Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BANGKOK, May 25 (Reuters) - The United States has declined to sell its F-35 stealth fighter jets to Thailand over issues with training and technical requirements, the Southeast Asian country's air force said on Thursday.

Thailand, which was designated a Major Non-NATO Ally by the United States in 2003, had last year set aside a 13.8 billion baht ($407.68 million) budget for new jets to replace its aging, mostly U.S.-made F-5 and F-16 fighters.

It identified up to eight Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) F-35A jets as its target.

MANILA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos on Thursday pushed for resumption of negotiations for a Philippine-European Union (EU) free trade agreement (FTA), saying his country is ready to comply with "vital international obligations" as determined by the European bloc.

SEOUL, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday denounced the establishment of a trilateral information-sharing mechanism among the United States, Japan and South Korea on the margins of the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Japan's Hiroshima.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean and U.S. militaries conducted large live-fire drills near the border with North Korea on Thursday, despite the North’s warning that it won’t tolerate what it calls an invasion rehearsal on its doorstep.

The drills, the first of five rounds of live-fire exercises through mid-June, mark 70 years since the establishment of the military alliance between Seoul and Washington. North Korea typically reacts to such major South Korean-U.S. exercises with missile and other weapons tests.

BEIJING, May 24. /TASS/: Russia and China will stand together to repel the collective West’s attempts to maintain its global dominance, and will push back hard against such dangerous ambitions, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Wednesday.

HANOI, May 24 (NNN-VNA) – Vietnam is ranked among 15 countries, with the largest number of male smokers, mainly due to easy access to cigarettes, and the prevalence of e-cigarettes.

Current smoking among Vietnamese men has declined to 42.3 percent from 45.3 percent in 2015. But the male smoking rate remained below the target of 39 percent, set out in the National Strategy on Tobacco Control, said Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the Health Ministry’s Department of Medical Service Administration.

TOKYO, May 24 (Xinhua) -- A Japanese court on Wednesday rejected a call by local residents to halt the restart of a nuclear reactor in the northeast prefecture of Miyagi on grounds they believed emergency evacuation plans were flawed.

The Sendai District Court ruled that the plaintiffs' claims to halt the planned restart of the Onagawa nuclear plant's No.2 reactor in February 2024 were not relevant as a serious accident is unlikely.

BEIJING, May 23 (APP): In a milestone move to bolster trade ties between China and Pakistan, two new air cargo routes have been inaugurated recently between the two countries, according to a statement released by Nanning Customs District of China.

It is learned that the new air routes will operate between Nanning, capital of China’s southwest autonomous region of Guangxi, and the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore, China Economic Net (CEN) reported on Tuesday.

VIENTIANE, May 23. /TASS/: The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has described the perpetrators of the attack on the Belgorod Region as "scumbags" who "should be exterminated like rats."

"As for these scumbags - there is no other way to call them - one can characterize them in different ways. The only question is what is to be done about them? You just have to exterminate them like the rats they are and not even take them prisoner," Medvedev said.

BEIJING, May 23. /TASS/: China has expressed the hope that the United States, as the world’s largest economy, will not attempt to shift its financial risks onto the international community, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said at a news briefing on Tuesday.