Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, Nov 2 (Reuters) - China will not give up on its zero-tolerance policy towards local COVID-19 cases any time soon, some experts said, as the policy has allowed it to quickly quell local outbreaks, while the virus continues to spread outside its borders.

To stop local cases from turning into wider outbreaks, China has developed and continually refined its COVID-fighting arsenal -- including mass testing, targeted lockdowns and travel restrictions - even when those anti-COVID measures occasionally disrupted local economies.

BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday said that problems in U.S. democracy can only be solved by the American people themselves, and that fake democracy will certainly meet resistance from the international community.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a query on the results of a recent poll by the U.S. National Public Radio, which showed that 81 percent of American people believe democracy in the country faces a severe threat.

BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has underlined the importance of work to foster and strengthen market entities to stimulate market vitality and social creativity.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks while chairing a symposium during an inspection trip to the State Administration for Market Regulation on Monday.

The cultivation of market entities will also provide solid support for steady growth and stable employment, Li noted at the symposium.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s Huawei Technologies Co. is providing smart services and 5G technology to industries such as healthcare, creating new revenue streams that might offset the damage to its smartphone business from U.S. sanctions.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, the company teamed up with the Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital to equip it with 5G technology and more than 10,000 smart devices that can collect and transmit real-time health data from patients to doctors and nurses to improve patient care.

BEIJING, Nov 1 (APP): The gratifying achievements of Pakistan’s economic recovery were attributed to the effective lockdown strategy to contain COVID-19, the sound policies of the government on economic development, the diligence and wisdom of all Pakistani people, and the driving effect of the progressing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

These views were expressed by Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law and senior Fellow of the Charhar Institute in his article published by China Economic Net (CEN) on Monday.

TOKYO, Nov 1 (NNN-NHK) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2, today struck Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The temblor occurred at around 6:14 a.m. local time, with its epicentre at a latitude of 36.5 degrees north and a longitude of 140.6 degrees east, and at a depth of 60 km.

The quake logged four in some parts of Ibaraki and Fukushima prefectures, on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, which peaks at seven.

So far no tsunami warning has been issued.

ALMATY, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Facebook owner Meta Platforms (FB.O) has granted the Kazakh government access to its content reporting system, after the Central Asian nation threatened to block the social network for millions of local users.

The Nur-Sultan cabinet and Facebook said in a joint statement on Monday that the agreement, the first of its kind in the post-Soviet region of Central Asia, would streamline the process of removing content deemed illegal by Kazakhstan.

BANGKOK/SYDNEY, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Thailand, Australia and Israel eased international border restrictions significantly on Monday for the first time in 18 months, offering a broad test of demand for travel worldwide amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The relaxation contrasts with tightening lockdowns elsewhere, notably in eastern Europe where infections have hit record numbers, and in parts of China, which has taken a zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 despite relatively few cases.

TOKYO (AP) — A man dressed in a Joker costume and brandishing a knife stabbed at least one passenger on a Tokyo commuter train before starting a fire, injuring passengers and sending people scrambling to escape and jumping from windows, police and witnesses said.

The Tokyo Fire Department said 17 passengers were injured, including three seriously. Not all of them were stabbed and most of the other injuries were not serious, the fire department said.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s economic rebound from the coronavirus pandemic is stalling as President Xi Jinping’s government cracks down on surging corporate debt.

For a decade, the ruling Communist Party has talked about shifting to economy based on spending by 1.4 billion consumers instead of on building factories and apartments. But with each slowdown, Beijing fell back on pepping up growth with more construction and borrowing.

Finally, Xi’s government is confronting the problem by clamping down on borrowing by a real estate industry that supports millions of jobs.