Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — China accused the United States of violating the Olympic spirit on Tuesday after the Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games over human rights concerns.

Rights groups have pushed for a full-blown boycott of the Games, accusing China of rights abuses against ethnic minorities. The U.S. decision falls short of those calls but comes at an exceptionally turbulent time for relations between the powerhouse nations and was met with a barrage of criticism from China.

HONG KONG (AP) — The bustling, cosmopolitan business hub of Hong Kong may be losing its shine among foreign companies and expatriates with its stringent anti-pandemic rules requiring up to 21 days of quarantine for new arrivals.

The restrictions are discouraging both visitors and business travelers and add to other challenges the semi-autonomous Chinese territory faces as Beijing exerts ever more control over the former British colony.

BEIJING (AP) — Asia stock markets followed Wall Street higher Tuesday as anxiety about the coronavirus’s latest variant eased.

Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Oil prices gained for a second day.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained 1.2% after the chief White House medical adviser said the omicron variant might be less dangerous. That might allow travel and business restrictions to ease.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s exports rose by double digits in November but growth declined, while imports accelerated in a sign of stronger domestic demand.

Exports rose 21.4% over a year earlier to $325.5 billion, decelerating from October’s 27.1% growth, customs data showed Tuesday. Imports surged 31.7% to $253.8 billion, up from the previous month’s 20.6% rate.

China’s exports have been boosted by foreign demand at a time when other global competitors are hampered by anti-coronavirus controls.

SINGAPORE, Dec 6 (NNN-Bernama) — One more imported COVID-19 case in Singapore has tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant.

The case is currently recovering in an isolation ward at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), said the republic’s Health Ministry (MOH) in its daily update on COVID-19 last night.

Labelled as Case 273611, MOH said the third case is a 37-year-old male Singapore permanent resident who arrived here from South Africa on board Singapore Airlines flight SQ479 on Dec 1.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia achieved a significant milestone in COVID-19 vaccination on Monday when 90 per cent of the adolescent population have received at least one dose of the vaccine, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said.

“For seniors, get your booster as soon as it’s available,” he said in a Twitter post.

A total of 2,830,449 individuals or 90 per cent of adolescents aged between 12 and 17 have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of 11.59 pm Sunday.

TOKYO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The United States Embassy in Tokyo on Monday warned in a tweet of incidents of suspected racial profiling of non-Japanese by Japanese police.

Japan is a mostly ethnically homogeneous country where some people equate more immigrants with a rise in crime, although foreign labour is increasingly needed to make up for a declining and ageing population.

"The U.S. Embassy has received reports of foreigners stopped and searched by Japanese police in suspected racial profiling incidents. Several were detained, questioned, and searched," the tweet said.

TOKYO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed on Monday to ensure worker wage hikes to protect the economy from rising global inflation, while strengthening the country's defences as it deals with an assertive China and unpredictable North Korea.

Kishida made the remarks on the opening day of parliament's extra session convened to debate a supplementary budget to cushion the blow from the COVID-19 pandemic as he aims to restore the economy and then tackle fiscal reform.

SUMBERWULUH, Indonesia, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Indonesia's Mt. Semeru volcano continued to spew hot clouds of ash on Monday, days after a powerful eruption killed 15 people and left dozens more missing.

The tallest mountain on the island of Java erupted dramatically on Saturday, shooting a towering column of ash into the sky that blanketed surrounding villages.

Aerial footage of the affected areas showed roofs jutting out of an ashen landscape, while on the ground, military officers, police and residents dug through mud with their hands to extricate victims.

Dec 6 (Reuters) - A court in military-ruled Myanmar jailed deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi for four years on Monday on charges of incitement and breaching coronavirus restrictions, a source familiar with the proceedings said, in a case that critics dismissed as a farce.

President Win Myint was also sentenced to four years in prison, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, as the court delivered its first verdicts in numerous cases against Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders detained by the military in a coup on Feb. 1.