Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed Monday to hold a third summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang in September.

The agreement was reached after the senior-level talks between the two sides at Tongilgak, a DPRK building in the border village of Panmunjom.

The joint statement, issued after the talks, said the two Koreas agreed to hold the Moon-Kim summit in Pyongyang before the end of September.

Jakarta, Aug 13 (AP) The death toll from the earthquake that rocked the Indonesian island of Lombok a week ago has passed 400 and the government is estimating economic losses of at least several hundred million dollars.

The national disaster agency said Monday the August 5 quake killed 436 people, most of whom died in collapsing buildings.

Aug. 10, 2018 A comprehensive inspection train running on the Jinan-Qingdao high-speed railway in Zouping section in Binzhou City, east China's Shandong Province.

The Jinan-Qingdao high-speed railway started a joint test recently. With a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the 307.9-kilometer railway is expected to be put into operation at the end of 2018. (Xinhua/Dong Naide)

BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's Belt and Road Initiative could "definitely" help with global refugee work, said United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi who completed an official visit to China on Saturday.

"Much of what China does through the Belt and Road Initiative converges with what we are doing in refugee-hosting countries, linking humanitarian and development aid to better address long-term problems and seek solutions to refugee crisis," said Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

LOMBOK, Indonesia, Aug 9 (NNN-ANTARA) - The death toll from the Lombok earthquake has risen, dramatically, to 347.

Another Indonesian government agency, has put the figure at 381, a significant increase from the figure of 131, reported on Wednesday.

The number of the dead may still climb higher, as rescuers work to free people trapped in the rubble.

The deadly 6.9-magnitude earthquake, hit the Indonesian island on Sunday night, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.

NAGASAKI, Japan, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a world free of nuclear weapons when meeting with representatives of atomic bombing victims here on Wednesday.

"When we see a lack of commitment to (nuclear) disarmament, to amplify the voice of the surviving victims becomes more and more important," Guterres told representatives of the atomic bombing victims.

He said that the UN would make joint efforts with these victims of atomic bombing to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- China has decided to impose additional tariffs on imported products from the United States worth about 16 billion U.S. dollars, according to an official statement released Wednesday.

Approved by the State Council, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council has decided to impose additional duties of 25 percent on the 16-billion-dollar U.S. products after making proper adjustments to the second part of a list of the products subject to the tariffs.

The additional duties will take effect at 12:01 on Aug. 23, 2018.

TOKYO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Japan logged a current account surplus of 1.18 trillion yen (11 billion U.S. dollars) in June, the Finance Ministry said in a report on Wednesday.

The latest reading marks the 48th successive month the current account has been in surplus.

The ministry also said in its preliminary report that the country had a goods trade surplus of 821 billion yen (7.3 billion U.S. dollars), while services trade stood at a deficit of 175 billion yen (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the reporting period.

BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- A giant star, recently identified as the most lithium-rich star ever known, has been added to the list of distinguished discoveries of a telescope in Xinglong, in north China's Hebei Province.

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) began regular surveys in 2012. It has collected about 10 million spectra over six years and established the world's largest databank of stellar spectra.

JINAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- China on Sunday put into operation a prototype exascale computing machine, the next-generation supercomputer, according to the developers.

The Sunway exascale computer prototype was developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology (NRCPC), the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, and the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao).