BANGKOK -- The sophisticated and transnational nature of telecom fraud and related crimes requires concerted international efforts to address the challenges facing Southeast Asia, a United Nations official has said, noting that recent cooperation between China and countries in the region has been "encouraging" and has created momentum for such collaboration.

Benedikt Hofmann, acting regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that telecom fraud has expanded rapidly in terms of the number of victims, geographical reach, and financial losses. UNODC estimates that annual economic losses from such scams in East and Southeast Asia range between 20 billion and 40 billion U.S. dollars. (Thailand-China-Telecom Fraud)

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SYDNEY -- Chinese animated film "Ne Zha 2" has entered the top three at Australia's weekend box office in its debut, according to data from box office reporting company Numero on Monday.

"Ne Zha 2" took the third spot with 2.35 million Australian dollars (1.50 million U.S. dollars) in the Weekend Total Box Office from Thursday through Sunday, the data showed. (Australia-China-Ne Zha 2)

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YANGON -- The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar on Sunday evening issued a statement, saying that China and Myanmar had an in-depth exchange of views on further strengthening China-Myanmar law enforcement and security cooperation and jointly combating cross-border crimes such as telecom and online fraud and human trafficking.

The Myanmar side expressed that it attaches great importance to severely cracking down on illegal and criminal acts such as online gambling and telecom fraud, the statement said.(Myanmar-China-Gambling)

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ULAN BATOR -- Mongolia's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 4.9 percent year-on-year in 2024, official data released by the country's National Statistics Office (NSO) showed Monday.

The country's GDP for the year totaled 80.0 trillion Mongolian Tugriks (over 23.1 billion U.S. dollars), the NSO said in a report. (Mongolia-GDP Growth)

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SYDNEY -- The Canadian government is ready to retaliate against U.S. tariffs, the nation's trade minister told Australian media on Monday.

Mary Ng, Canada's minister of export promotion, international trade and economic development, said during an official visit to Australia that the U.S. government's promised tariffs will "simply create costs for Americans." (Australia-Canada-Trade) Enditem

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