Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — Nearly one in 25 people in a county in the Uyghur heartland of China has been sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges, in what is the highest known imprisonment rate in the world, an Associated Press review of leaked data shows.

A list obtained and partially verified by the AP cites the names of more than 10,000 Uyghurs sent to prison in just Konasheher county alone, one of dozens in southern Xinjiang. In recent years, China has waged a brutal crackdown on the Uyghurs, a largely Muslim minority, which it has described as a war on terror.

BEIJING (AP) — Most of Shanghai has stopped the spread of the coronavirus in the community and fewer than 1 million people remain under strict lockdown, authorities said Monday, as the city moves toward reopening and economic data showed the gloomy impact of China’s “zero-COVID” policy.

Vice Mayor Zong Ming said 15 out of Shanghai’s 16 districts had eliminated virus transmission among those not already in quarantine.

“The epidemic in our city is under effective control. Prevention measures have achieved incremental success,” Zong said at a news briefing.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blasted officials over slow medicine deliveries and ordered his military to respond to the surging but largely undiagnosed COVID-19 crisis that has left 1.2 million people ill with fever and 50 dead in a matter of days, state media said Monday.

More than 564,860 people are in quarantine due to the fever that has rapidly spread among people in and around the capital, Pyongyang, since late April. Eight more deaths and 392,920 newly detected fevers were reported Monday, the North’s emergency anti-virus headquarters said.

BEIJING, May 15 (APP): The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been contributing to the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) 2030 Agenda in Pakistan to achieve its SDGs goals.

Although it is expected that CPEC will empower Pakistan to move forward economically, it also has a high potential to achieve a number of SDGs.

Three out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030 are highly relevant to the construction and running of CPEC, according to a report published by China Economic Net (CEN).

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), May 15 (NNN-Bernama) —  The establishment of a working committee between Malaysia and the United States to address the issue of alleged forced labour is an equitable move to resolve palm oil and rubber issues, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.

HANOI, May 15 (NNN-VNA) – Vietnam will ban the use of all plastic bags from 2030, including those in wet markets, it was reported today.

The country has also set a target of using 100 percent environmentally-friendly bags, at commercial centres and supermarkets by 2025, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, was quoted as reporting.

JAKARTA, May 15 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and five others were wounded as an oil refinery operated by Indonesian state owned oil-and-gas firm PT Pertamina caught fire in Balikpapan town of East Kalimantan province on Sunday, a rescuer said.

The accident occurred at 11:00 a.m. local time, and the victims were the workers of the firm and a contractor company, Head of Search and Rescue Office in East Kalimantan province Melki Anuskotta said.

"One person was killed and five others were injured," he told Xinhua over phone.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has confirmed 15 more deaths and hundreds of thousands of additional patients with fevers as it mobilizes more than a million health and other workers to try to suppress the country’s first COVID-19 outbreak, state media reported Sunday.

After maintaining a widely disputed claim that it’s been coronavirus-free for more than two years, North Korea announced Thursday that it had found its first COVID-19 patients since the pandemic began.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Supermarkets, malls and restaurants in Shanghai will be allowed to open in a limited capacity starting Monday, officials said, even while it remained unclear whether residents would be let out from their homes.

The city’s Vice Mayor Chen Tong said Sunday at a daily press briefing that grocery stores, malls, convenience stores and pharmacies will be allowed to reopen while implementing measures that “reduce the flow of people.”

BEIJING, May 13 (APP): Pakistan’s rice export in the first quarter of this year surpassed 466,000 tons ( around half-million tonnes), worth around $176 million, according to the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC).

Data showed that during the first three months of 2022, bilateral trade has increased significantly. China imported more than 466,617 tons of different types of rice, increasing 9.34 % by volume and $175.99 million by worth, while last year in the same period it was 426,751 tons worth $186.45 million.