Daily Dose: 04/29/08
April 29, 2008
> AsianWeek Market Report
> Calif. case involving Laos plot will see long delay
> Philippines helps poor with cheap rice
> Vietnam warns speculators face punishment after hoarding sends rice prices rocketing
> Thai activist challenges royalist ritual at nation’s cinemas
> Vietnam to end adoption deal after damming US report
> Hong Kong Disneyland launches classic attraction in bid to boost
Compiled by Lisa Wong Macabasco
AsianWeek Market Report
BAY
Calif. case involving Laos plot will see long delay
SACRAMENTO — Federal prosecutors say the 11 defendants charged with plotting to overthrow the government of Laos may not face trial until 2010 because the case is so complex.
Attorneys were back in federal court in Sacramento on April 23 for the first time in nine months.
The next hearing is scheduled for December, and the prosecutor says a trial isn’t likely for at least another year after that.
Awaiting trial are a retired Army lieutenant colonel and 10 members of California’s Hmong community.
Former Army officer Harrison Jack is charged with assisting Hmong community leaders, including former Laotian General Vang Pao, in the plot against the communist government of Laos.
Defense attorneys are reviewing 37,000 pages of evidence and audio tapes of secretly recorded meetings between the alleged coup leaders and an undercover agent who posed as an arms dealer.
The agent says the defendants agreed to illegally buy weapons.
— Associated Press
GLOBAL
Philippines helps poor with cheap rice
MANILA, Philippines — The government said it would introduce access cards for Manila’s poorest residents to buy subsidized rice as food prices rise dramatically, officials said on April 28.
The rice cards are intended to benefit about a third of the poorest families in the capital, according to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s administration. The government said it will separately distribute cash cards to help families in the poorest 20 of the country’s 81 provinces with quick money transfers.
The measures came as Arroyo’s administration moved to cushion the impact of skyrocketing fuel and food prices. The Philippines has been paying record prices on international markets to make up for a 10 percent domestic shortfall of rice.
The criteria for Manilans to obtain the card is a monthly salary of $120 or less for a family of five. The card allows holders to buy subsidized rice from specialized stores for the poor, called in Tagalog “Our Store.” The limit is 31 pounds per week.
— Associated Press
Vietnam warns speculators face punishment after hoarding sends rice prices rocketing
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Vietnam’s prime minister has warned rice speculators they face severe punishment after rocketing prices led to panic buying over the weekend.
The remarks are a sign of the unease felt across Asia as governments struggle to keep the price of the staple food affordable after rice prices have soared this year.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung insisted supplies in Vietnam — the world’s second-largest rice exporter after Thailand — were “completely adequate” for domestic consumption, state media quoted him as saying late Sunday. He warned that any organizations and individuals speculating in the commodity would be “severely punished.”
But crowds of people flocked to rice markets Sunday in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest city, to stock up on the grain, which has more than doubled over the last two weeks.
The top quality rice at the market was selling for US$1.25 per kilogram, traders said.
— Associated Press
Thai activist challenges royalist ritual at nation’s cinemas
BANGKOK, Thailand _ In theaters across Thailand, movies are always preceded by an on-screen anthem honoring King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the audience springs to their feet.
But activist Chotisak Onsoong says requiring the practice violates his freedom of choice, and he is willing to risk a 15-year jail term to make his point.
Police said they are pressing ahead with an investigation of Chotisak on a complaint of lese majeste _ insulting the monarchy _ for his failure to stand for the Royal Anthem in an incident last September that prompted an angry confrontation with fellow moviegoers.
The case is apparently the first deliberate challenge to the strict lese majeste law in a country where the 80-year-old king is almost universally revered as a selfless and hardworking benefactor of the people.
Chotisak said it should be a matter of free choice whether he stands during the music, and that it has nothing to do with disrespecting the king.
— The Associated Press
Vietnam to end adoption deal after damming US report
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Vietnam announced on April 28 that it will stop accepting adoption applications from Americans following U.S. allegations that baby-selling and corruption were taking place under the current system.
The decision casts a cloud of uncertainty over pending adoptions in the country and will halt a surge in placements of Vietnamese children with U.S. citizens in recent years.
The announcement followed a report from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi that alleged pervasive corruption and baby-selling in Vietnam’s adoption system.
The U.S. Embassy report lists cases in which infants were sold or birth mothers were pressured to give up their babies. In some other cases it describes brokers going to villages in search for babies who could be possibly put up for adoption.
It also says some American adoption agencies have been paying orphanage directors for referrals, and some others have bribed orphanage officials by taking them on shopping sprees.
— Associated Press
Hong Kong Disneyland launches classic attraction in bid to boost
HONG KONG — Hong Kong Disneyland has opened its classic boat ride “It’s a Small World” in a bid to boost sluggish attendance at the theme park.
The new attraction launched on April 28 amid lower-than-expected visitor numbers two years after the theme park opened in September 2005.
The ride, which first appeared at the 1964 World Fair in New York, will feature 38 Disney characters and 241 moving and talking figures of children dressed in different national costumes. They sing a theme song in four new languages — Cantonese, Putonghua Korean and Tagalog.
Management has been under pressure to improve turnover at the US$3.5 billion park, which is majority owned by the Hong Kong government. Local legislators have criticized the park’s business success, with one suggesting that Hong Kong pull out of the joint venture with The Walt Disney Co.
— Associated Press
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