Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — The installation of new leaders and the need to shore up a flagging economy will dominate the annual session of China’s rubber-stamp parliament that kicks off Sunday.

The nearly 3,000 delegates attending the meeting of the largely powerless National People’s Congress will hear reports on the work of government that lay out the ruling Communist Party’s priorities.

Don’t expect open debates or criticism. All documents, decisions and appointments are expected to receive unanimous support.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities on Friday were investigating the cause of a huge blaze that broke out overnight at a construction site in a popular shopping district and forced 170 people in nearby buildings to evacuate.

No deaths or injuries have been reported after the fire erupted at the Mariners’ Club redevelopment project in the densely populated Tsim Sha Tsui district at about 11 p.m. Thursday. Multiple floors of the structure — including scaffolding — were on fire, and burning debris floated in the air.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A court in Cambodia on Friday found Kem Sokha, leader of the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, guilty of treason and sentenced him to 27 years imprisonment to be served under house arrest.

Judge Koy Sao of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court said Kem Sokha, backed by foreign powers, had used human rights and politics as a guise to organize people to stage a “color revolution” aimed at toppling the legal government. The maximum sentence on the charge is 30 years.

2 Mar 2023; MEMO: Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, on Thursday said that a "new world order is taking shape" as he addressed the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Contact Group meeting in the capital, Baku, Anadolu News Agency reports.

HANOI, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Vo Van Thuong, a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), was elected as Vietnam's new president on Thursday, Vietnam News Agency reported.

The country's top legislature convened a special meeting and elected Thuong as the new president with an approval rate of 98.38 percent, according to Vietnam News Agency.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The U.S. has approved more arms sales to Taiwan, including $619 million worth of munitions for F-16 fighter jets, in a decision likely to be yet another point of friction between the U.S. and China, which claims the island as its own territory.

The State Department said in a statement Wednesday night it had approved sales of missiles to be used with the F-16s as well as equipment to support the missiles. That includes AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles, as well as air-to-air missiles and launchers.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s beleaguered pro-democracy forces face another day of reckoning Friday, as the country’s most prominent opposition politician not in exile is scheduled to hear the verdict in his trial for treason.

Kem Sokha was head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party when he was arrested in September 2017 based on an old video that showed him speaking at a seminar about receiving advice from U.S. pro-democracy groups. Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government said it was proof of collusion with a foreign power to illegally take power.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to speak up and hold Myanmar’s military leaders accountable for blatant human rights violations, but said the country should remain in the regional bloc.

Anwar, who took office in November, has become one of the most vocal critics in ASEAN of Myanmar’s military, which seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to strengthen state control over agriculture and take a spate of other steps to increase grain production, state media reported Thursday. But experts say it won’t effectively address a worsening food shortage.

Kim’s measures unveiled during a recent four-day meeting were largely a repeat of his past policies. Prospects for quickly resolving its food insecurity are dim, as North Korea restricts the operation of markets and devotes much of its scarce resources to its nuclear program.

BEIJING, Mar 1 (APP): A team of young Pakistani agricultural scientists at the National Research Center of Intercropping (NRCI), the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) are researching strip intercropping technologies to help their country shrink the import bill of food commodities, especially soybean.