Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China will delay its national college entrance exam by a month as it grapples with a coronavirus pandemic as travellers returning from abroad are fuelling new cases and boosting concern over the threat of a second wave of infections.

The two-day “gaokao” annual test will be pushed back to July 7 and 8, China Central Television said on Tuesday, with Hubei province, where the virus emerged late last year, and Beijing, the capital, being given more leeway in scheduling it.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Oil recovered ground on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to talks to stabilize energy markets, with benchmarks climbing off 18-year lows hit as the coronavirus outbreak cut fuel demand worldwide.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up by 43 cents, or 1.9%, at $23.19 a barrel by 0406 GMT, after closing on Monday at $22.76, its lowest finish since November 2002.

U.S. crude Clc1 was up by $1.16, or 5.8%, at $21.26 a barrel, after settling in the earlier session at $20.09, lowest since February 2002.

BEIJING (AP) — Nineteen people have died while fighting a raging forest fire in southwestern China and hundreds of reinforcements were sent to fight the blaze and evacuate nearby residents, officials and state media reported Tuesday.

The area threatened by the fire in Sichuan province is thinly populated, but there was no estimate on how many people were leaving the evacuation zone. State media have described villages, a school, a chemical plant and other places as under threat.

SHANGHAI, March 30. /TASS/: The current novel coronavirus pandemic is likely to ebb around autumn, but there is no time frame when it will end, the Shanghai Daily quotes Dr. Zhang Wenhong, of Huashan Hospital, as saying.

"The most beautiful season of the year might be autumn as there is a possibility that the virus might ebb in October. But after that, it will persist for a long time," Zhang said during the second COVID-19 multidisciplinary forum, which was held online with experts from home and abroad.

30 March 2020; AFP: The Tokyo Olympics will begin on July 23 next year, organisers said on Monday, after the coronavirus forced the historic decision to postpone the Games until 2021.

The announcement comes less than a week after the organisers were forced to delay the Games under heavy pressure from athletes and sports federations as the global outbreak worsened.

WUHAN, China (Reuters) - China ramped up efforts on Monday to heal the world’s second-biggest economy as health authorities reported a further drop in new coronavirus cases, although the country remains wary of carriers of the disease coming from abroad and infected people who exhibit no symptoms.

The city of Wuhan, the source of the pandemic, reported no new cases for a sixth day, as businesses reopened and residents set about reclaiming a more normal life after a lockdown of almost two months.

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Monday ordered the suspension to public transport services to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which is known to have infected 203 people in the country.

Phuc also called for a limit on the use of private vehicles and encouraged state officials to work from home, according to a statement posted on the government website.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Monday that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo undermined its willingness to restart stalled denuclearisation talks, criticising his recent remarks on sanctions on Pyongyang.

Pompeo had said after a teleconference with G7 foreign ministers last week that all nations must remain united in calling for North Korea to return to negotiations and applying diplomatic and economic pressure over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s largest state banks said the impact of restrictions on movement imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus could pull down asset quality as borrowers struggle to repay loans, though they are likely big enough to weather any fallout.

The comments come as five of the country’s largest state-backed lenders posted estimate-beating fourth-quarter profit - but they bode ill for smaller lenders, who have less capital reserves and can call on fewer state borrowers.

Beijing, Mar 30 (AFP/PTI) China's central bank on Monday cut an interest rate on loans to banks by the largest margin in five years and injected 50 billion yuan (USD 7 billion) into the financial system to help the world's second-largest economy weather the coronavirus impact.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) said it launched a 50-billion-yuan reverse repurchase operation on Monday and lowered the seven-day reverse repurchase rate from 2.40 percent to 2.20 per cent.