Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, Dec 28 (APP): The individuals and enterprises around the world have been invited to take advantage of the world-class business opportunities and best preferential policies offered by Qiantang New District, Hangzhou, China.

The QND was established to the east of Hangzhou early this year to form an integrated innovation and development zone for the digital economy and smart manufacturing, local authorities said in a statement issued here.

Hong Kong, Dec 28 (AP/PTI) Protesters shouting Liberate Hong Kong! marched through a shopping mall Saturday to demand that mainland Chinese traders leave the territory in a fresh weekend of anti-government tension.

The protest in Sheung Shui, near Hong Kong's boundary with the mainland, was part of efforts to pressure the government by disrupting economic activity.

Protests that began in June over a proposed China extradition law have spread to include demands for more democracy and other grievances.

MANILA, Dec 28 (NNN-PNA) – Tourism is booming in the Philippines, with more than eight million visitors coming in 2019, the government said today, Saturday.

“Breaking the eight-million mark is another milestone to celebrate, as it marks the unprecedented growth of the country’s tourism industry,” Tourism Secretary, Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, said, in a statement.

The country’s Department of Tourism (DOT), celebrated on Friday, the benchmark number of eight million guests, four days before 2019 ends.

ULAN BATOR, Dec 28 (NNN-MONGOLIA WEB) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB), on Friday, signed a loan and grant agreement worth 80 million U.S. dollars, with the Mongolian government, for promoting health care services in the Asian country.

Declan Magee, ADB deputy country director for Mongolia, and Mongolian Finance Minister, Chimed Khurelbaatar, signed the agreement at a ceremony held in the capital.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police found the remains of at least five people in a wooden boat suspected to be from North Korea on the coast of one of Japan’s outlying islands on Saturday, a Coast Guard official said.

Police made the discovery in the wooden boat’s stem around 9:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Saturday on Sado island, which is off the coast of Japan’s northwestern prefecture of Niigata, Coast Guard official Kei Chinen said.

Police found the heads of two persons, as well as five bodies, Chinen said, adding that the cause of death is under investigation.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police have earned a total of HK$135 million in allowances during the past six months of anti-government protests, government figures show.

The meal and work-related allowances were on top of HK$950 million overtime pay that police have earned since the protests intensified in June, according to the figures released to city legislators on Friday.

BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- An amendment to the law on the protection of investments by compatriots from Taiwan was adopted in Beijing on Saturday to welcome more investment from Taiwan.

The amendment simplifies the procedures for investment in the mainland by Taiwan compatriots by removing the requirement of government examination, approval and filing.

The amendment was approved at end of a six-day bimonthly session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

BEIJING, Dec 27 (APP): China on Friday called on India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and refrain from taking actions which could escalate tension between the two sides and peacefully resolve disputes through dialogue.

“As a neighbor to both India and Pakistan, we call on both sides to exercise, retrain and refrain from taking actions that will escalate tensions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Geng Shuang said during his regular briefing while responding to a question regarding the exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani armies on the Line Of Control (LOC).

NUR-SULTAN, December 27. /TASS/: Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has declared December 28 a national day of mourning in the wake of Friday’s Bek Air plane crash near Almaty, Presidential Spokesman Berik Uali wrote on his Facebook page.

"President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared December 28, 2019, a national day of mourning in connection with the deadly passenger plane crash near Almaty," he wrote.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has banned two U.S. lawmakers from visiting and will introduce tighter entry restrictions for U.S. citizens should Washington enforce sanctions over the detention of a top government critic, the president’s spokesman said on Friday.

President Rodrigo Duterte will impose a requirement on U.S. nationals to get visas should any Philippine officials involved in the incarceration of Senator Leila de Lima be denied entry to the United States, as sought by U.S. senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy.