Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

DUSHANBE, June 20 (Reuters) - The United States may let Tajikistan hold on to Afghan military aircraft donated by the U.S. that sought shelter in the Central Asian country following the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul last August, a U.S. military commander said.

U.S.-trained Afghan pilots flew dozens of military planes and helicopters to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as they fled the Islamist Taliban who took over the country as foreign forces withdrew.

The Taliban have demanded that the two countries return the aircraft.

BEIJING, June 20 (Reuters) - North Korea abruptly stopped importing COVID-19 prevention and control products from China in May, trade data released by Beijing showed, after the country bought face masks and ventilators from its neighbour in previous months.

Daily new cases of fever in North Korea, as reported by its state news agency, KCNA, have been declining since the reclusive country first acknowledged in mid-May that it was fighting an COVID-19 outbreak. But it has yet to reveal how many of those cases tested positive for the coronavirus. 

SEOUL, June 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating stayed at 48.0 percent last week, unchanged compared to the previous week, a weekly poll showed Monday.

The negative assessment on Yoon's conduct of state affairs gained 1.2 percentage points to 45.4 percent, according to local pollster Realmeter.

Support for the ruling conservative People Power Party dipped 0.5 percentage points over the week to 46.8 percent last week.

The main liberal opposition Democratic Party's approval rating rose 0.2 percentage points to 39.4 percent.

TOKYO (AP) — Asian markets were mostly lower Monday in cautious trading, while the price of bitcoin remained near $20,000.

Shares fell in most Asian markets but rose in Hong Kong and India as worries over inflation and risks of a global recession from central bank efforts to bring it under control appeared to outweigh Wall Street’s mostly positive close on Friday. U.S. futures were higher and oil prices also gained.

SEOUL, June 19 (Reuters) - North Korea has dispatched medical crews and epidemiological investigators to a province battling the outbreak of an intestinal disease, state media reported on Sunday.

At least 800 families suffering from what North Korea has only called an "acute enteric epidemic" have received aid in South Hwanghae Province so far.

Enteric refers to the gastrointestinal tract and South Korean officials say it may be cholera or typhoid.

BEIJING, June 19 (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party has issued rules to further rein in the business activities of the families of senior government officials, in the latest move to fight corruption, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

Officials must report business activities of their spouses and children and those who fail to do so or seek to skirt the rules will be "dealt with seriously in accordance with regulations and laws", Xinhua cited the provisions issued by the Communist Party's Central Committee.

DAVAO CITY, the Philippines, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Sara Duterte-Carpio was sworn into office as the 15th vice president of the Philippines on Sunday in her hometown in Davao City in the southern Philippines.

Wearing an emerald green chiffon Filipiniana gown, Duterte-Carpio took her oath of office as her mother, Elizabeth, and her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, standing next to her, watched.

June 17 (Reuters) - The wife of pro-democracy figure Kyaw Min Yu, sentenced to be executed on the orders of Myanmar's ruling generals, says that if her husband dies he will take with him the beliefs he has carried throughout a life spent fighting dictatorship.

Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy, and former lawmaker and hip-hop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw are set to be the first people since 1988 to be executed judicially in Myanmar.

WUHAN, June 18 (Xinhua) -- The Changjiang Water Resources Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources has launched a level-IV emergency response for flood control starting Saturday noon to cope with rain-triggered flooding in China's longest river, the Yangtze.

Since 8 a.m. Friday, torrential rains have been hitting parts of Poyang Lake and Ganjiang River, triggering warning water levels at some stations in the Yangtze River basin.

SEOUL, June 17 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other senior officials prepared aid to send to 800 families suffering from an unidentified intestinal epidemic, state media reported on Friday, as the country also battles its first COVID-19 outbreak.

North Korea revealed this week it was facing an "acute enteric epidemic" on top of a weeks-long outbreak of COVID. It did not elaborate what the disease was, but enteric refers to the gastrointestinal tract.