Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- In the countdown to China’s deadline to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020, the socialist system is playing a crucial role.

"Socialism means development. Development must serve the common prosperity for everyone," President Xi Jinping called for greater efforts to win the battle against poverty on time during a recent inspection tour to southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.

17 Apr 2019; AFP: Indonesia's Joko Widodo was on track to be re-elected leader of the world's third-biggest democracy with pollsters giving him a wide lead over rival Prabowo Subianto, a firebrand ex-general, hours after voting closed Wednesday across the 17,000-island archipelago.

While official results are not due until next month, a series of so-called "quick counts" by pollsters showed Widodo holding a strong lead with around 55 percent of the vote to Subianto's 44 percent.

SHANGHAI (AP) — China’s economic growth held steady in the latest quarter despite a tariff war with Washington as Beijing’s efforts to reverse a slowdown started to gain traction.

The world’s second-largest economy expanded by 6.4% over a year earlier in the three months ending in March, the government reported Wednesday. That matched the previous quarter for the weakest growth since 2009.

“This confirms that China’s economic growth is bottoming out and this momentum is likely to continue,” said Tai Hui of JP Morgan Asset Management in a report.

BANGKOK (AP) — A dog found swimming more than 220 kilometers (135 miles) from shore by workers on an oil rig crew in the Gulf of Thailand has been returned safely to land.

A worker on the rig belonging to Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production, Vitisak Payalaw, said on his Facebook page that they saw the dog swimming toward the platform last Friday. He said they were lucky to spot it because if there had been waves it probably would not have been visible.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Tens of millions of Indonesians voted in presidential and legislative elections Wednesday after a campaign that pitted the moderate incumbent against an ultranationalist former general whose fear-based rhetoric warned that the country would fall apart without his strongman leadership.

(AP) The Indonesian presidential election is the world’s biggest direct vote for a national leader.

This year the already vast exercise became even bigger with elections for Senate and national, provincial and district legislatures held simultaneously.

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands that spans the distance from New York to London, spared no effort to ensure its nearly 193 million eligible voters from hundreds of ethnic groups could make their choices. Ballots were ferried to far-flung areas by helicopter, horse, boat and foot.

GUANGZHOU, April 15 (Xinhua) -- The 125th China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, opened Monday in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, with over half of companies attending its import fair hailing from Belt and Road countries and regions.

The spring session of the biannual fair holds import exhibitions in its first and third phases, with 1,000 booths booked by 650 enterprises from 38 countries and regions.

BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-one years after her birth via external fertilization and embryo transplantation, Zheng Mengzhu, China's first test-tube baby, gave birth on Monday in a Beijing hospital.

At 8:34 a.m., Zheng gave birth to a boy through caesarean section, said Zhao Yangyu, head of obstetrics at Peking University Third Hospital who performed the surgery. The boy weighs 3.85 kg, which is similar to his mother's birth-weight.

The baby was in a horizontal position when he was in the womb, a situation that demanded a C-section, Zhao explained.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to significantly relax market access, and create a more attractive investment and business environment, Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun has said here.

Liu made the remarks when attending a ministerial-level luncheon during the 99th Development Committee meeting held by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Friday and Saturday in Washington D.C., according to China's Ministry of Finance.

Vice Finance Minister Zou Jiayi attended a ministerial-level meeting and gave a speech.

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) — Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Monday a Chinese company building a rail link across peninsula Malaysia will jointly help to manage, operate and maintain the network that will help reduce the country’s financial burden.