KATHMANDU -- Narayan Khadka, a member of the Nepali Congress Central Working Committee, was appointed the minister for foreign affairs of Nepal on Wednesday.

Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari, on the recommendation of the five-party government headed by the Nepali Congress party's President Sher Bahadur Deuba, appointed and administered the oath of office for Khadka, said Jaganath Panta, a spokesperson for the Office of the President. (Nepal-New FM)

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KABUL -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has started the distribution of non-food relief items to displaced families in Afghanistan's far-flung western Badghis province, the migration agency said on Wednesday.

The IOM Afghanistan started distribution of core relief non-food items and emergency shelter repair kits to assist over 1,700 conflict displaced families in Badghis province, the agency said in a post on Twitter.

Over 634,000 Afghans have been internally displaced by conflicts this year, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan said last week. (Afghanistan-Badghis-Displaced Families)

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PHNOM PENH -- State-owned Credit Guarantee Corporation of Cambodia (CGCC) on Wednesday launched a 50-million-U.S. dollar Co-Financing Guarantee Scheme (CFGS), aiming at supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The CFGS is a guarantee scheme that will act as collateral or security for 70-80 percent of the loan amount so that it will reduce the physical collateral required from the borrowers, a CGCC's press statement said.

To date, the CGCC has assisted 85 businesses by providing credit guarantees for their loan applications from the PFIs, the statement said. (Cambodia-SME-Scheme)

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HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported one new imported case of COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the total tally to 12,167.

The new case involved a person arriving in Hong Kong from the Philippines. A total of 37 cases were reported in the past 14 days and all were imported, according to the CHP. (Hong Kong-COVID-19)