China

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities on Friday were investigating the cause of a huge blaze that broke out overnight at a construction site in a popular shopping district and forced 170 people in nearby buildings to evacuate.

No deaths or injuries have been reported after the fire erupted at the Mariners’ Club redevelopment project in the densely populated Tsim Sha Tsui district at about 11 p.m. Thursday. Multiple floors of the structure — including scaffolding — were on fire, and burning debris floated in the air.

BEIJING, Mar 1 (APP): A team of young Pakistani agricultural scientists at the National Research Center of Intercropping (NRCI), the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) are researching strip intercropping technologies to help their country shrink the import bill of food commodities, especially soybean.

BEIJING, March 1. /TASS/: Belarus and China are interested in establishing peace in Ukraine as soon as possible and in preventing an escalation of the crisis, and are ready to exert efforts to restore regional peace, reads a joint statement on the further development of relations and comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries in the new era, which the leaders of the two countries Alexander Lukashenko and Xi Jinping adopted following talks in Beijing on Wednesday.

HONG KONG, Mar 1 (NNN-XINHUA) – An earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.5, jolted 104 km NW of Kimbe, Papua New Guinea, at 05:36 GMT today, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The epicentre, with a depth of 582.6 km, was initially determined to be at 4.792 degrees south latitude, and 149.58 degrees east longitude.

BEIJING, March 1 (Reuters) - China is willing to "constructively" participate in solving the debt problems of relevant countries under a multilateral framework, its Premier Li Keqiang said on Wednesday.

China, the world's largest bilateral creditor, has criticised multilateral lenders for not accepting losses, or haircuts, on loans to low-income countries while Beijing is being asked to do so on credit it has extended on its own.

HONG KONG, March 1 (Reuters) - India's Adani Group has told creditors it has secured a $3 billion loan from a sovereign wealth fund, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, as the embattled conglomerate seeks to ease debt concerns after a short-seller attack.

The credit line from the sovereign wealth fund could be increased to $5 billion, the sources said, citing a memo that was circulated to participants as highlights of a three-day investor roadshow that ended on Wednesday.

BEIJING (AP) — China lashed out Wednesday at a new U.S. House committee dedicated to countering Beijing, demanding its members “discard their ideological bias and zero-sum Cold War mentality.”

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party must “view China and China-U.S. relations in an objective and rational light,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing.

SHIJIAZHUANG, Feb 28 (Xinhua/APP): Archaeologists in north China’s Hebei Province have found a tomb dating back to the Jin Dynasty (265-420).

The tomb was located 5.2 meters under the ground and featured a brick chamber. A total of 16 items of pottery ware, including a cup, pot, bullock-cart and horse, were found in the tomb.

Judging from the funerary objects, it is speculated that the tomb owner might have been a woman, according to Ren Xueyan, leader of the archaeological team at the Damingfu ruins, where the tomb is located.

BEIJING, Feb 28 (APP):Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Deputy Secretary-General Sohail Khan attended a conference of the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area in Qingdao, China.

Representatives of the embassies of SCO countries in China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant ministries of the PRC, along with financial institutions, participated in the event, according to SCO Secretariat here.

BEIJING, February 28. /TASS/:  The second plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that took place in Beijing on Tuesday adopted a plan to reform the country’s party and government agencies, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Xinhua is citing excerpts from a statement that followed the plenary session. The report didn’t give any further details of the document.