Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, June19 (APP): Pakistani and Chinese experts discussed potential of agricultural cooperation, especially in chilli farming at a wibenar themed “Pakistan Chilli Contract Farming Project Promotion and Inaugural Conference of Pakistan-China Condiment Industry Alliance”.

As per agricultural cooperation, Pakistan Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque said that now a plan of over 20 projects was being implemented to modernize the agriculture sector in Pakistan, including new seeds to increase the crop yield,

JAKARTA, Jun 19 (NNN-ANTARA) – The Indonesian police announced yesterday that, they have arrested four suspected terrorists affiliated to the Daesh-linked terrorist group, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), in separate operations in the country’s province of West Java, in the past three days.

The National Police’s spokesman, Ahmad Ramadhan, said, the anti-terrorism unit Densus 88, on Wednesday arrested three people in Pangandaran district, for allegedly being involved in JAD, an organisation declared illegal in 2018.

BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Officials and scholars from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as well as relatives of the "witnesses" at the so-called "Uygur Tribunal," Friday debunked and strongly condemned the fake claims of "genocide" put forward at the body's recent "hearing".

Elijan Anayat, a spokesperson of the Xinjiang regional government, said at a press conference in Beijing that the "Uygur Tribunal" employed presumption of guilt and fabricated evidence, and their so-called "witnesses" were nothing more than a few actors and actresses.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “solemnly swore” to navigate his country out of deepening economic troubles as he concluded a major ruling party meeting, acknowledging food shortages and urging officials to prepare for both dialogue and confrontation with the U.S.

North Korea’s state media released Kim’s comments shortly before President Joe Biden’s special representative for North Korea, Sung Kim, arrived in South Korea on Saturday for talks over stalled nuclear diplomacy with the North.

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court ordered the top editor of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and the head of its parent company held without bail Saturday in the first hearing since their arrest two days ago under the city’s national security law.

Ryan Law, the chief editor, and Cheung Kim-hung, the CEO of Next Digital, have been charged with collusion with a foreign country to endanger national security in a case widely seen as an attack on press freedom in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

BEIJING, June 18 (APP): Pakistan-China friendship is deeply embedded in the hearts of people from both sides that enjoys wide support across the political spectrum in Pakistan, Pakistan Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque said.

“It’s very important that we pass on these sentiments of friendship to our future generations,” he said in an interview with Xinhua.

SYDNEY/BEIJING, June 18 (Reuters) - A World Bank-led project declined to award a contract to lay sensitive undersea communications cables after Pacific island governments heeded U.S. warnings that participation of a Chinese company posed a security threat, two sources told Reuters.

PHNOM PENH, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's anti-drug police have recently arrested 10 suspected drug traffickers in two separate cases involving about 40 kg illicit drugs, police said on Friday.

In one case, police arrested eight suspects, including a Thai woman, in the northwestern Banteay Meanchey province on Wednesday, seizing from them 34 kg crystal methamphetamine, 110 ecstasy pills, 383 methamphetamine pills, two pistols and two cars, the National Police said.

HONG KONG, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Despite the pressure from the United States, some European countries are still willing to continue to develop relations with China, the South China Morning Post quoted an expert as saying in a report this week.

BEIJING (AP) — China is pledging to harshly punish anyone responsible for major industrial accidents or outbreaks of violence in coming days as the ruling Communist Party prepares lavish celebrations for its centenary on July 1.

At a meeting Thursday, Vice Premier Liu He ordered safety checks be carried out to forestall such incidents.

“Resolutely contain the frequent occurrence of various types of accidents and create a safe and stable environment for celebrating the centenary of the founding of the party,” an official statement released after the meeting said.