Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Almost 1,600 leading members of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party meet this week to approve future policy and help select the nation’s top leaders amid talk whether the current party chief will stay.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, 76, defied conventional wisdom by winning a second term in 2016 against a favored opponent. Trong has made his name by presiding over economic growth and waging a popular war on corruption.

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares rose Monday amid some hopes for recovering economies slammed by the pandemic, as market attention turned to upcoming company earnings.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained nearly 0.5% in morning trading to 28,767.43. Australia’s S&P/ASX200 added 0.4% to 6,829.60. South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.4% to 3,183.52. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.6% to 29,927.31, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.4% to 3,619.25.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong will not appeal a court ruling that sentenced him to two and a half years in prison for bribing South Korea’s then-president for business favors.

Lee’s lawyers informed reporters of the decision on Monday as prosecutors faced a deadline for filing an appeal to the Supreme Court, which would extend the legal saga over South Korea’s largest business group. They had sought a 9-year prison term for Lee, whose case highlighted often-corrupt ties between the country’s family-owned conglomerates and politicians.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities said that they seized an Iranian tanker and Panamanian tanker suspected of carrying out the illegal transfer of oil in their country’s waters Sunday.

The tankers — the Iranian-flagged MT Horse and the Panamanian-flagged MT Frea — were seized in waters off Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, said Wisnu Pramadita, a spokesman for the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Chinese state media have played up questions about Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and whether it could be lethal to the very old. A government spokesperson suggests the coronavirus could have emerged from a U.S. military lab.

As the ruling Communist Party faces growing questioning about China’s vaccines and renewed criticism of its early COVID response, it is hitting back by encouraging fringe theories that some experts say could cause harm.

BEIJING, Jan 24 (APP): While commenting on successful test launch of Shaheen-III surface-to-surface ballistic missile, a former defense attaché has said that enhancement of Pakistan;s self-reliance in weapons and equipment is conducive to safeguarding the country’s territorial integrity and maintaining regional peace and stability.

“In recent years, Pakistan has made persistent efforts in the research and development of military hardware and has scored big points rapidly.

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. has reaffirmed support for Taiwan following China’s dispatch of warplanes near the island in an apparent attempt to intimidate its democratic government and test American resolve.

The State Department on Saturday said it “notes with concern the pattern of ongoing (China’s) attempts to intimidate its neighbors, including Taiwan.”

BEIJING (AP) — Eleven workers trapped for two weeks by an explosion inside a Chinese gold mine were brought safely to the surface on Sunday.

State broadcaster CCTV showed workers being hauled up one-by-one in baskets on Sunday afternoon, their eyes shielded to protect them after so many days in darkness.

One worker was reported to have died from a head wound following the blast that deposited massive amounts of rubble in the shaft on Jan. 10 while the mine was still under construction.

BEIJING, January 20. /TASS/: Russia in 2020 ranked second after Saudi Arabia in the list of the largest oil suppliers to China. According to the General Customs Administration of China, in 12 months Beijing purchased more than 83.57 mln tonnes of oil from Moscow.

According to the report, the price of oil purchased from Russia exceeded $27.3 bln. Similar figures for Saudi suppliers amounted to 84.92 mln tonnes and $28.05 bln, respectively.

PHNOM PENH, Jan 20 (NNN-AKP) – Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Prak Sokhonn, will participate in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat, to be held tomorrow, via videoconference, said a foreign ministry’s press statement today.

The retreat will follow up on the leaders’ guidance from the 37th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), focusing on key areas like ASEAN Blueprints, ASEAN Community building and ASEAN Community Vision Post-2025, the statement said.