Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

04 August 2019; DW: An electricity outage has hit most areas of the Indonesian capital and some neighboring provinces on Java island. The blackout happened two days after a 6.9 magnitude quake struck the heavily populated island.

Jakarta's new mass rapid transit (MRT) system had to be evacuated on Sunday after the Indonesian capital was hit by huge power cut.

04 August 2019; DW: Germany's Green party says China has rejected a Bundestag delegation because one of its members is a vocal supporter of the Muslim Uighur minority. Another committee's plans to travel to China are also in doubt.

The Bundestag committee on digitization is supposed to visit startups and learn about artificial intelligence in Shanghai and Beijing later this month.

HONG KONG, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- People from all walks of life in Hong Kong have expressed their indignation over the act by some radicals of flinging the Chinese national flag into the sea.

They strongly condemned the act as a flagrant trampling on the national dignity and the principle of "one country, two systems," calling on the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Manila, Aug 4; IANS/GANASHAKTI: At least 25 people were killed and six others reported missing after three boats capsized due to bad weather in the Philippines, police said on Sunday.

Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan that as of Sunday afternoon, 25 bodies have been recovered after the accidents took place on Saturday night off the rough seas between the city of Iloilo and Guimaras province amid heavy rains, reports Xinhua news agency.

He added that search is continuing to find the missing people.

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Thailand on Saturday with his hopes for resuming nuclear talks with North Korea dashed, while facing an escalating trade war with China and a potentially devastating breakdown in relations between key American allies Japan and South Korea.

HONG KONG (AP) — The first of two planned protests in Hong Kong on Sunday kicked off from a public park just hours after police said they arrested more than 20 people for unlawful assembly and other offences during the previous night’s violent demonstrations.

Light rain fell on the demonstrators who had parasols at the ready. Since Occupy Central protests in 2014, umbrellas have been a prime symbol of the city’s pro-democracy movements.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug 3 (NNN-XINHUA) – Three Taliban local leaders, including an insurgents’ shadow provincial governor, have been killed in an air strike, in Afghanistan’s western Farah province, Afghan Defence Ministry said today (Saturday).

Mullah Abdul Bari, shadow Taliban governor for Farah, was killed, together with Mullah Saddiq and Mawlawi Sayyed, following a sortie in Khaki Safed district, Friday night, the ministry said in a statement.

The statement did not detail whether the strike was conducted by Afghan Air Force or NATO-led coalition forces.

03 August 2019; AFP: Anti-government protesters in Hong Kong kicked off a new mass rally on Saturday as they defy increasingly stern warnings from China over weeks-long unrest that has plunged the city into crisis.

The semi-autonomous southern Chinese financial hub has seen two months of protests and clashes triggered by opposition to a planned extradition law that quickly evolved into a wider movement for democratic reforms.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Saturday its leader Kim Jong Un supervised another test-firing of a new multiple rocket launcher system that could potentially enhance the country’s ability to strike targets in South Korea and U.S. military bases there.

The report by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency came a day after South Korea’s military said it detected North Korea firing projectiles twice into the sea off its eastern coast in its third round of weapons tests in just over a week.

BANGKOK (AP) — India on Friday again rejected President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate its dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir.

India’s foreign minister said he told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that any discussion of the disputed Himalayan region would be between India and Pakistan only. The two men met on Friday on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in Bangkok. India has long refused outside attempts to resolve the conflict while Pakistan has sought international help.