “Gao Zhisheng’s daughter speaks with Radio Free Asia”

As daughter to Chinese human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng, Geng Ge grew up among hardship and misery. Back in 2005 when attorney Gao first encountered persecution, Geng Ge was only a 12-year-old girl. Now she is a 17-year-old young lady. In a recent interview with Radio Free Asia, she talked about attorney Gao, expressing her yearning to be reunited with, and pride for her father.

TIBETAN REVIEW

Aug. 8 “Yushul quake relief critic’s trial date uncertain”

The legal fate of prominent Tibetan writer Tagyal, whose penname is Zhogdhung (morning conch), remains in a limbo with the authorities unsure when to put him on trial, four months after his detention, according to a Radio Free Asia online (RFA, Washington) report Aug 6.

Tagyal who worked for the Nationalities Publishing House in Xining, capital of Qinghai province, was arrested on Apr 23 for “instigating to split the motherland” after he signed an open letter written by Tibetan intellectuals, expressing condolences for the survivors of the 7.1-magnititude earthquake which devastated Yulshul county on Apr 14 and castigating the Chinese government’s handling of the relief efforts there.

HUFFINGTON POST

Aug. 6 “Rebecca Novick: The speech that portended the Tibetan uprising made public”

It could be argued that the Tibetan uprising of 2008 actually began several months earlier with what appeared to be an impromptu public address by a middle-aged Tibetan nomad. Until now, no one had seen footage of his defiant speech that was released this week for the first time by Tibet rights groups.

… According to Radio Free Asia, during the trial, the judge stated that by calling for the Dalai Lama's return, Adak had “committed the crime of subverting the People's Republic of China.”

CHOSUN ILBO (Also ASIA PULSE)

Aug. 4 “Hundreds of N.Koreans Killed in Floods”

Heavy rains since mid-July have inflicted heavy losses in North Korea, with 120 killed in Hungnam, South Hamgyong Province alone, Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday. Quoting a source in Chongjin in the province, the radio station said over 2,000 people along the Songchon River were completely isolated when localized torrential rain that fell in Hungnam for three hours on July 22 flooded the dikes.

JOONGANG ILBO (Also in KBS, CHOSUN ILBO)

Aug. 2 “Swiss vow to investigate secret North bank funds”

The Swiss government will investigate secret North Korean accounts in its banks if it gets evidence of such funds, Radio Free Asia reported on Saturday. The Swiss move is a response to a call by the United States for international cooperation on tougher sanctions against the North for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March and its refusal to come back to negotiations on the ending of its nuclear weapons program.

RFA cited Roland Vock, a senior official of the Sanctions Unit at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affair, as saying that Switzerland is complying with sanctions on Pyongyang applied under UN Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874.

USA TODAY (Also in ASSOCIATED PRESS, BLOOMBERG, AL JAZEERA, CHOSUN ILBO, KOREA HERALD, GUARDIAN, ASIAN NEWS INTERNATIONAL, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, TORONTO STAR, DAILY TELEGRAPH, IRISH TIMES, AOL NEWS, BILD, NEW YORK MAGAZINE, EPOCH TIMES)

Aug. 2 “North Korean soccer team feels wrath”

Next time American athletes take umbrage at harsh words from a coach they might want to count to 10 and just give thanks that they don't live in North Korea. Reports have surfaced that the World Cup team was subjected to public humiliation after its failure to advance beyond the opening round.

Radio Free Asia and South Korean media outlets have reported the entire squad was forced onto a stage at the People's Palace of Culture and subjected to criticism from Pak Myong-chol, the sports minister, as 400 government officials, students and journalists watched the six-hour ordeal.