Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

YANGON, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's central bank will issue commemorative gold coins to mark the 75th anniversary of Independence Day that falls on Jan. 4, 2023, the state-run Myanmar News Agency reported on Thursday.

The two gold coins weigh one tical (16.329 gm) and 0.5 tical (8.164 gm) respectively, the report said.

The one-tical coin is 26 mm in diameter and 2 mm in thickness, while the half-tical coin is 22 mm in diameter and 1.5 mm in thickness, it said.

BEIJING, Dec 21 (APP): China will provide maximum convenience for cross-border personnel exchanges as needed to maintain the stability of global industry supply chain, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Mao Ning said on Wednesday.

“Since COVID began nearly three years ago by taking a coordinated response approach and engaging in‚ win-win cooperation, China has been one of the first countries to achieve economic reopening, and has actively pursued high-level opening-up, she said in her routine briefing.

PHNOM PENH, Dec 21 (NNN-AKP) – The World Bank has approved a 274-million-U.S. dollar credit to Cambodia, to help support boost the country’s economic recovery and long-term resilience, said its press release today.

The financing for the Cambodia Growth and Resilience Development Policy Operation, will support reforms that will streamline the business registration processes, promote competition, and expand access to finance for small and medium enterprises.

TOKYO, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Japanese lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Wednesday resigned following allegations of underreporting political funds, marking the latest in a string of such scandals that have hammered public support for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Informed sources said that following suspicions being raised, Kentaro Sonoura, a fifth-term lower house member was questioned by prosecutors of his own volition about underreporting around 40 million yen (302,940 U.S. dollars) raised through fundraising parties.

TASHKENT, Dec 20 (NNN-XINHUA) – Uzbekistan sent its first container cargo train to Europe, via a new railway route called Middle Corridor, said a Uzbek railway company, yesterday.

The cargo train, loaded with copper concentrate and “consisted of 91 standard 20-foot containers, on 46 railway platforms” left the country on Dec 16, for the Bulgarian Burgas region, said the Uzbekistan Railway company.

BEIJING/SINGAPORE, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Cities across China scrambled to install hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday as authorities reported five more deaths and international concern grew about Beijing's surprise decision to let the virus run free.

China this month began dismantling its stringent "zero-COVID" regime of lockdowns and testing after protests against curbs that had kept the virus at bay for three years but at a big cost to society and the world's second-largest economy.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea threatened Tuesday to take “bold and decisive military steps” against Japan as it slammed Tokyo’s adoption of a national security strategy as an attempt to turn the country into an aggressive military power.

The North’s statement came four days after Japan announced a security strategy that reflects its determination to possess “counterstrike” capability and double its military spending to gain a more offensive footing against threats from China and North Korea.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Wang Yu, hailed by the U.S. as an International Woman of Courage, has already been arrested, imprisoned and harassed by the Chinese Communist Party for her work as a human rights lawyer representing activists, Uyghur scholars and Falun Gong practitioners. This year, her movements within her home country also have been restricted by a color-coded app on her phone that’s supposed to protect people from COVID-19.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States flew nuclear-capable bombers and advanced stealth jets near the Korean Peninsula for joint drills with South Korean warplane on Tuesday, as the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un derided doubts about her country’s military and threatened a full-range intercontinental ballistic missile test.

The deployment of the U.S. B-52 bombers and the F-22 stealth fighter jets was part of an agreement to protect South Korea with all available means, including nuclear, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.

BEIJING (AP) — The death toll in the latest COVID-19 surge in China’s capital Beijing has risen incrementally, as feverish clinic patients and an increase in the funeral business point to a widening outbreak after an easing of strict virus containment regulations.