Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

JAKARTA, Jan 11 (NNN-Bernama) — Indonesia and India joined other countries in helping the people of Afghanistan face freezing winter conditions and in desperate need of food.

Following President Joko Widodo’s orders in response to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, two Garuda Indonesia’s aircraft carrying humanitarian aid including 65 tonnes of food left to Kabul on early Sunday.

BEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from the Gulf, Iran and Turkey were separately heading to China this week for talks, China's foreign ministry said, while discussions were under way in Vienna on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and the Secretary General of Gulf Cooperation Council were visiting China between Monday and Friday.

Turkey's foreign minister was set to visit on Wednesday and Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Friday, the ministry said.

BEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ambassador to China, Javid Ahmad Qaem, left his post earlier in January after months without pay from Kabul following the Taliban's seizure of power, he said on Twitter.

In a handover letter dated Jan. 1, also posted on Twitter, Qaem said that many diplomats at the embassy had already left, and Kabul had not sent them salaries since August.

"There are many reasons, personal and professional, but I don't want to mention them here," he said of his decision to leave.

TAIPEI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Taiwan's air force on Tuesday suspended combat training for its F-16 fleet after a recently upgraded model of the fighter jet crashed into the sea in the latest of a series of accidents.

The defence ministry said the F-16V, the most advanced type in Taiwan's fleet, went missing from radar screens after taking off from the Chiayi air base in southern Taiwan for a training mission over a coastal firing range.

NUR-SULTAN, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Russian-led forces will begin withdrawing from Kazakhstan in two days' time after stabilising the Central Asian nation following serious unrest, the president said on Tuesday, in a speech that took aim at wealthy associates of his predecessor.

In a video call with parliament after putting down what he has called an attempted coup, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appointed a new government headed by career public servant Alikhan Smailov.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Tuesday fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into its eastern sea, its second launch in a week, following leader Kim Jong Un’s calls to expand its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international opposition.

The launches follow a series of weapons tests in 2021 that underscored how North Korea is continuing to expand its military capabilities during a self-imposed pandemic lockdown and deadlocked nuclear talks with the United States.

BEIJING (AP) — A third Chinese city has locked down its residents because of a COVID-19 outbreak, raising the number confined to their homes in China to about 20 million people.

The lockdown of Anyang, home to 5.5 million people, was announced late Monday after two cases of the omicron variant were reported. Residents are not allowed to go out and stores have been ordered shut except those selling necessities.

Beijing, Jan 11 (AP) A third Chinese city has locked down its residents because of a COVID-19 outbreak, raising the number confined to their homes in China to about 20 million people.

It wasn't clear how long the lockdown of Anyang city, home to 5.5 million, would last as a notice said it was being done to facilitate mass testing but did not indicate if it would end when the testing is completed.

Another 13 million people are locked down in the city of Xi'an and 1.1 million in Yuzhou.

DUSHANBE, January 10. /TASS/: There are over 6,000 militants located near the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) southern border - in Afghanistan’s northeast - says President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon.

"Overall, according to the intelligence of Tajikistan, there are over 40 camps and terrorist training centers in Afghanistan’s northeastern provinces, which house over 6,000 militants," the Takin president said during the CSTO emergency online summit on Kazakhstan.

NUR-SULTAN, January 10. /TASS/: Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asserted that the constitutional order has been restored in the republic following mass disturbances.