Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TOKYO (AP) — The suspect in a deadly fire at a mental health clinic in Osaka last week might have studied the fatal 2019 Kyoto Animation studio arson while preparing his own attack that killed 25 people, police said Tuesday.

Osaka police have identified 61-year-old Morio Tanimoto as the prime suspect in Friday’s fire at the clinic on the fourth floor of an eight-story building in Osaka’s main business district of Kitashinchi. The blaze also left two people severely injured, including Tanimoto.

BEIJING, Dec 20 (APP): The 17th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Islamabad has been fully affirmed and widely praised by the international community.

As the most important neighbor of Afghanistan, Pakistan has successfully convened conference and played a leading role, which shows that Pakistan has an important influence in the Islamic world. The OIC is an important force that cannot be ignored in seeking and maintaining regional and world peace.

HONG KONG, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday unveiled its new lawmaker lineup after successfully holding its first legislative election under an improved electoral system.

Ninety elected lawmakers, standing out from a total of 153 candidates from different backgrounds and across the political spectrum, will sit on the seventh-term Legislative Council (LegCo) of the HKSAR.

About 1.35 million eligible voters cast their ballots at more than 600 polling stations across the SAR on Sunday.

BEIJING, Dec 19 (APP): With the two e-commerce companies recently obtaining large amounts of financing, Pakistan’s start-ups have raised more than $300 million this year, higher than the sum of the past six years.

It is reported that Bookme, Pakistan’s leading online ticket booking platform, and Bagallery, a Karachi-based beauty and fashion e-commerce start-up, recently announced the collection of $7.5 million and $4.5 million respectively in Series A funding round.

BAKU, December 19. / TASS /: Azerbaijan has handed over to Armenia ten servicemen, who were detained during the clashes on November 16 on the countries’ border, Baku’s State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons said on Sunday, noting that the process was mediated by the EU.

"In order to manifest its commitment to the principles of humanism, Azerbaijan through the EU handed over ten Armenian servicemen to [their homeland] on December 19," the state commission said.

MAE SOT, Thailand, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Thailand has sent over 600 Myanmar refugees who fled fighting between the military and ethnic rebels back across the border, according to a senior Thai official who said on Sunday clashes were continuing.

Some of the refugees who reached northwest Thailand's Tak province told Reuters before they went back over the frontier on Sunday morning that they had volunteered to return. On Sunday afternoon, Reuters reporters on the Thai side of the frontier were hearing continuous gunfire.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Hard-pressed Malaysian emergency services, reinforced by civilian volunteers, on Sunday rescued 21,000 people displaced by flooding from torrential rain in seven states, officials and volunteers said.

More than 66,000 police, army and fire department personnel were mobilised to help pluck people from vehicles marooned in flood waters or from inundated streets outside their homes. 

State news agency Bernama reported that a total of 21,000 people had been evacuated nationwide to relief centres.

SINGAPORE, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The so-called "Summit for Democracy" led by the United States has rendered a wrong prescription based on a misjudgement of the global situation, said an article published recently by the Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.

Liberty and democracy are turning into their opposites in some countries and the quality of life is declining, social discontent is rising, and social conflicts are tearing society apart, said the article written by Guo Liangping, a senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong was voting Sunday in the first election since Beijing amended the laws to reduce the number of directly elected lawmakers and vet candidates to ensure that only those loyal to China can run.

The semi-autonomous territory was rocked by pro-democracy protests in 2014 and 2019, but they were crushed by security forces, followed by the imposition of a sweeping national security law that silenced most of the city’s opposition activists and led others to flee abroad.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese police on Sunday identified a 61-year-old man as a prime suspect behind a fire that engulfed a mental clinic in an eight-story building where he was a patient, killing 24 people who were trapped inside.

The government also announced plans to inspect tens of thousands of similar buildings nationwide. Authorities believe the massive death toll at the downtown Osaka building on Friday was largely because the fire made its only emergency stairway unusable.