Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday he will pardon his chief conservative rival and predecessor, Park Geun-hye, who is serving a lengthy prison term for bribery and other crimes.

Moon’s liberal government said the pardon is meant to overcome past divisions and promote national unity in the face of difficulties brought by the pandemic. Some observers say Moon may want to ease a burden stemming from Park’s health problems, or even use her to split the opposition ahead of March presidential elections.

BEIJING, Dec 23 (APP): Pakistan fruit exporters are expected to export more kinnows to the Chinese market next year as compared to only about 80 tons last year.

In the next year, we expect 15 to 20 containers of kinnow to be exported to China, quadrupling that of 2019 when we first exported to our iron brother, Muhammad Riaz, Manager of Exports, Imports, and Business Development, Al-Rafique Company, one of the largest Pakistani kinnow exporters to China told China Economic Net (CEN).

Dec 23 (Reuters) - Three doses of Sinovac's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine do not produce adequate levels of antibodies to fight the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, researchers from Hong Kong said in a statement.

Their analysis revealed Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was more effective, as a third dose of the shot administered after two doses of the same or China's Sinovac vaccine provided "protective levels" of antibody against Omicron.

BEIJING (AP) — China is redoubling efforts to control new virus outbreaks with a lockdown of the 13 million residents of the northern city of Xi’an following a spike in coronavirus cases.

The measure comes just weeks before the country hosts the Winter Olympics in Beijing, roughly 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) to the northeast.

BEIJING, Dec 22 (APP): India’s aggressive actions and territorial expansion policies caused armed conflicts with China and Pakistan.

India believes that with the S-400 air defense missile systems, it can effectively deal with the “air threats from Pakistan and China”. In fact, this is a hypothetical “air threat”, because Pakistan and China never invade other countries.

Historically, the wars between India and Pakistan and the armed conflicts between India and China were all caused by India’s aggressive actions and territorial expansion policies.

NUR-SULTAN, December 22. /TASS/: Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) eliminated a commander of the Junud al-Sham terrorist group (outlawed in Russia), Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev told journalists on Wednesday.

"Very recently the Russian Aerospace Forces managed to eliminate one of the leaders of the Junud al-Sham group Murad Margoshvili (known as Muslim Abu Walid al Shishani - TASS). This is an odious individual who fought in Chechnya, with the blood of many civilians on his hands," he said.

SINGAPORE, Dec 22 (NNN-CNA) – Singapore reported 280 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, bringing the total tally in the country to 276,385.

Of the new cases, 221 were in the community, five were in migrant workers’ dormitories and 54 were imported cases, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

A total of 456 cases are currently warded in hospitals, with 26 cases being critically ill in the ICU, the current overall ICU utilisation rate is 53.3 percent.

TOKYO, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government will compile a draft budget for fiscal 2022 worth some 107.6 trillion yen (941 billion U.S. dollars), a record high for the 10th consecutive year, government officials said Wednesday.

The government plans to prepare more than 100 trillion yen (875 billion dollars) for general account spending for the fiscal 2022 starting in April, Kyodo News reported citing government officials.

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will promote solidarity and cooperation and should not be politicized, a scholar has said.

Any attempt to politicize the Olympic Games and sport "can damage the Olympic spirit as well as the purity of the Olympic movement," Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said Wednesday.

Phea made the remarks during an international conference on China's role in the 21st century and its relations with ASEAN.

MANILA, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- China offered 1 million U.S. dollars in cash and another 4,725 tons of rice on Wednesday to help the victims of Typhoon Rai in the Philippines.

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian announced the assistance at the handover ceremony of the rice, the last batch of the 10,000 tons that China donated to the Philippines.