Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

Aug 16 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday despite a large drawdown in U.S. crude stocks as investors weighed worries about China's embattled economy against expectations of tighter supply in the United States.

Brent crude futures fell $1.23 to $83.66 a barrel by 1:13 p.m. EDT (1713 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) fell $1.33 to $79.66.

Both benchmarks fell more than 1% in the previous session to their lowest since Aug. 8.

JAKARTA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and two others critically injured after a passenger train hit a car in the Indonesian city of Tebing Tinggi in North Sumatra province on Wednesday, the city police said.

The city's traffic police chief Dhoria Simanjuntak told local media the accident occurred when the car carrying the four people was allegedly trespassing at a railroad crossing without a bar gate and a signal in Rambutan subdistrict.

YANGON, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the jade mine collapse in northern Myanmar's Kachin State rose to 33 on Wednesday, local police said.

"After three days of rescue operations, 33 bodies have been recovered," a police officer in Hpakant told Xinhua on Wednesday.

The collapse took place at around 3:00 p.m. local time on Sunday at the jade mine near Ma Na Village in Hpakant, the center of Myanmar's jade industry, with over 30 people reported missing.

SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) released the findings of an ongoing investigation into an American soldier crossing the border into the country last month, attributing his motivation to disillusion with the inequality of American society, reported state media on Wednesday.

According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Travis King, a private second class of the U.S. military based in South Korea, "illegally intruded" into the territory of the DPRK on July 18.

GOHEUNG, South Korea, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Over 1,000 South Korean fishermen in the southern coastal county of Goheung gathered on Wednesday as part of the recent rallies among domestic fishermen to oppose Japan's planned discharge of radioactive wastewater into the ocean.

The participants shouted slogan of "Dead against dumping Fukushima nuclear-contaminated wastewater into ocean," holding placards that read "The ocean belongs to all humankind" and "Nuclear-contaminated wastewater dumping is an irresponsible nuclear attack."

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s president on Wednesday urged a continuation of his educational reforms to turn Southeast Asia’s largest economy into one of the world’s biggest by its hundredth anniversary in 2045.

President Joko Widodo said in his annual state of the nation speech a day before Indonesia celebrates its 78th year of independence that it has a great chance of joining the globe’s top five economies with a per capital income of $25,000. Indonesia’s per capita income was $4,580 in 2022, according to the World Bank.

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Constitutional Court cleared the way Wednesday for Parliament to vote for a new prime minister more than three months after national elections by declining to rule on a complaint over the rejection of the winning party’s leader.

The court had been asked to decide whether Parliament had violated the constitution by refusing to allow the leader of the progressive Move Forward Party to be nominated for a second time as a prime ministerial candidate.

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares were trading mixed Wednesday amid worries over discouraging data on China, as well as over the future of the U.S. economy.

France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.4% in early trading to 7,292.89, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.2% to 15,799.93. Britain’s FTSE 100 was little changed, inching down less than 0.1% to 7,387.74.

U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures up 0.2% at 35,073.00. S&P 500 futures gained 0.2% to 4,463.00.

But benchmarks fell in Asia earlier in the day.

BEIJING, Aug 15 (APP):: China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi will attend the opening ceremony of the 7th China-South Asia Exposition scheduled to be held in Kunming, Yunnan province of China from Wednesday.

With the theme of “Solidarity and Coordination for Common Development”, the expo will continue till August 20, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

YANGON, Aug 15 (NNN-MNA) – A total of 19 bodies have been recovered until this afternoon, following a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State, local police said.

“Until 2:30 p.m. local time today, 19 bodies were retrieved. All the deceased are male. Search and rescue operations are underway,” Han Win Hlaing, a police officer from Hpakant police station, said today.