Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The U.S. special envoy for North Korea said Monday that Washington and Seoul agreed on the need for a strong response to North Korea’s recent spate of missile tests, though they remain open to dialogue with the country.

Sung Kim flew to South Korea on Monday for talks two days after North Korea conducted a new type of missile test in its 13th round of weapons firing this year. Experts say North Korea wants to advance its weapons arsenal and wrest concessions such as sanctions relief from its rivals.

BEIJING (AP) — Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition center. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower.

Beibei and her husband were ordered into the massive National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai last Tuesday after spending 10 days isolated at home following a positive test. Their 2-year-old daughter, who was negative, went to her grandfather, while her nanny also went into quarantine.

BEIJING, April 17 (APP): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will take China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) forward with new vigor, vitality and in a rejuvenated manner ensuring multifaceted development of the flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said on Sunday.

April 17 (Reuters) - Relatives of hundreds of prisoners gathered outside Myanmar's Insein Prison on Sunday after the military government announced the release of 1,600 prisoners in an amnesty to mark the Southeast Asian nation's new year.

The number of prisoners released in the annual amnesty was a fraction of last year's 23,000. It was unclear whether it would include jailed members of the civilian government overthrown in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup.

A local reporter on the scene told Reuters that no political protesters had been released so far from Insein.

BANGKOK, April 17 (Reuters) - Ramadan bombings in Thailand's Muslim-majority deep south will not derail peace talks with separatist rebels, the government said on Sunday after a sidelined insurgent group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Two explosions on Friday, which killed a civilian and injured three policemen, were carried out by "G5", a militant group of the Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO), its president, Kasturi Mahkota, told Reuters. 

SEOUL, April 17 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed the test firing of a new type of tactical guided weapon aimed at boosting the country's nuclear capabilities, the North's KCNA state news agency reported on Sunday.

The report comes amid signs North Korea could soon resume nuclear testing according to South Korean and U.S. officials and after Kim broke a self-imposed moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) testing with a launch last month.

SEOUL, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched two projectiles into eastern waters on Saturday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Sunday.

The JCS said in a statement that it detected two projectiles that were fired from the Hamheung area towards eastern waters at about 6:00 p.m. local time Saturday (0900 GMT).

The projectiles flew about 110 km at a maximum altitude of some 25 km and a top speed of Mach 4.

BEIJING (AP) — China will launch three more astronauts to its newest space station in June after the latest crew returned this weekend following a six-month stay in orbit, an official said Sunday.

The crew of the Shenzhou 14 capsule will spend six months on the Tiangong to add two modules to the station, Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, told a news conference.

SHANGHAI, April 16 (Reuters) - Shanghai reported a record number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases on Saturday and other areas across China tightened controls as the country kept up its "dynamic clearance" approach that aims to stamp out the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone, a central Chinese manufacturing area that includes Apple Inc supplier Foxconn, announced a 14-day lockdown on Friday "to be adjusted according to the epidemic situation".

TOKYO, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Japan's population logged the steepest fall on record, dropping by 644,000 to just over 125.5 million in 2021, government statistics showed Friday.

The large drop reflects a plunge in the number of foreign residents due to strict border controls over the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly aging society, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.