Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, July 30 (Reuters) - Prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin said on Saturday he deleted a tweet warning of military retaliation should U.S. fighter jets escort House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on any visit to Taiwan, after Twitter blocked his account.

Pelosi, number three in the U.S. line of presidential succession, after Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, signalled on Friday she was embarking on a trip to Asia.

YANGON, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar issued new health guidelines for incoming travelers via airport effective from Monday, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday.

Under the new guidelines, travelers are required to present proof of vaccination with an MOH-approved vaccine and a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test issued 48 hours before arrival.

Children aged under 12 traveling with fully vaccinated parents or guardians are exempted from the vaccination requirement.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Saturday reported no new fever cases for the first time since it abruptly admitted to its first domestic COVID-19 outbreak and placed its 26 million people under more draconian restrictions in May.

29 July 2022; MEMO: China's President Xi Jinping, on Friday, said Beijing will strengthen cooperation with Iran, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Iran within Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and other frameworks," Xi told his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, in a phone call, the Chinese daily, Global Times, reported.

BEIJING, July 29 (APP): Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for efforts to deepen cooperation along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

Wang made the remarks during a meeting with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent on the sidelines of the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), CGTN reported on Friday.

TASHKENT, July 29. /TASS/: African countries and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) states understand that any member of the international community can fall under Washington's sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Friday after the SCO Foreign Ministers Council meeting.

MANILA, July 29 (Reuters) - The Philippines has reported its first case of the monkeypox virus, detected in a citizen who returned from abroad earlier this month, a health ministry official said on Friday.

The 31-year-old had recovered but was isolating at home, while 10 people identified as close contacts including three from the patient's household had been ordered to quarantine, said Department of Health Undersecretary Beverly Ho.

The person had previously travelled to countries with documented monkeypox cases, said Ho, without elaborating.

BEIJING/NEW DELHI, July 29 (Reuters) - China said on Friday it hoped "relevant parties" would refrain from interfering with its legitimate maritime activities, after New Delhi voiced concern over a Chinese military ship's planned visit to a port in India's southern neighbour Sri Lanka.

India worries that the Chinese-built and leased port of Hambantota will be used by China as a military base in India's backyard. The $1.5 billion port is near the main shipping route from Asia to Europe.

TOKYO (AP) — European shares advanced Friday after a mixed session in Asia, where Chinese markets retreated after the country’s leaders acknowledged the slowing economy won’t hit its official 5.5% growth target this year.

Investors appear to have grown more convinced that the Federal Reserve may temper its aggressive interest rate hikes aimed at taming inflation after the Commerce Department reported the U.S. economy contracted at a 0.9% annual pace in the last quarter. That followed a 1.6% year-on-year drop in the first quarter.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong officials said Friday they would open an investigation into a concert accident in which a giant video screen fell down onto the stage and injured two dancers.

Video clips from the Cantopop group Mirror concert Thursday night show a massive LED screen suspended above the stage crashing down, directly landing on one dancer before toppling over onto another as audience members scream in horror.

The injured performers were both sent to the hospital, with one of the dancers reported to be in “serious condition.”