Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BANGKOK (AP) — About two weeks into a major offensive against Myanmar’s military-run government by an alliance of three well-armed militias of ethnic minorities, an army captain, fighting in a jungle area near the northeastern border with China, lamented that he’d never seen such intense action.

His commander in Myanmar’s 99th Light Infantry Division had been killed in fighting in Shan state the week before and the 35-year-old career soldier said army outposts were in disarray and being hit from all sides.

ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Save the Children, a global charity organization, said Thursday that a cholera outbreak in Ethiopia's eastern Somali region has killed at least 23 people.

The charity said in a press release that a new cholera outbreak in the Somali region has resulted in 772 confirmed cases and 23 deaths in only two weeks.

"A deadly combination of flooded water systems, a lack of basic sanitation services and damaged water treatment plants has driven the spike in the deadly illness," the statement said.

KOH KONG, Cambodia, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The project of the Chinese-invested Cambodia Upper Tatay Hydropower Station will increase the reliable source of clean energy in Cambodia, contributing further to socioeconomic development and poverty reduction, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Thursday.

With a designed capacity of 150 megawatts (MWs), the project is expected to generate 527 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year when it is fully operational.

CHEORWON, South Korea (AP) — To the steady rat-tat-tat of machine guns and exploding bursts of smoke, amphibious tanks slice across a lake not far from the big green mountains that stand along the world’s most heavily armed border.

Dozens of South Korean and U.S. combat engineers build a pontoon bridge to ferry tanks and armored vehicles across the water, all within easy range of North Korean artillery.

BANGKOK (AP) — Seventeen Thai workers released from captivity by the militant Hamas group were greeted Thursday by family and friends, officials and journalists in an emotional homecoming at Bangkok’s international airport.

The 17 are among 23 Thais freed so far, with six left temporarily behind in Israel because doctors said they were not yet fit to travel. Thai officials says another nine Thai hostages are still being held in Gaza.

MANILA, Nov 29 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippine government posted a budget deficit of 34.4 billion pesos (about 621.8 million U.S. dollars) in Oct, 65.27 percent lower than in the same period of 2022, the country’s Bureau of the Treasury said, today.

The total aggregate budget deficit for the 10-month period amounted to 1.018 trillion pesos (about 18.4 billion dollars), down by 8.45 percent year on year, the bureau said.

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia earned a total of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars from the exports of raw cashew nuts and dry rubber during the first 10 months of 2023, according to official reports on Wednesday.

A report from the Cashew Nut Association of Cambodia showed that the kingdom exported a total of 615,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts to Vietnam during the January-October period this year, down 16.7 percent year-on-year.

The Southeast Asian country made 831 million dollars in revenue from the exports of the commodity, the report said.

TOKYO (AP) — A crew member who was recovered from the ocean after a U.S. military Osprey aircraft carrying eight people crashed Wednesday off southern Japan has been pronounced dead, coast guard officials said.

The cause of the crash and the status of the seven others on board were not immediately known, coast guard spokesperson Kazuo Ogawa said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia’s economic growth will be affected should the Palestine-Israel conflict escalate further into a conflict involving Arab countries in the region, the Economy Ministry said.

If the scale of the conflict widened, it would have a significant impact, especially in terms of rising oil prices and trade supply chain disruption, the ministry said.

BEIJING, Nov 28 (Reuters) - China opposes protectionism and wants to strengthen supply chains with all countries, Premier Li Qiang said on Tuesday, as a growing number of nations voice concern at how much their supply chains depend on the world's second largest economy.

Li's comments comes amid calls over the past year from the United States and the European Union to reduce their dependence on China in certain sectors and "de-risk" their supply chains, as well as efforts to cut off Chinese enterprises from some advanced semiconductors.