Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, Nov 20 (APP): A new report published by Antiy Labs, one of China’s renowned cybersecurity companies, disclosed an active hacker team whose members are based in Delhi and has been launching cyber attacks against government agencies and defense departments in China and Pakistan.

The report conducted a comprehensive analysis of the cyber attacks launched by the organization called You Xiang (baby elephant in English) in South Asia, revealing its target, technology and equipment, and exposing the attackers who wear “invisible clothes” and hide behind screens.

BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United States has flunked a nearly two-year COVID-19 pandemic stress test and exposed its institutional failure which added people's distrust and anger on the country's the pandemic response, said a columnist of The New York Times.

"The pandemic has proved to be a nearly two-year stress test that the United States flunked, with an already distrustful populace exposed to a level of institutional failure that added fuel to the angry battles over how to respond," said Zeynep Tufekci, an opinion columnist, in an article on the newspaper on Thursday.

HONG KONG, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Washington's push to encircle China economically will likely "collapse in on itself" or ultimately backfire, experts have said in an article in the South China Morning Post.

As noted in the article published Friday, the United States, Europe and Japan have agreed to renew their trilateral partnership to put China under more pressure.

BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The latest COVID-19 resurgence in China has entered its final stage, a health official said Saturday.

So far, eight of the provincial-level regions affected by the latest resurgence have registered no new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases for at least 14 consecutive days, said Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, at a press conference.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — More than 200 foreign tourists arrived on Vietnam’s largest Phu Quoc island on Saturday, the first to visit the Southeast Asian country after nearly two years of border closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fully vaccinated travelers from South Korea will spend their holidays in hotel resorts without a mandatory 14-day quarantine. They were tested on arrival, and once the negative results are returned, they can join activities on the island including sightseeing, shopping and entertainment events that require vaccine certificates.

BEIJING, Nov 19 (APP): Pakistan Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque held a meeting with Cheng Guoping, External Security Commissioner of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on Friday.

During the meeting, both sides held extensive discussions on overall ties between Pakistan and China and also exchanged views for further strengthening security, economic and cultural relations between the two countries.

In his remarks, Cheng Guoping said that Pakistan and China are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and iron-brothers.

BEIJING, Nov 19 (APP): The officials of China and India have held the 23rd meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on bilateral border affairs to discuss border issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Zhao Lijian confirmed on Friday.

VIENTIANE, Nov 19 (NNN-KPL) – Laos is expecting to earn about 463 million U.S. dollars, from the sale of minerals domestically and for export, in the last three months of 2021, after earning 1,464 million U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 2021.

The value of mineral sales this year is expected to be 15.04 percent more than targeted, Deputy Prime Minister, Sonexay Siphandone told the National Assembly last week, local daily Vientiane Times reported today.

SINGAPORE, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The first known COVID-19 case was a market vendor in the Chinese city of Wuhan, not an accountant who appeared to have no link to the market but whose case contributed to speculation the virus could have leaked from a lab, according to a U.S. study.

The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 remains a mystery and a major source of tension between China and the United States.

SINGAPORE, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- At an economic forum on Thursday, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson rebutted the voice calling for financially decoupling the United States from China, saying such a move is not in American interests.

"Wholesale financial decoupling is impossible, and partial decoupling is likely to make the U.S., China and the world more susceptible to financial crises," Paulson said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum held in Singapore, according to The Straits Times.