Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped on Wednesday as the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) forecast of a market surplus in the first half of this year was enough to cancel out concerns about military disruptions that have slashed Libya’s crude output.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down 30 cents, or 0.5%, at $64.29 a barrel at 0731 GMT, after falling 0.3% on Tuesday. U.S. oil CLc1 fell 33 cents, or 0.6%, to $58.05 a barrel, having declined 0.3% the day before.

TASHKENT, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The legislative chamber and the senate of Uzbekistan's newly-formed parliament have approved Abdulla Aripov as the prime minister of the Central Asian nation in its joint session on Tuesday.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has nominated Aripov as a candidate to lead the government for a new five-year term noting that he has known him for more than 20 years.

Aripov, who had served as a deputy prime minister between 2002 and 2012, became prime minister when President Mirziyoyev assumed office following presidential elections in 2016.

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese health authorities announced Wednesday that 440 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) had been reported in 13 provincial-level regions in the country by the end of Tuesday.

The cases had resulted in nine deaths, all in central China's Hubei Province, said Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, at a press conference.

Altogether 149 new confirmed cases were reported Tuesday, Li added.

MOSCOW, Jan 21 (NNN-SPUTNIK) — The former president of Interpol, Meng Hongwei has been sentenced to 13.5 years in prison by a court in Tianjin, China on Tuesday, reported Sputnik news agency.

The court also fined the former executive nearly 2 mln yuan ($289,850).

According to China’s central television network, which broadcast the verdict, the defendant does not intend to appeal the case.

He was also fined two million yuan (S$391,130), said the Tianjin First Intermediate People’s Court.

JAKARTA, Jan 21 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), stands ready to work with China, to lift the ASEAN-China strategic partnership to a new high, ASEAN Secretary-General, Lim Jock Hoi, said here.

He made the remarks while receiving credentials presented by China’s new Ambassador to ASEAN, Deng Xijun, at the ASEAN Secretariat. He said, ASEAN attaches great importance to its ties with China, as well as, the important role China has played in the East Asian cooperation.

OKUMA, Japan (Reuters) - At the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo, workers in protective suits are still removing radioactive material from reactors that melted down after an earthquake and tsunami knocked out its power and cooling nearly nine years ago.

On an exclusive tour of the plant, spread over 3.5 million square meters (865 acres), Reuters witnessed giant remote-controlled cranes dismantling an exhaust tower and other structures in a highly radioactive zone while spent fuel was removed from a reactor.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell nearly 1% on Tuesday as investors expected Libya’s oil production to eventually resume following a force majeure declared by the oil exporter on two major oilfields amid a military blockade.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down 56 cents, or nearly 0.9%, at $64.64 per barrel by 0748 GMT, after rising to its highest in more than a week on Monday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was down 35 cents, or 0.6%, at $58.19 a barrel.

BEIJING (AP) — A fourth person has died in an outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, authorities said Tuesday, as more places stepped up medical screening of travelers from the country as it enters its busiest travel period.

The increased control measures followed a sharp rise in the number of infections to more than 200 people since last month, with epidemiologists still uncertain of its nature and mode of transmission.

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) — An independent commission established by Myanmar’s government has concluded there are reasons to believe that security forces committed war crimes in counterinsurgency operations that led more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

However, the commission, headed by a Philippine diplomat, said in a report given Monday to President Win Myint that there is no evidence supporting charges that genocide was planned or carried out against the Rohingya.

Penang (Malaysia), Jan 20 (AP/PTI) Malaysia has sent back 150 containers of plastic waste to 13 mainly rich countries since the third quarter last year, with the environment minster warning on Monday that those who want to make the country a rubbish bin of the world can "dream on".

Shipments of unwanted rubbish have been rerouted to Southeast Asia since China banned the import of plastic waste in 2018, but Malaysia and other developing countries are fighting back.