Off the wire
• Kenya shilling falls on huge dollar demand for food imports  • ADB loan to promote inclusive and sustainable livestock farming in China  • Roundup: Gaza militants call for confronting Israel to support striking prisoners  • Kyrgyzstan to publish list of terrorist organizations  • Foreign exchange rate of euro to other currencies  • Irish finance minister resigns  • Bacteria on London underground could be similar in transport systems worldwide  • Japanese man nabbed in Indonesia for smuggling reptiles  • Russian PM sees lower 2017 budget deficit due to higher revenues  • Kenya's Nairobi issues cholera alert  
You are here: 　 Home

Xinhua Asia-Pacific News Summary at 1600 GMT, May 18

Xinhua, May 18, 2017 Adjust font size:

Bangladesh is contemplating to construct a mega international airport on the outskirts of capital Dhaka, as part of its efforts to have a new international airport, a Planning Ministry official told Xinhua Thursday.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the government will construct a new airport, which is to be the largest in South Asia, on the west bank of Padma River where wide-bodied aircraft equivalent to Airbus A380 could land and take off. (Bangladesh-Airport)

- - - -

HANOI -- The second senior officials' meeting (SOM 2) and related meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which concluded here on Thursday, agreed to accelerate the completion of Bogor goals on investment and trade liberalization by 2020.

All 21 APEC members strongly support the necessity of maintaining APEC's roles as the driving force of economic connectivity and growth in the region and as the incubator of cooperative ideas and regional linkages for common prosperity in the Asia-Pacific, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son said at a press conference right after the SOM 2's conclusion. (Vietnam-APEC)

- - - -

KATHMANDU -- Nepal on Thursday hosted the "Chinese Bridge" language proficiency competition for college students in Kathmandu.

This is the fourth Nepali edition of the global contest. (Nepal-Chinese Bridge)

- - - -

KABUL -- "The situation of the National Museum improved markedly compared to the past as it has been rehabilitated and efforts are underway to further improve its state of affairs," Director of the National Museum of Afghanistan, Mohammad Fahim Rahimi said optimistically.

Once popular for having rare collections and preserving regional cultural heritage dating back several millennia, the National Museum of Afghanistan had been badly damaged and more than 70 percent of some 100,000 objects on display had been destroyed or looted during the destructive factional fighting among several armed groups in the 1990s. (Afghanistan-Museum)

- - - -

BANGKOK -- A rear-ended collision in central Thailand killed a pickup truck driver and four Cambodian workers on Wednesday, local media reported.

The crash happened at about 2 p.m. local time in Chachengsao province when a pickup truck carrying Cambodian workers collided into an 18-wheel truck, according to Daily News. (Thailand-Truck Collision) Endit