Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was released from jail Saturday after serving more than six months for taking part in unauthorized assemblies during massive 2019 anti-government protests that triggered a crackdown on dissent in the former British colony.

Chow, 24, was greeted by a crowd of journalists as she left the Tai Lam Center for Women. She transferred from a prison van to a private car without making any remarks.

BEIJING (AP) — Top U.S. and Chinese diplomats appear to have had another sharply worded exchange, with Beijing saying it told the U.S. to cease interfering in its internal affairs and accusing Washington of politicizing the search for the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call Friday that revealed wide divisions in a number of contentious areas, including the curtailing of freedoms in Hong Kong and the mass detention of Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

(Reuters) --- A 36-year-old South Korean startup founder was elected leader of the conservative opposition party on Friday and pledged to win over voters increasingly disillusioned with traditional rough-and-tumble politics and retake the presidency next year.

Lee Jun-seok became the youngest leader of any major political party in democratic South Korean history, elected by party delegates and through public polls to head the People Power Party.

(Reuters) --- Congestion at container shipping ports in southern China is worsening as authorities step up disinfection measures amid a flare-up in COVID-19 cases, causing the biggest backlog since at least 2019.

More than 150 coronavirus cases have been reported in Guangdong province, a key manufacturing and exporting hub in southern China, since the latest wave of cases struck in late May, triggering local governments to step up prevention and control efforts that have curbed port processing capacity. 

(Reuters) --- The top U.S. diplomat in Hong Kong said the imposition of a new national security law had created an "atmosphere of coercion" that threatens both the city's freedoms and its standing as an international business hub.

In unusually strident remarks to Reuters this week, U.S. Consul-General Hanscom Smith called it "appalling" that Beijing's influence had "vilified" routine diplomatic activities such as meeting local activists, part of a government crackdown on foreign forces that was "casting a pall over the city".

HONG KONG, June 11 (Xinhua) -- A French biosecurity expert who supervised the construction and accreditation of the biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) has dismissed the theory that COVID-19 escaped from the lab, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Friday.

The French expert, Gabriel Gras, put the chance of a leak from the BSL-4 laboratory at "zero percent," according to the South China Morning Post.

HONG KONG, June 11 (Xinhua) -- The government of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Friday strongly objected to the false remarks in Britain's so-called six-monthly report on Hong Kong.

The central government has made it clear that it will unswervingly implement the policy of "one country, two systems" and has repeatedly urged foreign governments to stop intervening in Hong Kong affairs, the HKSAR government said, stressing that foreign interference violates international laws and basic principles of non-intervention.

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mostly higher in Europe and Asia on Friday after the S&P 500 index notched another record high despite a surge in U.S. consumer prices in May.

Benchmarks rose in Paris, Frankfurt and Hong Kong but fell in Tokyo and Shanghai.

On Thursday, Wall Street logged gains while bond yields mostly fell despite the much-anticipated report showing consumer prices rose 5% in May, the biggest year-over-year increase since 2008 and more than economists had expected.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — If China is to meet its tentative goal of vaccinating 80% of its population against the coronavirus by the end of the year, tens of millions of children may have to start rolling up their sleeves.

Regulators took the first step last week by approving the use of the country’s Sinovac vaccine for children aged 3 to 17, though no announcement has been made about when the shots will start.

Beijing, Jun 11 (PTI) China has passed a new legislation that bans defamation of military personnel, adding an array of legal tools to its 2018 law under which a Chinese popular blogger was punished recently for defaming PLA soldiers killed in last year's clash with the Indian Army at the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh.