Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has taken fewer shipments of iron ore from Iran over August and September, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, as additional export tariffs due to be imposed by Tehran have dampened risk appetites in the world’s biggest steelmaker.

Iran’s deputy minister of industries said earlier this month that exports of all steelmaking raw materials will be slapped with a 25% tariff to meet demand in domestic steel industry, according to Iranian state-backed media Press TV on Sept. 9.

HONG KONG (AP) — Protesters in Hong Kong burned a Chinese flag and police fired pepper spray Saturday in renewed clashes over grievances by the anti-government demonstrators.

Police accused some protesters of throwing gasoline bombs after a march by several thousand people in Tuen Mun, an outlying district in the northwest of the Chinese territory.

The event was relatively small compared with previous demonstrations that have taken place every weekend since June.

BEIJING, October 25. /TASS/: The drones that attacked Russia’s Hmeymim airbase in Syria were operated from the US Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin said at a plenary session of the Beijing Xiangshan Forum on security on Thursday.

"Thirteen drones moved according to common combat battle deployment, operated by a single crew. During all this time the American Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane patrolled the Mediterranean Sea area for eight hours," he noted.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Amnesty International accused Hong Kong police on Friday of torture and other abuses in their handling of more than three months of pro-democracy protests, but the police say they have shown restraint on the street in the face of increased violence.

Anti-government protesters, many masked and wearing black, have thrown petrol bombs at police and central government offices, stormed the Legislative Council, blocked roads to the airport, trashed metro stations and lit fires on the streets of the Chinese-ruled city.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices were on track to jump more than 7% this week, their biggest weekly rise in months, on rising Middle East tensions after a key Saudi Arabian supply hub was knocked out in an attack last weekend.

A Saudi-led coalition launched a military operation north of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, as the United States worked with Middle East and European nations to build a coalition to deter Iranian threats after the Saudi attack.

KUALA LUMPUR/JAKARTA, Sept 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thousands of schools have been ordered closed across Malaysia and Indonesia on Thursday, affecting at least 1.7 million students, officials said, as toxic haze from rampant forest fires sent air quality plummeting.

Nearly 2,500 schools were ordered to suspend classes in Malaysia — including nearly 300 in the smog-hit capital of Kuala Lumpur — over soaring health concerns sparked by toxic haze from out-of-control blazes in Indonesia’s Sumatra and Borneo islands.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator welcomed on Friday U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that a “new method” be used in talks on Pyongyang’s weapons programs.

Kim Myong Gil praised Trump’s “wise political decision” to seek a new approach to the stalled talks without a “troublemaker” in the U.S. administration — an apparent reference to John Bolton, Trump’s hawkish former national security advisor who resigned last week.

BEIJING, Sept 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — China is poised to open a new mega-airport to the south of Beijing, already home to the world’s second-busiest aviation hub, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic.

Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX) will see its first commercial flight take off on Sept 20, according to Chinese state media, with main tenant China Southern planning to deploy an Airbus A380, the world’s biggest airliner, for the maiden journey.

BEIJING, September 19. /TASS/: Beijing is hopeful that the United Nations Security Council will pass a China-Russia draft resolution on the situation in Syria’s Idlib, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang said at a briefing on Thursday.

"We hope that the UN Security Council will support efforts to improve the situation in the region, facilitating the political settlement process in Syria. China and Russia have come up with a joint draft resolution and we hope that various parties will support it," he pointed out.

19 September 2019; AFP: A Japanese court on Thursday cleared three energy firm bosses of professional negligence in the only criminal trial stemming from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown.

The three men were senior officials at the TEPCO firm operating the Fukushima Daiichi plant and had faced up to five years in prison if convicted.