Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

26 July 2019; AFP: Hundreds of Hong Kong protesters, including flight attendants, held a rally in the airport's arrival hall on Friday to "educate" visitors about the demonstrations currently roiling the international finance hub as it braces for another weekend of protests.

The cavernous hall is usually filled with excited friends and relatives waiting to greet loved ones as they make their way out of one of the world's busiest airports.

VIENTIANE, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Lao Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Bosengkham Vongdara hosted a press conference on Thursday afternoon confirming UNESCO’s acknowledgement of the Plain of Jars, a megalithic archaeological landscape in Xieng Khuang Plateau, as a UNESCO’s World Heritage site.

PYONGYANG, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has fired two projectiles on Thursday, promoting expressions of concern from Seoul and Washington.

In a report released Friday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the DPRK move a day earlier was meant as a warning to South Korea as Seoul is trying to introduce advanced weapons to the peninsula and making preparations for military drills, in disregard of repeated expressions of opposition by Pyongyang.

HONG KONG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A number of Southeast Asians nations have in recently months intercepted and sent back containers of solid waste that were shipped from developped countries including the United States and Canada.

Last Thursday, the Cambodian government said it would send 83 containers of plastic waste back to the United States and Canada. The rubbish-filled containers were discovered two days earlier at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port.

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- FedEx's claim of having misdelivered Huawei's packages to the United States disaccorded with facts, an investigation by Chinese authorities has found.

The investigation showed that FedEx was suspected of holding up more than 100 Huawei packages entering China.

Investigators also discovered clues to other violations of the company.

Chinese authorities will continue with its in-depth investigation on a comprehensive, objective and fair basis.

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- An article by the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) has exposed the hypocrisy of the United States on human rights as evidenced by its racial discrimination situation.

"For all its self-styled positioning as a defender of human rights, the United States has neither the will nor the ability to solve the severe problem of racial discrimination on its own territory. This exposes the institutional and structural defects of the United States," said the CSHRS article published on Friday.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea suffered its worst economic contraction last year in more than two decades due to international sanctions and bad weather, South Korea’s central bank said Friday.

The Seoul-based Bank of Korea said in a statement that North Korea’s economy shrank 4.1% last year from a year earlier.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A day after two North Korean missile launches rattled Asia, Pyongyang announced Friday that leader Kim Jong Un had supervised the test of a new tactical guided weapon that was meant as a “solemn warning” about rival South Korea’s weapons development and plans to hold military exercises with the United States.

25 July 2019; AFP: Chinese tanks at the border? False. Photo of a protester biting off a policeman's finger? Misleading. In polarised Hong Kong, a fake news fight for public opinion has become as crucial a battleground as the city streets.

During weeks of pro-democracy protests that have involved millions of people and frequently turned violent, online rumours and conspiracy theories have sowed confusion and deepened distrust.

BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday issued a white paper on the country's efforts to protect rights and interests of persons with disabilities in the past 70 years.

The white paper, titled "Equality, Participation and Sharing: 70 Years of Protecting the Rights and Interests of Persons with Disabilities in the PRC," was released by the State Council Information Office.