China

HONG KONG (AP) — Leaders of recent protests in Hong Kong say they plan more demonstrations for Wednesday, hoping to draw the attention of world leaders attending the Group of 20 summit.

The leaders of the Civil Human Rights Front said they hope the world leaders in Osaka, Japan, this week will hear the protesters’ concerns over the weakening of the city’s legal autonomy from mainland China.

They spoke Monday near the city government headquarters, where a few protesters remained though the offices in the building had reopened.

22 June 2019; DW: Chinese police rescued 1,100 Southeast Asian women in joint raids last year to crack down on human trafficking, authorities said on Friday.

Some 17 children were also saved in the operations, which were coordinated with police from Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Beijing, Jun 21; PTI/GANASHAKTI: China has successfully tested an unmanned helicopter which conducted its first night operations under challenging conditions, the official media reported Friday, opening the possibility for the military to consider deploying them for a range of operations.

The AV500 unmanned helicopter took off and flew toward sea in a headwind of 15 meters per second at midnight on June 14 in South China's Hainan Province.

HONG KONG (AP) — Protesters in Hong Kong ended their overnight siege of police headquarters peacefully Saturday, disappointed that their demands for the territory’s leader to formally withdraw a contentious extradition bill and police to apologize for heavy handed tactics have gone unmet.

By daybreak, police had cleared the streets of barriers set up by protesters to snarl traffic in the Asian financial center, and only a few groups in the mostly youthful crowd remained. Many slept outside the legislature.

BEIJING, June 21 (APP): A total of 27 projects would be initiated in six sectors in the less-developed parts of the country under the second phase of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Chairman, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said.

With a focus on socioeconomic development, six areas have been identified for people-centric investment: health, education, agriculture, water and irrigation, poverty alleviation, and vocational training, he told chinadaily.com.cn.

HONG KONG (AP) — Several hundred protesters, mainly students, gathered Friday outside Hong Kong government offices, with some blocking traffic on a major thoroughfare and others occupying the lobby of a government tax office.

The new protest actions came after a deadline passed for the government to meet demands over highly unpopular extradition bills that many see as eroding the territory’s judicial independence.

Police called for the demonstrators to disperse but did not immediately take firm action to remove them.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping offered encouragement for North Korea’s new focus on economic development in a speech in Pyongyang, turning to a topic Beijing has long pressed with its communist neighbor, amid wider concerns over the North’s nuclear weapons program.

In an address at a banquet Thursday night, Xi noted that the nation under leader Kim Jong Un had “initiated a new strategic line of economic development and improving people’s livelihoods, raising socialist construction in the country to a new high tide,” according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

20 June 2019; AFP: Former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei pleaded guilty at a trial in China on Thursday to accepting $2.1 million in bribes -- a remarkable fall from grace for the former vice minister of public security.

The Tianjin No.1 Intermediate Court said Meng "showed repentance" during the hearing, which was the culmination of a dramatic case that shook the international police organisation and put a spotlight on China's opaque judicial system.

HONG KONG/June, 20./TASS/: Hong Kong students and youth organizations have vowed to take to the city streets again if Carrie Lam, the head of the local administration, does not promise to withdraw the controversial extradition bill instead of just suspending it, the Standard reported on Thursday.

The activists issued an ultimatum, which requires Carrie Lam to make an official statement today before 17:00 local time (12:00 Moscow time). Otherwise, the students promised to convene a new mass demonstration in front of the government building starting Friday.

BEIJING (AP) — Former Interpol President Meng Hongwei confessed to accepting more than $2 million in bribes and expressed regret for his crime, a Chinese court said Thursday.

The No. 1 Intermediate Court in the northeastern port city of Tianjin said Meng read a statement containing the confession at a hearing.