Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The China-Europe freight-train service has recorded more than 40,000 trips, with the transported goods valued at over 200 billion U.S. dollars, official data shows.

Since the first China-Europe freight train left southwest China's Chongqing Municipality in March 2011, the service has reached more than 160 cities in 22 European countries, according to a work conference of the office of the leading group on advancing Belt and Road development.

TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics will allow some local fans to attend when the games open in just over a month, organizing committee officials and the IOC said on Monday.

Organizers set a limit of 50% of capacity up to a maximum of 10,000 fans for all Olympic venues.

The decision was announced after so-called Five Party talks online with local organizers, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Japanese government and the government of metropolitan Tokyo.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Joe Biden’s special envoy for North Korea said Monday he hopes to see a positive reaction from the North soon on U.S. offers for talks after the North Korean leader ordered officials to prepare for both dialogue and confrontation.

Sung Kim, Biden’s special representative for North Korea, is in Seoul to speak with South Korean and Japanese officials about the U.S.’s stalled diplomacy with the North over its nuclear program and U.S.-led sanctions.

TOKYO (AP) — Thousands of Japanese companies began distributing COVID-19 vaccines to workers and their families Monday in an employer-led drive reaching more than 13 million people that aims to rev up the nation’s slow vaccine rollout.

Yuka Daimaru, among the Suntory workers getting the shot on a sprawling office floor, was visibly relieved after spending more than a year worrying about the coronavirus.

“I was nervous, but it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would,” she said. “Now I don’t have to worry as much on commuter trains or at meetings.”

BEIJING, June 20 (APP): Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)’s flight PK-6852 transported 1.55million doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine from the Beijing Capital International Airport to Islamabad on Sunday.

The national flag carrier through its special flights has already airlifted one million Covid-19 vaccine procured from China to Pakistan this month, Qadir Bux Sangi, PIA Country Manager for China told APP.

TAIPEI, June 20 (Reuters) - Taiwanese staff working at the island’s representative office in Hong Kong will begin leaving the Chinese-run city from Sunday, a senior official said, after the government there demanded its officials sign a document supporting Beijing’s claim to Taiwan.

Chinese-ruled Hong Kong has become another bone of contention between Taipei and Beijing, especially after Taiwan lambasted a security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing and began welcoming Hong Kongers to settle on the island.

HONG KONG, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam said on Sunday that in the country's financial development, Hong Kong will play a key role in promoting renminbi (RMB) internationalization, diversified financing, fund management, risk management and green development.

TOKYO, June 20 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 struck Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture on Sunday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The temblor occurred at around 8:08 p.m. local time, with its epicenter at a latitude of 43.5 degrees north and a longitude of 142.7 degrees east, and at depth of 30 km.

The quake logged 3 in some parts of Hokkaido Prefecture on the Japanese seismic intensity scale which peaks at 7.

So far no tsunami warning has been issued.

BEIJING, June 20 (Xinhua) -- More than 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in China by Saturday, as the country is pushing ahead with the largest vaccination drive in the history of New China.

It took the country just five days to hit its most recent 100-million dose increase, according to daily updates by the National Health Commission (NHC).

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The U.S. sent 2.5 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan on Sunday, tripling an earlier pledge in a donation with both public health and geopolitical meaning.

The shipment arrived on a China Airlines cargo plane that had left Memphis the previous day. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung and Brent Christensen, the top U.S. official in Taiwan, were among those who welcomed the plane on the tarmac at the airport outside of the capital, Taipei.