Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SEOUL, Nov 5 (Reuters) - South Korea's main opposition party on Friday chose a former top prosecutor as its presidential candidate, hoping to ride voter anger over rising home prices and corruption scandals involving President Moon Jae-in's party to victory in a 2022 election.

Yoon Seok-youl, who served as prosecutor-general until March after being appointed by Moon in 2019, was picked at a party convention to represent the People Power Party in the March 9, 2022 presidential election.

HONG KONG, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Last month, several thousand Hong Kong university students, some of them under the watch of a CCTV camera, were the first to take compulsory courses on the territory’s national security law.

The content of the courses, some of which Reuters has seen exclusively, sets out the dangers of breaking the law, in one case demonstrating how a message in a chat group could be interpreted as a serious breach, punishable by up to life in prison.

BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- China is smarter than the United States as China began to cope with its economic booms earlier than the latter did in the same situation, billionaire Charlie Munger, the vice chairman of the U.S. multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, has said.

Munger told CNN in an interview that China "steps on a boom in the middle of it instead of waiting for the big bust," the CNN website reported on Wednesday. "Of course, I admire that. In that one respect, they are wiser than we are."

BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese government spokesperson on Friday sent out a stern warning to "Taiwan independence" diehards saying such separatist elements are on the mainland's list and will be punished in accordance with the law.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks in response to a media query regarding the punitive measures against stubborn secessionists.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia is on track to revive its economy in 2022 through an expansionary budget announced last Friday, said Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz on Thursday.

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg earlier today, Tengku Zafrul said the government has planned to minimise the economic scarring brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the economic growth to a medium-term trajectory.

TAIPEI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - A top Taiwan security official told lawmakers on Thursday that China had internally debated whether to attack Taiwan's Pratas Islands but will not do so before 2024, the year President Tsai Ing-wen's term ends.

National Security Bureau Director-General Chen Ming-tong did not say how he knew that such a move had been debated or why it would not happen during the next few years.

China's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

JAKARTA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat has announced that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, the world's largest trade deal so far, will enter into force on Jan. 1, 2022.

The secretariat, which made the announcement on Wednesday, said it has received instruments of ratification from six ASEAN countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as from four non-ASEAN signatory states of Australia, China, Japan, and New Zealand.

BANGKOK, Nov 3 (NNN-Bernama) — Thailand is hoping to get at least 700,000 visitors to the kingdom this year via various entry schemes and initiatives to revive the tourism sector and spur the economic recovery.

In its latest move, which started on Monday, Thailand welcomes fully vaccinated visitors from 63 countries and territories via “Test & Go” entry scheme, where visitors will skip mandatory quarantine.

BEIJING, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The World Economic Forum said on Wednesday that it is postponing its event planned for later this month in the Chinese city of Tianjin due to the outbreak of COVID-19 cases in the country, where new locally transmitted cases hit a near three-month high.

"Regretfully, due to the circumstances around the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and recent cases in major cities and provinces in China, the Annual Meeting of the New Champions will be rescheduled," the WEF said in an email to participants.

BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday urged developed countries to intensify their efforts to fulfill their commitments to developing countries on climate change, to make due contributions to climate change response and global climate governance.