Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SEOUL, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that China would be willing to work together with North Korea for regional and global peace, stability and prosperity, North Korea's state media KCNA reported on Saturday, citing Xi's letter to Kim.

KCNA did not mention North Korea's recent missile launches that have heightened tensions around the Korean peninsula following joint military drills between South Korea and the United States.

JAKARTA, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the devastating earthquake in Indonesia's province of West Java rose to 318, with 14 others still missing, a senior official of the country's disaster agency said Saturday.

The 5.6-magnitude quake hit West Java on Monday.

Eight more bodies were recovered in the search operation on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 318, Deputy for Emergency Response of the National Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency Fajar Setiawan told a press conference.

TASHKENT, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed and 38 others injured in a road accident involving a bus and a truck in the Andijan region in eastern Uzbekistan Saturday.

The collision took place between the two vehicles on the Tashkent-Andijan highway in the Andijan region at approximately 8:10 a.m. local time (0310 GMT), said the Uzbek Health Ministry and the regional traffic police.

In a heavy fog in the morning, the bus driver drove into the oncoming lane and collided with the truck, the police said.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party following local election losses on Saturday in which voters chose the opposition Nationalist party in several major races across the self-ruled island.

Concerns about threats from rival China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, took a backseat to more local issues in the elections.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi on Saturday after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city’s draconian “zero-COVID” lockdown that had lasted more than three months.

The displays of public defiance were fanned by anger over a fire in an apartment compound that had killed 10, according to the official death toll, as emergency workers took three hours to extinguish the blaze — a delay many attributed to obstacles caused by anti-virus measures.

BEIJING (AP) — A fire in an apartment building in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region killed 10 people and injured nine, authorities said Friday, amid stringent lockdowns that have left many residents in the area stuck in their homes for more than three months.

The fire broke out Thursday night in the regional capital of Urumqi, where temperatures have dropped below freezing after dark.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Voters in Taiwan overwhelmingly chose the opposition Nationalist party in several major races across the self-ruled island in an election Saturday in which lingering concerns about threats from China took a backseat to more local issues.

Chiang Wan-an, the Nationalist party’s mayoral candidate, won the closely watched seat in capital Taipei.

“I will let the world see Taipei’s greatness,” he said in his victory speech Saturday night. Other Nationalist party candidates also won mayoral seats in Taoyuan, Taichung and New Taipei city.

BANGKOK, Nov 25 (NNN-TNA) – Thailand’s auto production and exports, saw an increase in Oct, driven by an easing global semiconductor shortage, data showed, yesterday.

The country’s automobile manufacturing rose 10.83 percent in Oct, from a year earlier, to 170,717 units, 57.13 percent of which were made for exports, according to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).

YANGON, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar confirmed 19 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 633,137, according to the Ministry of Health on Friday.

The ministry said in a statement that health authorities tested 6,883 people for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, and the daily positivity rate was 0.28 percent.

The death toll from COVID-19 in the country remained unchanged at 19,488 on Friday as no new deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

TOKYO, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Japan's space agency admitted on Friday that one of its research teams "fabricated" and "altered large amounts of data" related to an experiment simulating life on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) told a press conference that the research team, headed by Satoshi Furukawa, "fabricated" as well as "altered large amounts of data" related to the mental health of the participants in the experiment simulating life on the space station.