Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

30 Nov 2018; DW: The latest cooperation project between the two foes is the first step in creating a joint train system. However, continued US sanctions may make it an impossible dream to realize.

For the first time in more than a decade, a South Korean train entered the North on Friday, as officials and engineers begin a surveying mission on the tracks.

29 Nov 2018; AFP: China's science ministry has ordered that people involved in the controversial baby gene-editing experiment halt their activities, a government official told state media Thursday.

The ministry "firmly opposes the baby gene-editing incident and has already demanded that the relevant organisation suspend the scientific activities of relevant personnel," a ministry official said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

28 Nov 2018; AFP: A crashed Lion Air jet should have been grounded over a recurrent technical problem before its fatal journey, Indonesian authorities said Wednesday, as details from the new jet's flight data recorder suggested that pilots struggled to control its anti-stalling system.

The preliminary crash report from Indonesia's transport safety agency also took aim at the budget carrier's poor safety culture, but did not pinpoint a cause of the October 29 accident, which killed all 189 people on board.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has launched a single-stage rocket to test a locally made engine as part of efforts to place a satellite into orbit.

The Science Ministry says it has confirmed its engine test was successful after the rocket landed off the southern coast on Wednesday.

It says South Korea aims to develop a domestically built space launch vehicle by 2021.

In 2013, South Korea succeeded in thrusting a satellite into orbit aboard a rocket blasted from its soil for the first time, but parts of that rocket were built with Russian help.

SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- More than six out of 10 South Koreans support easing sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to facilitate the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and build lasting peace, a survey showed Tuesday.

According to the poll by the National Unification Advisory Council, a presidential advisory body on long-term policy for inter-Korean relations, 64 percent of respondents support the sanctions relief on Pyongyang.

Of the total, 32 percent was against the eased sanctions, exactly half of the supporters.

BEIJING (AP) — Lu Guang’s photos exposed the everyday realities of people on the margins of Chinese society: coal miners, drug addicts, HIV patients.

Now, the award-winning photographer is at the center of his own stark story. He was taken away by state security agents three weeks ago for unknown reasons, Lu’s wife, Xu Xiaoli, told The Associated Press late Tuesday.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Resort developer Genting Malaysia has filed a lawsuit in California seeking at least $1 billion in damages from Walt Disney Co. and Fox Entertainment Group for alleged breach of contract related to a theme park, the company said Tuesday.

The lawsuit filed Monday in the Central California District Court cites damages from Fox’s withdrawal from an agreement set in 2013 to license its intellectual property for a Fox World theme park in Resort World Genting, a sprawling facility perched on a mountain in Malaysia.

Taipei, Nov 26; GANASHAKTI: A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the western coast of Taiwan Monday, the US Geological Survey said, and was felt hundreds of kilometres away in Hong Kong.

The quake hit around 100 kilometres (60 miles) off the island of Penghu in the Taiwan Strait on Monday morning, at a depth of 13 kilometres.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the quake, which the USGS had initially reported at 5.6-magnitude.

HONG KONG (AP) — A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.

If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.

A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.

CHENGDU, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Senior officials of China and India had reached some important consensus on boundary issues during a Saturday meeting, said a press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The 21st round of talks between Chinese and Indian special representatives on boundary issues was co-chaired by Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.