Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

COLOMBO, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Department of Meteorology on Saturday issued an advisory for severe lightning in parts of the country for the coming 24 hours.

The department said the lightning will be accompanied by strong winds and thundershowers, advising the public to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by lightning.

The department said that in the past few months several people had died from lightning strikes.

The department also said heavy showers above 100 millimeters are likely at some places in several provinces and districts.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators representing organized labor marched in South Korea’s capital on Saturday denouncing government attempts to force thousands of striking truckers back to work after they walked out in a dispute over the price of freight.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s former national security director was arrested Saturday over a suspected cover-up surrounding North Korea’s killing of a South Korean fisheries official near the rivals’ sea boundary in 2020.

Suh Hoon’s arrest early Saturday came as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative government investigates his liberal predecessor’s handling of that killing and another border incident the same year, cases that prompted criticism Seoul was desperately trying to appease the North to improve relations.

SHANGHAI (AP) — The mourners in Shanghai lit candles and placed flowers. Someone scrawled “Urumqi, 11.24, Rest in Peace” in red on cardboard — referring to the deadly apartment fire in China’s western city of Urumqi that sparked anger over perceptions the country’s strict COVID-19 measures played a role in the disaster.

Beijing, Dec 3 (PTI) Several Chinese cities like Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu and Shenzhen on Saturday scrapped the mandatory COVID-19 tests for public transport, as authorities softened their stance on the stringent Zero-COVID policy amid a spate of anti-government protests across the country.

Residents in Chengdu and Guangzhou no longer require to show Covid test results when entering most public places, the official media reported on Saturday.

TOKYO, December 2. /TASS/: A clear provision on the inadmissibility of preventive strikes on a potential enemy’s territory will be included in one of the three fundamental documents on national security to be adopted by the Japanese government by the end of the year, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, which got access to the text of the document, reported on Friday.

PHNOM PENH, Dec 2 (NNN-AKP) – Cambodia has produced 4.82 tonnes of dore bars, with 90 percent pure gold solution, since commercial mining started in June last year, Mines and Energy Minister, Suy Sem, said, on Wednesday.

During a meeting, Sem said, the country currently has four gold mining companies, namely Renaissance Minerals, Delcom Kampuchea, Xinshan Industrial (Cambodia), and Xing Yuan Kanng Yeak.

TOKYO, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Japan, Britain and Italy will announce a groundbreaking agreement as early as next week to jointly develop a new advanced jet fighter, two sources with knowledge of the plan told Reuters.

For Tokyo and London it represents the culmination of ever closer defence ties, which in turn give Britain a bigger security role in Asia and provide Japan with new security partners that can help it counter neighbouring China's growing military power.

JAKARTA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Indonesia's parliament is expected to pass a new criminal code this month that will penalise sex outside marriage with a punishment of up to one year in jail, officials have confirmed.

The legislative overhaul will also ban insulting the president or state institutions and expressing any views counter to Indonesia's state ideology. Cohabitation before marriage is also banned.

Decades in the making, the new criminal code is expected to be passed on Dec. 15, Indonesia's deputy justice minister, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, told Reuters.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim unveiled his cabinet on Friday, naming two deputy prime ministers in an effort to better represent both halves of the country.

In a televised speech, Anwar said he himself will assume the finance minister's portfolio, a post which he previously held from 1991 to 1998.