BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay state visits to Italy, Monaco and France from March 21 to 26, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang announced Monday.
Xi was invited by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Head of State of the Principality of Monaco Albert II and French President Emmanuel Macron, Lu said.
18 Mar 2019; AFP: China on Monday defended its controversial security crackdown in the fractious far west region of Xinjiang, saying nearly 13,000 "terrorists" have been arrested there since 2014.
Beijing has come under international criticism over its policies in the region, where as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in internment camps, according to human rights groups.
BAGHDAD, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Sunday that his country won't return to war policies as the friend to all regional countries and an advocate of peace.
Abdul Mahdi made the comments during a meeting with Qatari Minister of Commerce and Industry Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari and his accompanying delegation in the capital Baghdad, according to a statement by Abdul Mahdi's media office.
BANGKOK, March 17 (Xinhua) -- An average of 75 percent voter turnout was reported in Sunday's early voting for the general election in Thailand, a senior official of the Election Commission said.
Of a total of 2.63 million Thais who had registered as early voters, over 75 percent reportedly cast their ballots on Sunday, confirmed Election Commission Deputy Secretary General Nat Laosisavakul.
Early voters cast their ballots without any violent disturbance reported, said National Police Commissioner General Pol. Gen. Chakthip Chaijinda.
BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Beijing plans to complete an afforestation project of about 16,667 hectares by the end of this year, according to the Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau.
The project includes tree planting in a forest park in the Tongzhou District, where a number of key municipal organs have moved their offices to, and areas near the Beijing Daxing International Airport, which is scheduled to be put into operation before Sept. 30.
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah officially launched the International Kite Festival on Sunday with some 200 kiting enthusiasts expected to participate in the event.
The Sultan made his way to the Taman Mahkota Jubli Emas, a riverfront public park in the capital, where he inaugurated the event before trying his hand at flying one kite. He also toured the exhibits and mingled with the crowd.
17 Mar 2019; DW: Flash floods and mudslides in Indonesia's Papua province have killed at least 58 people and injured more than 70 others, local officials said Sunday. Thousands of people have been left homeless.
The flooding was due to torrential rain, which hit the provincial capital of Jayapura beginning Saturday.
Nine villages flooded
XI'AN, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Xi'an, a historical city in Shaanxi Province, will place traffic restrictions on the use of vehicle on weekdays.
The popular tourist city said the restriction would be imposed on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. starting March 18. Vehicles are restricted in one out of five weekdays based upon the last numbers of their license plates in certain areas in the city, where the number of motor vehicles hit 3 million as of May 2018.
Beijing, Mar 15; PTI/GANASHAKTI: China's population above 60 years has touched 420 million and that of children over six years to 100 million, putting heavy pressure on nursing services and day care centres, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday.
After implementing the decades-old 'one-child policy', the world's most populous country China is facing demographic crisis with rapidly ageing population. It permitted to have the second child in 2016.
14 Mar 2019; DW: The human rights situation in China has "never been better," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters in Beijing on Thursday, a day after the US issued a report criticizing human rights violations in the Asian country.
"We hope the US will remove the colored lenses and discard the Cold War mentality," Lu said, adding that he hoped Washington would "stop interfering in China's internal affairs with human rights as a pretext."
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