Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BAKU, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan will evacuate embassy staff and family members from Iran on Sunday, the foreign ministry said, two days after a gunman shot dead a security guard and wounded two other people in an attack Baku branded an "act of terrorism".

Police in Tehran have said they had arrested a suspect and Iranian authorities condemned Friday's incident, but said the gunman appeared to have had a personal, not a political, motive.

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) concluded its extraordinary congress on Sunday, voicing its full support for the candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen to run for a new five-year term in the July general election.

The extraordinary congress "fully supports Samdech Techo Hun Sen as the Prime Minister candidate for the seventh legislature of the National Assembly and supports His Excellency Hun Manet as the future Prime Minister candidate," said a party's resolution.

29 Jan 2023; AA: The composition of the UN Security Council should be expanded for it to respond to today's changes to achieve a "fairer" world, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Saturday.

"Issues related to the UN have been discussed worldwide for many years. Opinions are being exchanged about reforms in the UN. I stated in one of my speeches that there is a great need for these reforms.

29 Jan 2023; AA: Japan logged 252 new coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, exceeding the monthly figure of 10,000 for the first time, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The new fatalities have brought the death toll for January to 10,124, Kyodo News agency reported, citing a tally based on prefectural reports.

Previously, over 7,600 people died in December, the highest monthly total at that time.

The nation has seen a rapid surge in coronavirus deaths since November.

YANGON, Jan 28 (NNN-MNA) – Five people were killed when a passenger bus collided with a probox car last night, in southern Myanmar, according to a traffic policeman.

The accident occurred in Ye township of Mon State, at around 6:40 p.m. local time, yesterday.

“All the five people onboard the probox car died on the spot. The passenger bus was only damaged,” he said, adding that, no one onboard the passenger bus were wounded or killed.

The probox car was badly damaged, he added.

YANGON, Jan 28 (NNN-MNA) – Myanmar kicked off a three-day travel fair in its commercial city of Yangon yesterday, for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19.

“We are re-organising the travel fair this month, after we couldn’t hold any event like this in 2020, 2021 and 2022,” Naung Naung Han, president of the Union of Myanmar Travel Association, said.

The travel association had also tried to organise a travel exhibition in Sept last year, but it was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons, he added.

BAKU, Jan 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Azerbaijan on Friday said it was evacuating staff from its embassy in Tehran, blaming Iran for a “terrorist” attack in which the head of security was killed and two guards wounded.

Tehran’s police chief said the man who carried out the attack was motivated by “personal” reasons.

“All responsibility for the attack lies with Iran,” Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Ayxan Hacizada told local media.

He said a recent anti-Azerbaijani campaign in Iranian media had “encouraged the attack.”

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — A Japanese whaling operator, after struggling for years to promote its products amid protests from conservationists, has found a new way to cultivate clientele and bolster sales: whale meat vending machines.

The Kujira (Whale) Store, an unmanned outlet that recently opened in the port town of Yokohama near Tokyo, houses three machines for whale sashimi, whale bacon, whale skin and whale steak, as well as canned whale meat. Prices range from 1,000 yen ($7.70) to 3,000 yen ($23).

BAKU, January 27. /TASS/: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has condemned Friday’s attack on the country’s embassy in the Iranian capital of Tehran as a "terrorist act."

"I fiercely condemn the terrorist attack perpetrated against our embassy in Tehran today," Aliyev wrote on Twitter.

"We demand that this terrorist act be swiftly investigated and the terrorists be punished. Terror against diplomatic missions is unacceptable," the Azerbaijani president added.

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), Jan 27 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia has condemned in the strongest terms the latest despicable act of desecrating the Holy Quran by an anti-Islam extremist and far right leader, Edwin Wagensveld, in The Hague, the Netherlands on Sunday (Jan 22). 

Malaysian Foreign Ministry (Wisma Putra) in a statement Friday said Malaysia is appalled that such an Islamophobic act has been repeated within the last few days despite global condemnation. 

“Such bigotry and criminal act committed against Islam must stop immediately,” the statement read.