Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — Pandemic lockdowns are expanding across China, including in a city where factory workers clashed this week with police, as the number of COVID-19 cases hits a daily record.

Residents of eight districts of Zhengzhou, home to 6.6 million people, were told to stay home for five days beginning Thursday except to buy food or get medical treatment. Daily mass testing was ordered in what the city government called a “war of annihilation” against the virus.

CIANJUR, Indonesia (AP) — On the fourth day of an increasingly urgent search, Indonesian rescuers narrowed their work Thursday to a landslide where dozens are believed trapped after an earthquake killed at least 271 people, more than a third of them children.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s king on Thursday named reformist opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as the country’s Prime Minister, ending days of uncertainty after divisive general elections produced a hung Parliament.

Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said Anwar, 75, will be sworn in as the nation’s 10th leader at the palace at 5 p.m. (0900 GMT) at the palace.

ASTANA, November 23. /TASS/: The participants of a session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Yerevan decided to designate Imangali Tasmagambetov as the CSTO Secretary General effective January 1, 2023, the press service of Kazakhstan’s president reported on Wednesday.

"Within the framework of planned rotation, the heads of state decided to appoint Kazakhstan’s representative Imangali Tasmagambetov as the CSTO Secretary General beginning on January 1, 2023, for a three-year term," its statement said.

NAIROBI, Nov 23 (NNN-KBC) — Kenya has received a donation of 25,000 metric tonnes of wheat from Ukraine that will be distributed to Counties severely affected by the ongoing drought. 

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua says the donation was presented to his office by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Kenya Andriy Pravednyk who paid him a courtesy call. 

Gachagua said that Ukraine continues to play a key role in global food security amidst the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict. 

FUZHOU, Nov 23 (NNN-XINHUA) – A giant offshore wind turbine, with the world’s largest per-unit capacity, has moved off the production line in east China’s Fujian Province.

The 16-megawatt wind turbine is equipped with a 146-metre hub, equal to the height of a 50-storey building, and has the world’s longest impeller diameter of 252 metres and the lightest per megawatt weight, according to China Three Gorges Corporation.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Short video platform TikTok said on Wednesday it was on high alert for content that violates its guidelines in Malaysia after authorities warned of a rise in ethnic tension on social media following an inconclusive general election.

Saturday's election ended in an unprecedented hung parliament with neither of two rival alliances able to secure enough seats in parliament to form a government.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Malaysia's king on Wednesday called a special meeting of his fellow hereditary sultans to discuss who should be prime minister as an unprecedented post-election crisis entered its fourth day.

The king is due to pick a new prime minister after the leading contenders - opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and former premier Muhyiddin Yassin - failed to secure enough support for a majority following a Saturday election that produced an unprecedented hung parliament.

CIANJUR, Indonesia (AP) — Enjot was tending his cows in the hills near his home when the earth shook.

The 5.6 magnitude earthquake killed more than 265 people, including 11 of Enjot’s family members. His sister-in-law and her two children were hurt, among the hundreds injured in Monday’s quake.

Now, Enjot is visiting his hospitalized loved ones and trying to rebuild his shattered life, one of thousands of Indonesians reeling from the disaster.

BEIJING (AP) — Employees at the world’s biggest Apple iPhone factory were beaten and detained in protests over pay amid anti-virus controls, according to witnesses and videos on social media Wednesday, as tensions mount over Chinese efforts to combat a renewed rise in infections.

Videos that said they were filmed at the factory in the central city of Zhengzhou showed thousands of people in masks facing rows of police in white protective suits with plastic riot shields. Police kicked and hit a protester with clubs after he grabbed a metal pole that had been used to strike him.