Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, will lead a delegation of young people from Taiwan to visit the mainland from April 1 to 11, a mainland spokesperson said on Monday.

Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said the delegation will visit Guangdong and Shaanxi provinces as well as Beijing to attend a ceremony honoring China's legendary ancestor Huangdi, or the Yellow Emperor, as well as other events.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's capital market remained resilient in 2023, with the market size growing 5.6 percent to 3.8 trillion ringgit (800 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023 from 3.6 trillion ringgit in 2022, official data showed Monday.

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) said in a statement that the increase was driven by the growth of total equity market capitalization and bonds and sukuk outstanding.

Sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate that complies with Islamic religious law commonly known as Sharia.

BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhua) -- China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) increased 10 percent year on year to 149.64 billion yuan (about 21.09 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months of the year, official data showed Thursday.

Non-financial ODI in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative came in at 33.18 billion yuan during the period, an increase of 0.6 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The turnover of contracted projects overseas grew 9 percent year on year to 138.06 billion yuan, the ministry said.

CHANGCHUN, March 21 (Xinhua) -- China's first independently developed hydrogen-powered urban train completed a test at a speed of 160 kph on Thursday, marking a breakthrough in the application of hydrogen energy in rail transit.

The train, developed by CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd. in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, was tested on a test track belonging to the enterprise, achieving a full-system, full-scenario and multi-level performance verification.

Beijing, Mar 21 (PTI) China on Thursday said it firmly opposes the US recognition of Arunachal Pradesh as part of Indian territory and affirmed that Washington has nothing to do with the India-China border dispute.

It also accused the US of “instigating and using other countries' disputes” for selfish geopolitical interests.

Singapore, Mar 20 (PTI) An Indian national was charged in a Singapore court on Wednesday with packing more than 5,000 wild turtles into his suitcases and transporting them from Singapore to India last year.

Rafique Syed Hariza Ali Hussain, 40, was handed one charge each under the Wildlife Act and the Animals and Birds Act for allegedly exporting 5,160 red-eared sliders, known commonly as terrapins, from the Changi Airport here to the Coimbatore International Airport in Tamil Nadu on November 7, 2023, Channel News Asia reported.

Beijing, Mar 5 (PTI) China on Tuesday increased its defence budget by 7.2 per cent to USD 232 billion as it continues with the massive modernisation of its military amid prevailing tensions over Taiwan, the South China Sea, border frictions with India and increasing rivalry with the US.

Seoul, Mar 5 (PTI) The era when a few powers exercised "disproportionate influence" over the reshaping of the global order is a thing of the past so India and South Korea have a growing responsibility to actively contribute to the process, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, Jaishankar who is here on a two-day visit, said India’s partnership with the Republic of Korea is acquiring a greater salience in a more uncertain and volatile world.

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China seeks to achieve a GDP growth rate of around 5 percent for 2024, the latest signal that the world's second-largest economy is committed to high-quality development despite uncertainties at home and abroad.

The projected goal, which remains unchanged from the previous year's growth target, is one of the key development objectives unveiled in the government work report delivered by Premier Li Qiang to the national legislature, which began its annual session Tuesday.

URUMQI, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China has achieved a significant breakthrough in deep-Earth exploration with the drilling of a superdeep borehole in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region exceeding the 10,000-meter mark, making it the deepest vertical well in Asia, even though the project as a whole is not yet completed.