China

BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will on Sunday chair the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) open debate on "The Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question" and deliver remarks via video link, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announced here Sunday.

China, as the rotating presidency of the UNSC in May, has pushed the UNSC to hold two rounds of urgent consultations on the Palestine-Israel conflict and drafted a UNSC press statement, Hua said.

BEIJING (AP) — China has canceled attempts to climb Mount Everest from its side of the world’s highest peak because of fears of importing COVID-19 cases from neighboring Nepal, state media reported.

The closure was confirmed in a notice Friday from China’s General Administration of Sport, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The move reflects the abundance of caution China has taken in dealing with the pandemic. While China has mostly curbed domestic transmission of the coronavirus, Nepal is experiencing a surge with record numbers of new infections and deaths.

BEIJING (AP) — Back-to-back tornadoes killed at least 10 people in central and eastern China and left more than 300 others injured, officials and state media reported Saturday.

Six people died in the inland city of Wuhan and four others in the town of Shengze, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east in Jiangsu province, local government statements said.

BEIJING (AP) — China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in the latest step forward for its ambitious goals in space.

Plans call for a rover to stay in the lander for a few days of diagnostic tests before rolling down a ramp to explore an area of Mars known as Utopia Planitia. It will join an American rover that arrived at the red planet in February.

BEIJING, May 13 (APP): The Karot Hydropower Project worth US$1,780 million under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be completed in April 2022.

Up to 88 percent of the work on the Karot Hydropower Project has been completed. The hydro power project – the first of its kind under the CPEC – is being built on the River Jhelum, according to a report published by China Economic Net on Thursday.

(Reuters) --- Hong Kong's Security Bureau said on Friday it has frozen assets belonging to jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, in the first use of seizure powers granted to authorities under the national security law.

The assets included all the shares of Next Digital Limited (0282.HK) held by Lai, and the property in the local bank accounts of three companies owned by him, according to a government statement issued on behalf of the Security Bureau.

BEIJING (AP) — China says its Mars probe and accompanying rover are expected to land on the red planet sometime between Saturday and Wednesday Beijing time.

The China National Space Administration said in a brief notice that the Tianwen-1 probe has collected a large amount of scientific data since entering Mars orbit on Feb. 10 and the window for setting down on an icy area of the planet known as Utopia Planitia was determined by “current flying conditions.”

BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce on Thursday stressed that China and the United States should address each other's reasonable concerns through dialogue and consultation on the basis of mutual respect and equality.

Gao Feng, spokesperson for the ministry, made the remarks at a press conference when asked to comment on U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai's recent expression of expectations to meet Chinese trade officials in the near term.

The essence of economic and trade relations between China and the U.S. is mutual benefit, Gao said.

BEIJING (AP) — Muslim leaders from the Xinjiang region rejected Western allegations that China is suppressing religious freedom, speaking at a reception Thursday for foreign diplomats and media at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

BEIJING (AP) — Stock markets in London and Tokyo tumbled 2.5% on Thursday and U.S. futures were lower after a jump in American consumer prices fueled worries inflation might drag on an economic recovery.

Shanghai, Frankfurt and Hong Kong also declined for a second day, following Wall Street lower.

Overnight, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index recorded its biggest one-day drop in three months after U.S. prices, exceeding forecasts, rose in April at their fastest year-on-year pace in 13 years.