Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- China is working on tax exemptions on part of the soybeans and pork imported from the United States in light of applications submitted by related enterprises, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said Friday.

The commission will dedicate a range of goods to be excluded from tariff countermeasures against the U.S. Section 301 measure, it said.

According to domestic needs, Chinese enterprises import a certain amount of goods from the United States through market-based procurement.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea threatened Thursday to resume insults of U.S. President Donald Trump and consider him a “dotard” if he keeps using provocative language, such as referring to its leader as “rocket man.”

Choe Son Hui, the first vice foreign minister, issued the warning via state media days after Trump spoke of possible military action toward the North and revived his “rocket man” nickname for North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un.

5 December 2019; AFP: Half a century ago a North Korean agent hijacked the flight carrying Hwang In-cheol's father. Pyongyang never returned him, and the search has defined his son's life.

Hwang was just two when he last saw his father and knows him only through photographs, but he has spent much of his adult life campaigning for him.

A producer for South Korean broadcaster MBC, Hwang Won was starting a business trip on a domestic Korean Air flight from Gangneung to Seoul's Gimpo airport on December 11, 1969.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Tetsu Nakamura, the Japanese doctor and aid worker killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, was inspired to make the country’s deserts green by the deaths of children in a clinic he ran in a drought-stricken rural area.

“You’d hear a child screaming in the waiting room, but by the time you got there they’d be dead,” he told NHK television in an October program.

PYONGYANG, Dec 5 (NNN-KCNA) – Pak Jong Chon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, of North Korea (DPRK), said, he was disappointed to hear U.S. President, Donald Trump’s remarks on Tuesday, in which Trump said he may use armed forces against the DPRK.

“I heard that the U.S. president made undesirable remarks about the DPRK on Dec 3, during the NATO summit in Britain,” he said.

BEIJING, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- China warned Wednesday if the United States continues to play with double standards on anti-terrorism or even try to infringe upon other countries' sovereignty and security, it will end up swallowing a bitter fruit with its own interests harmed.

"It hasn't been long since the Sept. 11 attacks. The U.S. should not forget the pain as wounds heal," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference.

SHENZHEN, China (AP) — Chinese tech giant Huawei is asking a U.S. federal court to throw out a rule that bars rural phone carriers from using government money to purchase its equipment on security grounds.

The lawsuit announced Thursday is Huawei Technologies Ltd.’s second legal challenge this year to Trump administration efforts to reduce its already minimal U.S. market presence. The company is scrambling to preserve its global sales of smartphones and network gear following sanctions announced in May that limit access to U.S. components and technology.

HONG KONG (AP) — By day, the small commercial kitchen in a Hong Kong industrial building produces snacks. At night, it turns into a secret laboratory assembling a kit for pro-democracy protesters seeking to detox after repeated exposure to tear gas.

Volunteers seated around a kitchen island sort and pack multicolored pills into small resealable bags. At another table, a woman makes turmeric pills by dipping gelatin capsules into a shallow dish of the deep orange spice.

BEIJING, Dec 4 (APP): Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here with former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and discussed the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry’s statement issued here on Wednesday.

During the meeting, the Chinese foreign minister said Afghan situation has come to a crucial point, and the top priority now is to achieve progress and results in both US-Taliban talks and intra-Afghan dialogue.

China has always respected the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, Wang said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 (NNN-BERNAMA) — For the first time,  the Asia-Pacific region has become the largest destination and source of foreign direct investment (FDI) globally,  according to a new report launched by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Titled ‘Foreign Direct Investment Trends and Outlook in Asia and the Pacific’, the study found the region is expected to maintain steady inflows and outflows of FDI in 2019 and 2020.