Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

MANILA, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Philippine ruling party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), elected Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as the new president during a national assembly convened by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday.

Duterte, the party chair, led the national assembly held in Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga province north of Manila. In his speech at the assembly, Duterte thanked his party mates for their continued support of his leadership.

TOKYO, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The first positive COVID-19 case has been identified in the athletes' village of Tokyo 2020, organizers confirmed here on Saturday.

The infected person, who received a negative result at the airport but tested positive during the screening test in the village on Friday, is now isolated in a hotel, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto told a press conference.

The organizers refused to disclose the nationality of the person, citing privacy concerns, adding that they did not know if the person had been vaccinated or not.

HONG KONG, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Saturday strongly condemned the U.S. government for smearing Hong Kong's business environment and imposing so-called sanctions on officials of the office.

The liaison office, in a statement, called the sanctions "a piece of waste paper" and a "boring political performance", saying "its hegemonic acts are doomed to fail."

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Olympic committee said Saturday it removed banners at the Olympic athletes’ village in Tokyo that referred to a 16th-century war between Korea and Japan after the International Olympic Committee ruled they were provocative.

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand has tightened coronavirus restrictions and warned of further measures as daily cases surpassed 10,000 and the death toll hit a record 141 on Saturday despite an overnight curfew in Bangkok and several other provinces.

The surge since April has overwhelmed hospitals, strained the economy and thrown tourism recovery plans in doubt. The vaccine rollout, hindered by supply problems, is slugging with some 5% of the population fully vaccinated and 15% only partially.

TASHKENT (Uzbekistan), July 16 (APP): Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad met Friday and discussed the evolving situation in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of foreign troops.

In a meeting held on the sidelines of Central and South Asia Coordination Conference in Tashkent, the foreign minister said Pakistan considered peace in Afghanistan essential for the region’s economic development and stability.

TASHKENT, July 16. /TASS/: None of Russia’s Central Asian allies stated their intention at the Tashkent conference of hosting any part whatsoever of the US military infrastructure, which the Americans are moving out of Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the sidelines of the international conference, Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity. Challenges and Opportunities, on Thursday.

MANILA, Jul 16 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippines detected its first local COVID-19 cases of the Delta variant, as the total cases of the more transmissible variant in the country rose to 35, the Department of Health (DOH) said today.

Health Undersecretary, Maria Rosario Vergeire, said, 16 new cases of Delta variant have been detected in the country, including 11 locally transmitted, with 15 recoveries and one death.

HANOI, July 16 (Reuters) - Vietnam urged the United States on Friday to end its "hostile policy" and lift its longstanding trade embargo on Cuba, the foreign ministry said, following this week's rare anti-government protests on the island.

"The U.S. needs to take concrete steps in the direction of normalizing relations with Cuba for the benefit of the two peoples, contributing to peace, stability and development in the region and the world," ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese power companies bid for credits to emit carbon dioxide and other climate-changing gases as trading on the first national carbon exchange began Friday in a step meant to help curb worsening pollution.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the experimental first phase of carbon trading at the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange includes some 2,000 companies in the power industry that produce about 40% of China’s emissions.

Over time, other major emitters will be added, such as airlines, the building materials industry and iron and steel makers.