Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

HONG KONG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The former leader of Hong Kong pro-independence group Studentlocalism was sentenced on Tuesday to a total of 43 months in prison for trying to separate the city from China, and for money laundering.

Tony Chung, 20, was charged with secession, under a sweeping national security law, and money laundering in October 2020 and was denied bail. Local media reported at the time that he was detained along with two others at a coffee shop close to the U.S. consulate by unidentified men and was believed to be preparing for an asylum application.

BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday said the United States should stop fanning the flame on Taiwan-related issues and not send wrong signals to the "Taiwan independence" forces.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the comment in response to a U.S. Department of State spokesperson's remarks in support of the establishment of a "Taiwanese representative office" in Lithuania.

BEIJING, Nov 22 (APP): President of Pakistan Sichuan Chamber of Commerce, Li Hongwu said that the China Pakistan Economic and Cultural Exchange Incubation center in Chengdu would help Pakistani traders to explore business opportunities in China.

He aims to make the center the first stop for Pakistani people when they first arrive in Southwest China. Here they can quickly get help, learn business opportunities in China, and find sale channels in China for their products, he told China Economic Net.

BEIJING, Nov 22 (APP): A Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Monday said that a special freight train loaded more than 1,000 tons of aid material and living production materials for Afghan people has left from Wuxi Station in Xinjiang, China to Afghanistan.

MANILA, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Relatives of people killed in the Philippines' war on drugs have accused the government of attempting to evade accountability by asking the International Criminal Court (ICC) to defer its investigation.

The ICC, which in September approved an investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs in which thousands of people have died, on Saturday temporarily suspended the probe at Manila's request.

ULAN BATOR, Nov 21 (NNN-XINHUA) – Mongolia reported 509 new local infections of COVID-19, over the past 24 hours, raising the national caseload to 378,575, according to a statement by the country’s health ministry today.

More than half of the latest confirmed cases were detected in the capital, Ulan Bator, it said.

Meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 death toll increased to 1,867, after seven more patients died in the past day.

YANGON, Nov 21 (NNN-MNA) – At least 15 people were killed and some more missing, after a rising tide swept them away, in Myanmar’s south-eastern Mon state this morning, a local police officer said.

“The tide swept away the pilgrims, who were walking along the sea waterway, to pay homage to a pagoda,” the police officer said.

The accident took place at around 7:30 a.m. local time, in Thanbyuzayat town.

Search and rescue operations, ordered by regional authorities for the missing people, are still going on.

BEIJING, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- At the international arena, Washington has long been well-known for its hypocrisy of saying one thing while doing another. As for Washington's policies on China, its actions stand in stark contrast to its words in the following aspects:

On Taiwan

In words:

TOKYO (AP) — Yoshihiko Takeuchi, who ran a small restaurant on the island of Okinawa, told only a few friends he had the coronavirus. When he didn’t answer phone calls from public health workers for three days, police went to his home and found him dead in his bed.

He was among hundreds of people who have died while subject to “jitaku ryoyo,” or a policy of having some COVID-19 patients “recuperate at home.”

BEIJING (AP) — China reduced the level of its diplomatic relations with Lithuania to below ambassador level Sunday in retaliation for the Baltic nation allowing Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory, to open a representative office.

China earlier expelled the Lithuanian ambassador, reflecting its intense sensitivity over the status of Taiwan, which Beijing says has no right to conduct foreign affairs. China also withdrew its own ambassador from Lithuania.