Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

JAKARTA, Jan 18 (NNN-ANTARA) – Rescue workers today retrieved bodies of four missing persons, in the landslides in Sumedang district of Indonesia’s West Java province, bringing the death toll to 36, a local official said.

The newly confirmed deaths included three children and one adult, the provincial capital, Bandung’s search and rescue agency chief, Deden Ridwansyah, told news portal, Detik.com.

The rescue team is still searching for four more victims, who are believed to be killed in the landslides that occurred on Jan 9, due to heavy rainfall and unstable soils.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden should hold talks with North Korea to build on progress that President Donald Trump had made with leader Kim Jong Un.

Biden takes office on Wednesday amid a prolonged stalemate in negotiations aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes in exchange for U.S. sanctions relief.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Monday his government will take all possible measures to protect the country’s medical system, as hospitals creak under the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suga this month issued a state of emergency for Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures in a bid to stem a resurgence of infections. He expanded it to seven more prefectures, including Osaka and Kyoto in western Japan.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices on Monday fell further from 11-month highs touched last week, ending a rally that started at end-October on production cuts and strong Chinese demand, with the market’s outlook questioned as coronavirus infections rise.

Brent crude fell 30 cents, or 0.5%, to $54.79 a barrel by 0622 GMT, after dropping 2.3% on Friday. U.S. oil was down by 21 cents, or 0.4%, at $52.15 a barrel, having declined 2.3% in the previous trading session.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Former Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui has renewed his criticism of HSBC for freezing his local bank accounts even after the global bank’s chief executive, Noel Quinn, wrote to him to explain the circumstances of the change.

Hui, who fled Hong Kong late last year after facing criminal charges over pro-democracy protests in the Asian financial hub, disclosed some of the contents of Quinn’s message in a Facebook post on Sunday.

HONG KONG, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday strongly condemned the so-called "sanctions" announced by the United States on six officials of the central authorities and the HKSAR government.

The U.S. action wantonly damaged the rule of law and the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong and blatantly provoked the Chinese government and the Chinese people safeguarding national interests, a spokesperson of the liaison office said in a statement.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media say 12 out of 22 workers trapped for a week by an explosion in a gold mine are alive, as hundreds of rescuers seek to bring them to safety.

The Xinhua News Agency said Monday a note passed through a rescue shaft Sunday night reported the fate of the other 10 remains unknown.

The handwritten note said four of the workers were injured and that the condition of others was deteriorating because of a lack of fresh air and an influx of water.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong was sent back to prison on Monday after a South Korean court sentenced him to two and a half years over his involvement in a 2016 corruption scandal that spurred massive street protests and ousted South Korea’s then-president.

In a much-anticipated retrial, the Seoul High Court found Lee guilty of bribing then-President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante to win government support for a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates that helped strengthen his control the country’s largest business group.

BEIJING (AP) — China eked out 2.3% economic growth in 2020, likely becoming the only major economy to expand as shops and factories reopened relatively early from a shutdown to fight the coronavirus while the United States, Japan and Europe struggled with disease flare-ups.

Growth in the three months ending in December rose to 6.5% over a year earlier, up from the previous quarter’s 4.9% and stronger than many forecasters expected, official data showed Monday.

HONG KONG, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The spokesperson of the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Saturday condemned the latest so-called "sanctions" announced by the United States on six officials of the central and the HKSAR governments, expressing strong indignation and firm opposition.