Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

17 Mar 2020; MEMO: China has called for the immediate lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran amidst its fight against the novel coronavirus, Xinhua reported yesterday.

BEIJING, March 17. /TASS/: People with blood type A (II) are the most susceptible to the COVID-19 coronavirus infection, while people with blood type O (I) are the least susceptible, says research by a group of Chinese scientists, published at medRxiv website.

The scientists have reviewed data on 2,200 patients from three Wuhan and Shenzhen hospitals, including more than 200 lethal cases.

BEIJING, March 17. /TASS/: China has developed eight types of vaccines against the novel coronavirus. Some of them have already proven to be effective on animals, head of the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Qin Chuan informed during a briefing on Tuesday.

"Currently, the Academy of Medical Sciences is estimating the effectiveness of eight vaccines. The effectiveness of some of them has been proven successfully," she said.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Second Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM2) and related meetings, which were scheduled to be held in April, have been postponed.

In a statement today, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said the postponement includes the 2020 APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting and the 2020 APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting.

It said that tentatively, the SOM2 and related meetings will be held June 15-26 followed by the MRT Meeting from June 27 to 28.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today announced that Malaysia will be placed under a nationwide restricted movement order from March 18 to March 31 to keep in control the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The order, the first in the country’s history, was announced by the prime minister in a broadcast this evening brought live to the people from the national television.

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares reversed early losses in Asia on Tuesday after the U.S. stock market plunged to its worst day in more than three decades and huge swaths of many economies came to a standstill as businesses and travel shut down due to the virus outbreak.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 reversed early losses to gain 0.7% while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 0.9%. Shares also rose in Thailand and Australia, but fell in other regional markets.

Beijing, Mar 16 (PTI) The coronavirus death toll in China rose to 3,213 with 14 new fatalities, while the imported cases climbed to 123 after 12 new infections were reported, prompting Beijing to make 14-day quarantine in special facilities compulsory for foreigners returning to the country.

As of Sunday, 14 new deaths were reported, taking the death toll due to the deadly virus to 3,213, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said on Monday.

TOKYO, March 16. /TASS/: The leaders of G7 countries will hold a teleconference on March 16 to discuss the spread of the novel coronavirus in the world, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday at the debates in the country's parliament.

"I have recently held telephone talks with the leaders of the United States, France and the United Kingdom. Today the heads of the G7 countries will hold a teleconference at 11pm [local time]," Abe said. "I hope that we will discuss measures on how to unite in the fight against the virus spread," he added.

16 March 2020; AFP: A Japanese man was sentenced to death on Monday for the stabbing murder of 19 disabled people at a care home, in one of the country's worst mass killings.

Satoshi Uematsu never disputed his involvement in the grisly rampage but his lawyers entered a plea of not guilty, arguing the 30-year-old was suffering a "mental disorder" linked to his use of marijuana.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A fire killed five people at a refining and petrochemicals complex in southern Malaysia owned by Petronas and Saudi Aramco, authorities said on Monday.

It was the second fire in less than a year at the $27 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor.

Petronas [PETR.UL] and Saudi Aramco each have a 50% stake in the PRefChem joint venture, which owns and operates the refinery and some petrochemical plants at PIC.