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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan will write to the IMF urging it to call for an independent audit of the country’s controversial Feb. 8 national elections before it continues talks with Islamabad, his lawyer said on Thursday. Pakistan averted default last summer thanks to a short term International Monetary Fund bailout, but …

Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan urges IMF to call election audit, his lawyer says Read More »

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s parliament voted unanimously on Thursday to loosen regulations on the fisheries industry, responding to concerns from its multibillion dollar seafood sector that the current rules are too tough. Lawmakers approved eight draft fishery bills in the first reading in a 416-0 vote to amend regulations that were introduced in 2015 as …

Thai parliament approves looser fisheries rules in first reading Read More »

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – China asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday to give its opinion on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories, which it said was illegal. “Justice has been long delayed, but it must not be denied,” China’s Foreign Ministry’s legal adviser Ma Xinmin told the court in The Hague, in the …

China asks World Court to speak out on ‘unlawful’ Israeli occupation Read More »

BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Thursday his government plans to roll out more measures to boost tourism, including incentives to lure global artists to stimulate Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy. Speaking at a government forum, he said the tourism industry was expected to grow enormously over the next four years, as it …

Thai PM plans visa-free travel, concerts to boost tourism Read More »

By Sebin Choi and Daewoung Kim SEOUL (Reuters) – Three days into a mass walkout by trainee doctors, patients in South Korea expressed growing worry and frustration on Thursday as hospitals nationwide delayed surgeries and emergency rooms turned away patients. With more than 8,400 doctors staying off the job in a protest over government plans …

Dismayed South Korean patients urge resolution of doctors’ protest Read More »

By Ben Blanchard TAIPEI (Reuters) -U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House of Representatives select committee on China, said in Taipei on Thursday that no matter who wins the coming U.S. elections support for Chinese-claimed Taiwan will remain. Gallagher, who arrived in Taiwan on Thursday with a delegation of four other lawmakers on a visit ending …

US lawmaker in Taiwan visit reassures support regardless of U.S. election outcome Read More »

By Ryan Woo BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese research ship arrived in the Maldives on Thursday, global ship-tracking data showed, just three months after a similar vessel visited the Indian Ocean and sparked New Delhi’s security concerns. The visit follows January comments by a U.S. think tank that China’s navy could “leverage the insights gained …

Maldives visit of Chinese survey ship could rouse Indian Ocean security concerns Read More »

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia was struck by a tornado of a scale previously unrecorded in the country that injured at least 33 people and damaged buildings, government officials said. After the violent wind swept the town of Sumedang in West Java province on Wednesday, a climatologist at government research body BRIN Erma Yulihastin, said the …

Indonesia investigates after first large-scale tornado strikes Read More »