Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer said Monday he was grateful for a strengthened statement from China condemning the killing and kidnapping of Israeli and foreign civilians by Hamas, issued during a bipartisan Congressional visit to Beijing that included a lengthy meeting with President Xi Jinping.

Schumer had said earlier in the day that he was very disappointed by China’s failure to strongly condemn the attack on Israel and show sympathy for the country and its people.

BEIJING, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Israel expected to see a "stronger condemnation" of Hamas from China, a country it views as its friend, Yuval Waks, a senior official at the Israeli embassy in Beijing, said on Sunday.

"When people are being murdered, slaughtered in the streets, this is not the time to call for a two-state solution," Waks told reporters.

BEIJING (AP) — American mountaineer Anna Gutu and a Nepalese guide Mingmar Sherpa were confirmed Sunday dead after avalanches struck the slopes of a Tibetan mountain, while two others remained missing, according to Chinese media reports.

The avalanches struck Tibet’s Mount Shishapangma on Saturday afternoon at 7,600 (about 25,000 ft) and 8,000 meters (about 26,000 ft) in altitude, according to state-owned Xinhua News Agency.

YEREVAN, October 7. /TASS/: Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation after the forced withdrawal of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh over the phone, the press service of the Armenian government reported.

"The sides discussed the situation that developed after the forced resettlement of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and a number of issues on the bilateral agenda," the statement said.

Pashinyan also congratulated the Russian President on his birthday, the statement said.

SEOUL, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Rail traffic along the North Korea-Russia border spiked this week to the highest in years, suggesting arms supply by Pyongyang to Moscow after their leaders discussed deeper military cooperation, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.

Satellite imagery showed an "unprecedented" 73 or so freight cars at Tumangang Rail Station in the North Korean border city of Rason, the Beyond Parallel Project of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report.

SHANGHAI (AP) — A senior American lawmaker, leading the first congressional trip to China in four years, said Saturday that the U.S. does not want to cut economic ties with the world’s second-largest economy but seeks a level playing field so that American companies can compete freely.

BEIJING, Oct 6 (APP): China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and ironclad brothers, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said on Thursday, adding that bilateral relations have withstood the test of time and continued to maintain a sound momentum of development.

BEIJING/MANILA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - China has condemned a mission by four Philippine ships to re-supply Philippine troops on a disputed South China Sea atoll, saying the vessels had entered its waters in the Spratly Islands without its permission.

The Philippines said on Wednesday it had successfully sent supplies to its troops stationed on a World War Two-era transport ship-turned-military outpost on the atoll despite attempts by China's coast guard to block it.

HANOI/BEIJING, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Vietnamese and Chinese officials are preparing for a possible visit from President Xi Jinping to Hanoi at the end of October or early November, on the heels of U.S. President Joe Biden's trip in September, four people familiar with the plans said.

The visit would underline the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub's growing strategic importance, as big powers jostle for influence in the region amid rising tensions between Beijing and Washington.

MANILA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - An anonymous bomb threat that prompted the Philippines to put all its commercial airports on heightened security alert is "most likely a hoax", the aviation police chief said on Friday.

Authorities ordered 42 airports across the country to step up security after receiving an anonymous email threat that planes flying out of Manila to several tourist destinations could explode.