Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

XIANGSHUI, Jiangsu, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from an explosion in a chemical plant in east China's Jiangsu Province has risen to 64 as of 7 a.m. Saturday, authorities said.

One person was rescued alive on Saturday morning thanks to an around-the-clock search, about one and a half days after the devastating blast. But 28 people are still unaccounted for, Cao Lubao, mayor of the city of Yancheng, said at a press conference.

Among the dead, 26 people have been identified, and their next of kin have been notified and offered with comfort and assistance, Cao said.

SEOUL, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) withdrew from the joint liaison office with South Korea in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong, Seoul's unification ministry said Friday.

The ministry said in a statement that the DPRK side notified South Korea on Friday morning of its decision to pull out of the Kaesong liaison office according to instructions from the superior authorities.

All of the DPRK officials, who had stayed in Kaesong for the round-the-clock communications with the South Korean counterparts, withdrew from the office.

BEIJING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson for the Chinese military said Friday it firmly opposes U.S. military officers' remarks hyping up the so-called "China threat" at the Senate armed services committee's 2020 fiscal year defense budget hearing.

BEIJING, March 21. /TASS/. China and Russia stand for resolving the situation in Syria as soon as possible, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang said at a briefing, commenting on Wednesday’s talks between China’s Special Envoy for Syria Xie Xiaoyan and Russian Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov.

JAKARTA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's biggest airliner, PT Garuda Indonesia, has canceled orders of 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 jet planes in the wake of two crashes involving similar types of planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in the last six months, President Director of the firm Ari Askhara said here Friday.

BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhua) -- China's State Grid plans to establish a network of its newly launched small charging piles in major cities this year, in a bid to meet the rising demand of new energy vehicle (NEV) owners, China Daily reported Thursday.

The smart charging pile, launched Wednesday by State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Co, the subsidiary of State Grid Corp of China, is designed based on the A4 paper size, much smaller than the traditional charging pile. Dubbed "E-elf", it can be hung on or embedded into the wall.

BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhua) -- A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Thursday called for efforts to build a batch of high-level think tanks that meet the requirements for the new era.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at a meeting of national high-level think tanks.

BEIJING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday demanded all-out efforts to search and rescue victims after an industrial park explosion in east China's Jiangsu Province killed 47 and seriously injured 90.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the instructions on his tour of overseas visits.

NAIROBI, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese companies and government have taken the lead in promoting the use of cleaner vehicle technologies around the world through partnerships with national and city authorities, a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) official said.

Jane Akumu, program officer in charge of Air Quality and Mobility Unit at the Economic Division of UNEP, said through its work with Chinese authorities, progress is being made locally and regionally to introduce cleaner city transport technologies in Africa.

MANILA, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has dissolved the government panel negotiating peace with the leftist rebels, driving another nail into the coffin of peace talks between the Duterte administration and the insurgents.

The panel was chaired by Philippine Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello. In letters addressed to Bello and the four panel members dated March 18, the Office of the President said their appointments are now terminated since Duterte already ordered the scrapping of the talks in November 2017.