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Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1000 GMT, Jan. 17

Xinhua,January 17, 2018 Adjust font size:

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong stocks closed up 0.25 percent at 31,983.41 points on Wednesday, reaching the highest ever point since Oct. 30, 2007.

The turnover totaled 178.26 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 22.8 billion U.S. dollars) on Wednesday, the 12th successive trading day with a turnover above 100 billion Hong Kong dollars.(Hong Kong-Stocks-Record)

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NEW DELHI -- Indian police seized a huge cache of banned currency notes in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said Wednesday.

The haul was seized in Kanpur city.(India-Banned money)

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NEW DELHI -- Indian army chief Bipin Rawat Wednesday called for restrictions on internet and social media use to counter terrorism.

"I understand that in a democratic country people might have issues when we put curbs in place. But it is important to restrict the use of social media to tackle terrorism. Put some checks and curbs on internet, social media that terrorist organisations always resort to," Rawat said.(India-Internet)

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SEOUL -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has offered to South Korea sending a 230-member cheering squad to the South Korea-hosted Winter Olympics during the ongoing working-level talks in the truce village of Panmunjom, Seoul's unification ministry said Wednesday.

The vice ministerial-level dialogue to discuss the DPRK's participation in the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, which were slated to run from February to March in South Korea's eastern county of PyeongChang, kicked off from 10 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) at the Peace House in the South Korean side of Panmunjom.(S.Korea-DPRK-Olympics)

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KUALA LUMPUR -- Liang Liang, the female giant panda on loan from China to Malaysia, has given birth to a second baby giant panda, a senior Malaysian official said Wednesday.

Wan Junaidi Bin Tuanku Jaafar, Malaysia's minister of natural resources and environment, said the baby panda was born on Jan. 14, and both the new-born and the mother are in healthy condition.(Malaysia-Giant panda) Enditem