Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TAIPEI, March 23 (Reuters) - Taiwan is considering extending compulsory military service beyond four months, Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said on Wednesday, as the war in Ukraine renewed discussion about how best to respond to China's military pressure.

Taiwan has been gradually shifting from a conscript military to a volunteer-dominated professional force, but China's growing assertiveness towards the island it claims as its own, as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have prompted debate about how to boost defence.

SEOUL, March 23 (Reuters) - South Korea's total coronavirus infections topped 10 million, or nearly 20% of its population, authorities said on Wednesday, as surging severe cases and deaths increasingly put a strain on crematories and funeral homes nationwide.

The country has been battling a record COVID-19 wave driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant even as it largely scrapped its once aggressive tracing and quarantine efforts and eased social distancing curbs. 

WUZHOU, China, March 23 (Reuters) - China has found one of the two black boxes belonging to the China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS) plane that crashed on Monday, an official of the aviation regulator told reporters on Wednesday.

YANGON, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Tropical storm Asani has crossed Myanmar's delta region starting from Haiggyikyun, an island located at the mouth of the Pathein River, on Tuesday, according to the country's state weather department.

"Some 4,600 people in the region were already evacuated," U Win Shwe, deputy director-general of the disaster management department under the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, told Xinhua.

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities on Wednesday released a plan on the development of hydrogen energy for the 2021-2035 period as the country races toward its carbon peaking and neutrality goals.

By 2025, China will put in place a relatively complete hydrogen energy industry development system, with the innovation capability significantly improved and the core technologies and manufacturing processes basically mastered, according to the plan jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration.

BEIJING (AP) — ZTE Corp. said Wednesday a U.S. judge has allowed a probation period to end after the telecom equipment maker was nearly destroyed in a clash with Washington over its dealings with Iran and North Korea.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump barred ZTE’s access to American components amid rising tension with Beijing over technology and security. The company had pleaded guilty the previous year to shipping equipment to Iran and North Korea in violation of U.S. rules and agreed to pay a $1.2 billion fine.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s foreign minister on Wednesday claimed minor initial progress in his mission as a special regional envoy seeking to facilitate peacemaking in strife-torn Myanmar.

Prak Sokhonn, representing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, spoke after his return from a visit to military-ruled Myanmar, which was plunged into an extended violent political crisis after the army seized power last year.

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares rose Wednesday following a rally on Wall Street led by technology companies.

Benchmarks edged up in Europe in early trading, while shares finished higher across Asia despite worries about rising energy costs. The dollar gained against the Japanese yen while U.S. futures fell.

France’s benchmark CAC 40 rose 0.1% in early trading to 6,667.05, while Germany’s DAX gained 0.3% to 14,516.18. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 7,500.58. The futures for the Dow industrials and S&P 500 were 0.1% lower.

WUZHOU, China (AP) — The search for clues into why a Chinese commercial jetliner dove suddenly and crashed into a mountain in southern China was suspended Wednesday as rain slickened the debris field and filled the red-dirt gash formed by the plane’s fiery impact.

BEIJING, March 22. / TASS/: The Chinese authorities have paid attention to the deterioration of Russian-Japanese relations and hope for normalization of contacts between Moscow and Tokyo, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin stated on Tuesday.

"We have paid attention to this information [about deteriorating relations between Russia and Japan]. China hopes that Moscow and Tokyo will successfully resolve the relevant issues," he said at a briefing.