Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Brunei officially began its national vaccination program for COVID-19 at vaccination centers throughout the country on Saturday.

According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, a total of 754 people received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine injection on Saturday, including Haji Awang Mohammad Isham, Minister of Health, who received his jab of Sinopharm vaccine at the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha Hospital (RIPAS), the country's biggest public hospital with dozens of other recipients.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Landslides and flash floods from torrential rains in eastern Indonesia have killed at least 23 people and displaced thousands, the disaster agency said Sunday.

Mud rolled down from surrounding hills shortly after midnight and struck nearly 50 houses in Lamenele village on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province. Rescuers recovered 20 bodies and nine injured, said Raditya Jati, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson.

Three more bodies were found of villagers who were swept away by flash floods in Oyang Bayang village.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Anti-coup demonstrators in Myanmar, adept at finding themes to tie together protests nationwide, took to the streets on Sunday holding painted eggs in a nod to Easter.

In the biggest city of Yangon, one group marched through the Insein district chanting and singing protest songs and cradling eggs bearing the slogan “Spring Revolution.” Many of the eggs also bore a drawing of the three-fingered salute, a symbol of resistance to the Feb. 1 coup.

(Reuters) -South Korea’s foreign minister said on Saturday he expects China to play a role in peacemaking between South and North Korea, inviting China’s president to visit as the United States and its allies agreed to continue pushing Pyongyang to denuclearise.

“South Korea and China share a common goal toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and toward permanent peacemaking policies,” Chung Eui-yong was quoted as saying by South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Chung extended the invitation to President Xi Jinping to visit when COVID-19 stabilises.

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has extended a strict lockdown in the capital region and adjacent provinces by at least one week to try to contain a renewed surge in coronavirus infections, his spokesman said on Saturday.

The Philippines, which has the second-highest COVID-19 cases and deaths in Southeast Asia, reported 12,576 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, putting further strain on the healthcare system.

HONG KONG, April 3 (Xinhua) -- With legislative changes on improving Hong Kong's electoral system adopted by China's top legislature, Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), expects a more peaceful and prosperous Hong Kong under "one country, two systems."

She also expects stronger confidence among people at home and abroad in the prospects of the global financial hub.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — The civilian death toll in the crackdown by the Myanmar junta has reached 550 since the Feb. 1 coup, a human rights group said Saturday.

Of those, 46 were children, according to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Some 2,751 people have been detained or sentenced, the group said.

Threats of lethal violence and arrests of protesters have failed to suppress daily demonstrations across Myanmar demanding the military step down and reinstate the democratically elected government.

HUALIEN COUNTY, Taiwan (AP) — Prosecutors in Taiwan said Saturday they questioned the owner of an unmanned truck that rolled onto a rail track and caused the country’s worst train disaster in decades that killed 51 people and injured 146, though no charges have been filed.

BEIJING, Apr 2 (APP): Now, most Chinese people favor mangoes imported from some Southeast Asian countries in supermarkets because the mangoes from South Asia are plump and beautiful.

On March 30, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Pakistan Consulate General in Shanghai and China`s Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center jointly organized an online seminar.

Beijing, Apr 2 (AP-PTI) A Chinese border city hit by a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 began a five-day drive Friday to vaccinate its entire population of 300,000 people.

State broadcaster CCTV showed people lining up and getting vaccinated in Ruili, where 16 cases have been confirmed since Tuesday. Twelve of them are Chinese and the other four are nationals of Myanmar, which lies across the border.

A city Communist Party official told CCTV the previous day that 159,000 doses of vaccine had arrived in the city.