Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A fire broke out on a ferry in the southern Philippines and raged overnight for eight hours, killing at least 31 of the approximately 250 passengers and crew, officials said Thursday.

Many of the more than 200 people who survived the blaze jumped off the MV Lady Mary Joy 3 and were rescued from the dark sea by the coast guard, navy, a nearby ferry and local fishermen, said Gov. Jim Hataman of the southern island province of Basilan. Rescuers were still searching Thursday for at least seven missing people, he said.

YANGON, Mar 29 (NNN-MNA) – One man was killed and 19 others were injured, in a mine blast in western Myanmar’s Sagaing region today, the Information Team of Myanmar’s State Administration Council reported.

The mine explosion occurred at around 9:30 a.m. local time, near the bus terminal of Shwebo town in Sagaing region, the report said.

The injured were 11 males, including two children and eight females, it said. The victims were those who were going past the place on foot, in cars or by motorcycles, when the mine exploded, it said.

TASHKENT, Mar 29 (NNN-UzA) – Four family members have died from burn injuries, after a gas explosion in the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan, local authorities said yesterday.

The explosion occurred due to improper use of heating furnace, on Mar 17, inflicting burn injuries to an old couple and their two grandchildren, in the Kattakurgan district of Samarkand, the district prosecutor office said.

Despite intensive care in hospital, all four patients died in the past two days.

An investigation is being carried out, said the office.

JAKARTA, Mar 29 (NNN-ANTARA) – Indonesia’s narcotics agency, BNN, thwarted the smuggling of 319 kg crystal methamphetamine in the Indian Ocean, south of Java Island.

When the Indonesian patrol boats approached a ship with foreigners on board, “they tried to run away and we gave them a warning shot,” said agency’s Deputy of Eradication, I Wayan Sugiri, yesterday.

The anti-drug force took the ship to Cilegon Port, and found 319 kg crystal methamphetamine under its fuel tank. Investigation is still underway.

TAOYUAN, Taiwan/BEIJING, March 29 (Reuters) - External pressure will not stop Taiwan engaging with the world, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday as she left for the United States, hitting a defiant note after China threatened retaliation if she met U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

China, which claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly warned U.S. officials not to meet Tsai, viewing it as support for the island's desire to be seen as a separate country.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday as anxiety about the global financial system began to fade following three high-profile bank failures.

Shanghai followed Wall Street lower. Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Oil prices gained.

Fears that the global banking system might be cracking under the strain of rapid interest rate hikes temporarily pushed aside unease about slowing economic growth. Some calm has returned after regulators announced measures to shore up the system.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s economy slowed sharply in the first quarter of this year, with growth coming in at a much weaker than expected 3.3%, as its exporters were hit by rising costs and weaker demand, the General Statistics Office reported Wednesday.

The slowdown in the January-March quarter from 5.9% year-on-year growth in the last quarter of 2022 was nearly as severe as that during the beginning of the pandemic and the second lowest for the first quarter in 12 years, it said.

BEIJING (AP) — China has threatened “resolute countermeasures” over a planned meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Speaker of the United States House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during an upcoming visit in Los Angeles by the head of the self-governing island democracy.

NANJING, China (AP) — Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou began a 12-day tour of China with a symbolism-laden visit to the mausoleum where a founding figure revered in both China and Taiwan is entombed.

Ma visited the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, the capital when Ma’s Nationalist Party (Kuomingtang) ruled China in the early part of the 20th century. The party claimed to be the legitimate ruler of China for decades and is seen as more sympathetic to integration or unification with the mainland than the ruling Democratic People’s Party.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his increasing range of weapons.

North Korean photos of the meeting also showed what appeared to be a small new tactical warhead that was possibly designed to fit on a variety of delivery systems developed in recent years to overwhelm South Korean defenses.