Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

Beijing, Mar 5 (PTI) China on Tuesday increased its defence budget by 7.2 per cent to USD 232 billion as it continues with the massive modernisation of its military amid prevailing tensions over Taiwan, the South China Sea, border frictions with India and increasing rivalry with the US.

Seoul, Mar 5 (PTI) The era when a few powers exercised "disproportionate influence" over the reshaping of the global order is a thing of the past so India and South Korea have a growing responsibility to actively contribute to the process, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, Jaishankar who is here on a two-day visit, said India’s partnership with the Republic of Korea is acquiring a greater salience in a more uncertain and volatile world.

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China seeks to achieve a GDP growth rate of around 5 percent for 2024, the latest signal that the world's second-largest economy is committed to high-quality development despite uncertainties at home and abroad.

The projected goal, which remains unchanged from the previous year's growth target, is one of the key development objectives unveiled in the government work report delivered by Premier Li Qiang to the national legislature, which began its annual session Tuesday.

URUMQI, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China has achieved a significant breakthrough in deep-Earth exploration with the drilling of a superdeep borehole in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region exceeding the 10,000-meter mark, making it the deepest vertical well in Asia, even though the project as a whole is not yet completed.

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- A team of Chinese zoologists have identified a genetic source making the coat color of some giant pandas appear unusually brown and white.

The world's first brown panda was discovered in 1985 in the Qinling Mountains in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. All recorded photographs of the wild brown pandas were taken in the area. A recent adopted one is the male brown-and-white panda Qizai born in 2009.

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China targets economic growth of around 5 percent in 2024, according to a government work report submitted Tuesday to the national legislature for deliberation.

The country expects to create over 12 million jobs in urban areas and keep the surveyed urban unemployment rate at around 5.5 percent this year, according to the report.

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- In an effort to promote industrial upgrading, China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should put strategic emerging industries and future-oriented industries in a prominent position, an official with the country's top state-asset regulator said Tuesday.

Investment by central SOEs in strategic emerging industries increased 32.1 percent year on year in 2023, Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council, said on the sidelines of the ongoing "two sessions."

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China will strive to modernize the industrial system and develop new quality productive forces at a faster pace, according to a government work report submitted Tuesday to the national legislature for deliberation.

MELBOURNE, March 4 (Bernama) — Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia is willing to reopen the investigation into the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 should fresh and compelling evidence emerge.

“On the 370, we have taken a position that if there is compelling case evidence that needs to be reopened, we will certainly do so.