Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

PHNOM PENH, March 17 (Reuters) - A Cambodian court sentenced 20 former politicians and activists to up to 10 years in prison on Thursday for sedition, a lawyer and a human rights group said, part of a broad crackdown on the opposition that has drawn international condemnation.

Sam Rainsy, the self-exiled founder of the disbanded opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), has already been convicted of multiple offences and was among those found guilty on Thursday over remarks the authorities says were tantamount to plotting to overthrow the government.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock prices surged for a second day Thursday after the Federal Reserve announced its first interest rate hike since 2008 and China promised support for its real estate and internet industries.

Hong Kong’s benchmark jumped more than 6% and Tokyo gained more than 3%. Shanghai, Seoul and Sydney also advanced.

Oil prices gained nearly $2 per barrel but stayed below $100.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea reached another daily record in COVID-19 deaths on Thursday as health officials reported more than 621,000 new infections, underscoring a massive omicron surge that has been worse than feared and threatens to buckle an over-stretched hospital system.

TOKYO (AP) — Residents in Fukushima and Miyagi were cleaning their homes after a sleepless night following a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck off the northern Japanese coasts, smashing furniture, knocking out power and killing four people.

The region is part of an area devastated by a deadly 9.0 quake and tsunami 11 years ago that caused nuclear reactor meltdowns, spewing massive radiation that still makes some parts uninhabitable.

BEIJING, Mar 16 (APP): The adoption of the resolution by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to proclaim March 15 as International Day to Combat Islamophobia was a major victory for Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts, Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor at Southwest University of Political Science and law said on Wednesday.

BEIJING, March 16 (APP): Pakistan is importing silk worth 67 billion rupees. If we produce more silk in our country, it will provide employment to 600,000 people, most of whom will be of rural women, said Muhammad Farooq Bhatti, Deputy Director, Sericulture Punjab, Forest Department, Lahore.

But lack of Mulberry trees has been restricting Pakistan to fully tap its potential.
“In the 1990s, the area of mulberry trees shrank, leading to a decline of the sericulture industry, now we are trying to bring it back,” he told China Economic Net (CEN).

BEIJING, March 16. /TASS/: The Chinese authorities are demanding that Washington make sure that the activities of US military biolabs are fully transparent, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"We once again insist that <...> the US should ensure full transparency of the activities related to military biological technologies," he said in response to a TASS question as to how the Chinese Foreign Ministry viewed Washington’s attempts to dodge responsibility amid the revelation of US military biological activities in Ukraine.

MANILA, Mar 16 (NNN-PNA) – The COVID-19 pandemic pushed 4.7 million people in Southeast Asia into extreme poverty in 2021, as 9.3 million jobs disappeared, compared with a baseline no-COVID scenario, said an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report, released today.

According to the Manila-based bank, the region is beginning to recover from the two-year pandemic, forecast to pick up to 5.1 percent this year, as almost 60 percent of its population become fully vaccinated, enabling many economies to reopen.

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), March 16 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia will participate in the deliberations by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in accordance with the Chicago Convention following the legal proceedings initiated by Australia and the Netherlands in ICAO over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Malaysia’s Transport Ministry (MOT) in a statement said the government of Malaysia reiterated its commitment to a judicial process that is conducted transparently under international laws against the parties responsible for the MH17 tragedy in 2014.

TOKYO, March 16 (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 jolted Japan's northeast coast on Wednesday, shaking buildings as far away as Tokyo where it left hundreds of thousands without power, and reviving memories of a devastating quake 11 years earlier.

The tremor hit off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, some 275 kilometres (170 miles) northeast of Tokyo and at a depth of 60 kilometres, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.