Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — China’s government announced plans for a consumer-led revival of the struggling economy as its legislature opened a session Sunday that will tighten President Xi Jinping’s control over business and society.

Premier Li Keqiang, the top economic official, set this year’s growth target at “around 5%” following the end of anti-virus controls that kept millions of people at home and triggered protests. Last year’s growth in the world’s second-largest economy fell to 3%, the second-weakest level since at least the 1970s.

BEIJING (AP) — BGI Group, one of the world’s biggest genetics analysis companies, said Sunday it never would be involved in human rights abuses after the U.S. government said there was a danger some of its units might contribute to Chinese surveillance.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian rescuers and firefighters on Saturday searched for more than a dozen missing under the rubble of charred houses and buildings, after a large fire spread from a fuel storage depot in the capital and killed at least 16 people.

The Plumpang fuel storage station, operated by state-run oil and gas company Pertamina, is near a densely populated area in the Tanah Merah neighborhood in North Jakarta. It supplies 25% of Indonesia’s fuel needs.

BEIJING, March 3. /TASS/: The US is the world's largest source of nuclear threat and it must rethink its security policy, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a news briefing on Friday.

"The United States is the world's largest source of nuclear threat. It should carefully rethink its nuclear policy, diligently fulfill its special and primary duty to disarm, thus reducing the role of nuclear weapons in the national security policy, and take meaningful practical steps to ease nuclear risks," the diplomat said.

BAKU (Azerbaijan), March 3 (NNN-KBC) — Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has applauded the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member countries under the leadership of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev for spearheading a rigorous campaign for access of vaccines during the tough COVID-19 pandemic period.

BAKU, March 3 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) will create a high-level panel for global recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, announced the head of state of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.    

The initiative was communicated at the inauguration of a summit meeting of the NAM contact group for counteracting the health crisis created by the disease.

BEIJING, March 3 (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) founder Pony Ma and others from China's crackdown-hit internet sector will be absent from this year's parliamentary sessions, as Beijing boosts representation from the tech hardware sector, delegate lists show.

Nearly 3,000 members of the National People's Congress (NPC) will gather in Beijing on Sunday for its first meeting since Xi Jinping secured a norm-breaking third leadership term at a congress of the ruling Communist Party last October.

VIENTIANE, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith on Thursday sent a congratulatory message to Vo Van Thuong on his election as president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In a message, Lao President Thongloun expressed his heartfelt congratulations on Vo Van Thuong's election as President of Vietnam on Thursday.

He said that Thuong's appointment as President of Vietnam demonstrates the trust of the Party, government and people of Vietnam in him.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean and U.S. militaries said Friday they’ll go ahead with large-scale annual military drills later this month despite North Korea’s threats to take “unprecedently” strong action against such training.

It’s likely that North Korea will respond to the upcoming South Korean-U.S. exercises with provocative missile tests and belligerent rhetoric because it views them as an invasion rehearsal.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian former Prime Minister Najib Razak was acquitted Friday in the latest trial in response to the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund.

Najib, who is serving a 12-year prison term after losing the final appeal in his first of several corruption trials linked to the 1MDB scandal, was found not guilty on the charge of tampering with an audit report to cover up wrongdoings.