Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, Jan 15 (APP): More than 200 personnel related to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games are expected to arrive in Beijing this weekend, an official from the organizing committee said the city is well prepared for the arrival and departure service of those people, including routine COVID-19 prevention and control procedures and adjustment of inbound flights to Beijing if necessary.

Local media reported that a total of 12 flights with over 200 related personnel will arrive in Beijing from abroad this weekend, three weeks ahead of Beijing 2022 event.

BEIJING, Jan 15 (APP): Chinese Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, Zhang Xu expressed his sincere expectations for further strengthening and deepening China-Pakistan cultural exchanges and cooperation, and extended his sincere greetings to the people of Pakistan.

TOKYO, January 15. /TASS/: Tsunami has reached the Amami Islands, with the waves of about 1.2 meters, the NHK TV channel reported on Saturday.

There were no immediate reports about damage. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the waves of up to three meters are expected to hit the islands.

Moreover, waves of 30 to 90 centimeters were observed along Japan’s Pacific coast.

According to the Kyodo news agency, the tsunami was triggered by a massive underwater eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano in Tonga (the South Pacific) on Saturday.

Jan 15 (Reuters) - An underwater volcano off Tonga erupted on Saturday, triggering tsunami warnings and evacuation orders in Japan and causing large waves in several South Pacific islands, where footage on social media showed waves crashing into coastal homes.

Japan's meteorological agency issued tsunami warnings in the early hours on Sunday and said waves as high as three metres (9.84 feet) were expected in the Amami islands in the south. Waves of more than a metre were recorded there earlier.

BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The United States has witnessed multiple nightmares in 2021, with everything from the U.S. Capitol riot to a catastrophic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and from the debacle in Afghanistan to surging gun violence across the country.

   Risks and chaos bred in different fields of the country show no sign of abating and may well spill over to impact other countries, further dampening the world's recovery from the pandemic in 2022.

 GOVERNANCE PLIGHT

BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The recent COVID-19 resurgence in China has been in general stabilized, as the country managed to bring the outbreaks in some areas under control in a timely manner, the National Health Commission said Saturday.

China is now facing challenges mainly from imported cases and a domestic travel rush in the upcoming holiday season, said He Qinghua, an official with the commission, at a press conference.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A powerful earthquake shook parts of Indonesia’s main island of Java on Friday, damaging buildings and houses and sending people into the streets, but no casualties were reported. Officials said there was no danger of a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.6 quake was located in the Indian Ocean about 88 kilometers (54 miles) southwest of Labuan, a coastal town in Banten province. It was centered at a depth of 37 kilometers (23 miles), it said.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — The mass protests in Kazakhstan began peacefully over the New Year’s weekend, with marchers denouncing a sharp rise in fuel prices. They spread quickly from the western part of the Central Asian nation to more populous areas, eventually reaching its largest city of Almaty.

But something changed over the course of a week.

BEIJING, Jan 14 (APP): Pakistan and China launched air cargo service on Kashgar-Islamabad route with successful landing of Pakistan Faxon Airlines Air Cargo plane at Kashgar Airport in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

This is the second international cargo route from Kashgar Airport to Pakistan after Kashgar-Karachi cargo route in 2019, China Radio International (CRI) reported.

BEIJING, Jan 14 (APP): China on Friday highly appreciated and welcomed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decision to attend the opening ceremony of Beijing Winter Olympics Games next month.

“China highly appreciates and welcomes the Pakistani side’s decision,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during his regular briefing in response to a question regarding PM Khan’s visit.

Prime Minister Imran Khan will pay a three-day visit to China from February 3 at the invitation of the Chinese leadership.