Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices on Friday hit 11-month highs and were on track for a strong weekly gain as a rally in global equities fed risk appetite and stoked bullish sentiment following Saudi Arabia’s pledge to cut output.

Brent crude climbed 39 cents, or 0.7%, to $54.77 a barrel by 0757 GMT, after touching $54.92, the highest since Feb. 26.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained 33 cents, or 0.7%, to $51.16. The contract also touched its highest since Feb. 25 at $51.34 earlier in the session.

Both benchmarks are on track for weekly gains of more than 5%.

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean court on Friday ordered Japan to compensate 12 women who were forced to work in its wartime brothels, a ruling that drew a strong rebuke from Tokyo and threatened to rekindle a diplomatic feud between the two countries.

Reminders of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula are contentious for both sides, with many surviving “comfort women” - a Japanese euphemism for the sex abuse victims - demanding Tokyo’s formal apology and compensation.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s banking and insurance watchdog on Friday fined seven financial institutions a total 199.5 million yuan ($30.85 million) for irregularities in overcharging fees and insufficient information disclosure on products.

Leading policy bank China Development Bank, top lenders China Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and the fifth largest state lender Postal Savings Bank of China are among those fined, according to a statement from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

($1 = 6.4664 Chinese yuan renminbi)

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The lander and rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed work for the 26th lunar day on the far side of the moon.

The lander woke up at 3:13 a.m. on Friday (Beijing time), and the rover Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, woke up at 10:29 a.m. on Thursday, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.

Landing on the moon on Jan. 3, 2019, the Chang'e-4 probe has survived 736 Earth days on the moon.

BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday urged the United Kingdom to abandon its illusion of continued colonial influence on Hong Kong and to cease interfering in China's internal affairs.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Wednesday that the arrests of politicians and activists in Hong Kong were "a grievous attack on Hong Kong's rights and freedoms" as protected under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un underscored the need to drastically improve his nation’s ties with the outside world as he addressed a major political conference for the third consecutive day.

State media said Kim also reviewed relations with rival South Korea but didn’t elaborate on what steps he said he wanted to take. Observers had expected Kim to use the first congress of the ruling Workers’ Party in five years to send conciliatory gestures toward Seoul and Washington as he faces deepening economic troubles at home.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A convicted firebrand cleric who inspired the Bali bombers and other violent extremists walked free from an Indonesian prison Friday after completing his sentence for funding the training of Islamic militants.

Police said they would continue to monitor the activities of Abu Bakar Bashir, who is now 82 and ailing, and his son said Bashir for now would be avoiding activities outside his family due to the coronavirus pandemic.

MANILA, Jan 7 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippines will block foreign travellers from six more countries, starting tomorrow, following the detection of the new and more infectious virus variant in these places, presidential spokesperson, Harry Roque, said yesterday.

Foreign travellers from Portugal, India, Finland, Norway, Jordan, and Brazil, and who have been in any of these countries within 14 days before arrival in the Philippines, are prohibited to enter from Jan 8 to 15.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - The United States ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft will visit Taiwan, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A group of activists answered a police summons on Thursday over complaints that could see them jailed for up to 15 years for insulting Thailand’s king, as authorities increasingly use “lese majeste” laws against pro-democracy protest leaders.

At least 39 protesters have since November been hit with criminal lese majeste cases, according to a tally by the Thailand Lawyers for Human Rights, marking the resumption of the use of a law that had not been invoked since late 2018.