Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — China’s manufacturing recovery weakened for a third month in February as exports and new orders declined, according to two surveys released Monday.

A monthly purchasing managers’ index issued by a prominent business magazine, Caixin, declined to 50.9 from January’s 51.5 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show activity accelerating.

A separate PMI issued by the Chinese statistics agency and an official industry group, the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing, retreated to 50.6 from 51.3.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines launched a vaccination campaign Monday to contain one of Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks but faces supply problems and public resistance, which it hopes to ease by inoculating top officials.

Cabinet officials, along with health workers and military and police personnel, were among the first to be vaccinated in six hospitals in Metropolitan Manila, after President Rodrigo Duterte and other top officials received 600,000 doses on Sunday of COVID-19 vaccine donated by China.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Security forces in Myanmar opened fire and made mass arrests Sunday as they sought to break up protests against the military’s seizure of power, and a U.N. human rights official said it had “credible information” that at least 18 people were killed and 30 were wounded.

That would be the highest single-day death toll among protesters who are demanding that the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi be restored to power after being ousted by a Feb. 1 coup. About 1,000 people are believed to have been detained Sunday.

BEIJING, Feb 28 (APP): A Chinese legislator who leads a regiment in the country’s southwestern border defense frontline will submit a proposal at the upcoming two sessions, suggesting that China should enhance border management and control by deploying more smart equipment like drones, as his experience and research indicate huge room for improvement despite the wide use of such devices by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

ALMATY (Reuters) - Police in Kazakhstan detained dozens of opposition supporters on Sunday who took to the streets of major cities denouncing what they called political repression in the oil-rich Central Asian nation.

The ruling Nur Otan party has dominated the political scene in the former Soviet republic for almost three decades while opposition movements, sidelined and with no seats in parliament, mostly make themselves heard through public protests.

BANGKOK, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Thailand on Sunday started its COVID-19 vaccination roll-out, with the first shot, using China's Sinovac vaccine, going to Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha presided over the event at the country's infectious disease institute, where other officials, including deputy public health minister, agriculture minister, culture minister and deputy education minister, were also vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police on Sunday detained 47 pro-democracy activists on charges of conspiracy to commit subversion under the city’s national security law.

The former lawmakers and democracy advocates had been previously arrested in a sweeping police operation in January but were released. They have been detained again and will appear in court on Monday, police said in a statement.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Police fired tear gas and water cannons and there were reports of gunfire Sunday in Myanmar’s largest city where another anti-coup protest was underway with scores of students and other demonstrators hauled away in police trucks.

The violence erupted early morning when medical students were marching in Yangon’s streets near the Hledan Center intersection, which has become the gathering point for protesters who then fan out to other parts of the city.

(Reuters) - Police launched their most sweeping crackdown in three weeks of protests against military rule on Saturday in towns and cities across Myanmar, and one woman was shot and wounded and dozens of people were detained.

Three domestic media outlets said earlier that the woman shot in the central town of Monwya had died but an ambulance service official said she was in hospital. The circumstances of the shooting were not clear and police were not available for comment.

WUHAN, China (Reuters) - A team of investigators led by the World Health Organization visited a virus research laboratory in China’s central city of Wuhan and met with a prominent virologist there in its search for clues to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The experts spent about 3-1/2 hours at the heavily-guarded Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the centre of some conspiracy theories that claim a laboratory leak caused the city’s first coronavirus outbreak at the end of 2019.