Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

MANILA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday ordered the creation of an inter-agency task force to streamline the government's response to regions ravaged by Typhoon Vamco which has left at least 53 dead.

"I directed them to streamline, to speed up the rehabilitation efforts for those affected by the typhoon," Duterte said in a televised public address amid efforts to rescue people stranded on rooftops in the northern Luzon provinces of Cagayan and Isabela.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — President Donald Trump skipped summits with his Asian counterparts for the third year in a row on Saturday, even as rival China is set to expand its influence with a massive free trade deal in the region.

National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Trump regretted he was unable to attend the online summit with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, but stressed the importance of ties with the region.

KALBAJAR, Azerbaijan (AP) — In a bitter farewell to his home of 21 years, Garo Dadevusyan wrenched off its metal roof and prepared to set the stone house on fire. Thick smoke poured from houses that his neighbors had already torched before fleeing this ethnic Armenian village about to come under Azerbaijani control.

BEIJING, Nov 13 (APP): A Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesman on Friday congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the election as president and vice president of the US.

“We noticed that more country’s leaders and heads of international organizations have congratulated Biden including United Nation Secretary General. We extend congratulations to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris,’ Wang Wenbin said during the regular briefing held here.

He said that the Chinese side have been following reactions on the US elections from within the US and the international community.

MANILA, Nov 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Police in the Philippines said the death toll from Typhoon Vamco has risen to 26, with dozens still missing or injured after the storm deluged Manila and its surrounding provinces, triggering some of the capital’s worst floods in years.

Fourteen people remain missing after Vamco, the 21st typhoon to hit the country this year, swept across Luzon, the Philippines’ main island.

Tens of thousands of homes were submerged by floods, as key highways turned into rivers.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 (Bernama) — Malaysia has called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to continue to enhance cooperation in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector with South Korea to further accelerate digital economy in the region.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Ousted Nissan Motor Co 7201.T chairman Carlos Ghosn's legal woes deepened on Friday with the start of a civil trial in Yokohama, Japan, where his former employer is seeking 10 billion yen ($95 million) in damages.

“The legal actions initiated today form part of Nissan’s policy of holding Ghosn accountable for the harm and financial losses incurred by the company due to (his) misconduct,” Nissan said in a statement.

MOSCOW/YELPIN, Armenia (Reuters) - France and the United States are expected to send diplomats to Moscow soon to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russia said on Thursday, two days after the Kremlin deployed troops to the ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan to secure a truce.

The arrival on Tuesday of the peacekeepers to oversee the ceasefire between Azeri troops and ethnic Armenian forces in the enclave extends Russia’s military footprint among the former Soviet republics it views as its strategic back yard.

XICHANG, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- China successfully launched a new mobile telecommunication satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Thursday.

The Tiantong 1-02 satellite was launched at 23:59 (Beijing Time) by a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

Tiantong-1 is a satellite mobile communication system independently developed and built by China. It consists of a space segment, ground segment, and user terminal.

YANGON, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party has won more than enough seats to form a new government in the general elections held across the country on Nov. 8, according to a result announcement by the Union Election Commission (UEC) on Friday.

As of Friday morning, the NLD party has won 346 seats in the Union Parliament -- the House of Representatives (Lower House) and the House of Nationalities (Upper House), passing the target parliamentary seats to win, the UEC's figures showed.