Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

JAKARTA, Mar 29 (NNN-ANTARA) – Indonesia’s narcotics agency, BNN, thwarted the smuggling of 319 kg crystal methamphetamine in the Indian Ocean, south of Java Island.

When the Indonesian patrol boats approached a ship with foreigners on board, “they tried to run away and we gave them a warning shot,” said agency’s Deputy of Eradication, I Wayan Sugiri, yesterday.

The anti-drug force took the ship to Cilegon Port, and found 319 kg crystal methamphetamine under its fuel tank. Investigation is still underway.

TAOYUAN, Taiwan/BEIJING, March 29 (Reuters) - External pressure will not stop Taiwan engaging with the world, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday as she left for the United States, hitting a defiant note after China threatened retaliation if she met U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

China, which claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly warned U.S. officials not to meet Tsai, viewing it as support for the island's desire to be seen as a separate country.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday as anxiety about the global financial system began to fade following three high-profile bank failures.

Shanghai followed Wall Street lower. Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Oil prices gained.

Fears that the global banking system might be cracking under the strain of rapid interest rate hikes temporarily pushed aside unease about slowing economic growth. Some calm has returned after regulators announced measures to shore up the system.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s economy slowed sharply in the first quarter of this year, with growth coming in at a much weaker than expected 3.3%, as its exporters were hit by rising costs and weaker demand, the General Statistics Office reported Wednesday.

The slowdown in the January-March quarter from 5.9% year-on-year growth in the last quarter of 2022 was nearly as severe as that during the beginning of the pandemic and the second lowest for the first quarter in 12 years, it said.

BEIJING (AP) — China has threatened “resolute countermeasures” over a planned meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Speaker of the United States House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during an upcoming visit in Los Angeles by the head of the self-governing island democracy.

NANJING, China (AP) — Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou began a 12-day tour of China with a symbolism-laden visit to the mausoleum where a founding figure revered in both China and Taiwan is entombed.

Ma visited the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, the capital when Ma’s Nationalist Party (Kuomingtang) ruled China in the early part of the 20th century. The party claimed to be the legitimate ruler of China for decades and is seen as more sympathetic to integration or unification with the mainland than the ruling Democratic People’s Party.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his increasing range of weapons.

North Korean photos of the meeting also showed what appeared to be a small new tactical warhead that was possibly designed to fit on a variety of delivery systems developed in recent years to overwhelm South Korean defenses.

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia), March 27 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim arrived in Cambodia Monday for a one-day official visit to further strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation between Malaysia and the Indochinese country, established in 1957.

It is Anwar’s maiden visit to the country made at the invitation of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

SEOUL/BUSAN, South Korea, March 27 (Reuters) - North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's military said, just as a U.S. aircraft carrier staged combined naval exercises with South Korea in a warning to Pyongyang.

The missiles flew about 370 km (230 miles) after being launched from North Hwanghae province at 7:47 a.m. (2247 GMT on Sunday), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

SEOUL/BUSAN, South Korea, March 27 (Reuters) - North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's military said, just as a U.S. aircraft carrier staged combined naval exercises with South Korea in a warning to Pyongyang.

The missiles flew about 370 km (230 miles) after being launched from North Hwanghae province at 7:47 a.m. (2247 GMT on Sunday), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.