Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday his ruling party will cut ties with the Unification Church following a widening scandal triggered by former leader Shinzo Abe’s assassination last month, and apologized for causing the loss of public trust in politics.

Widespread cozy ties between members of Kishida’s governing Liberal Democratic Party, many of them belonging to Abe’s faction, and the South Korean-born church have surfaced since Abe was shot to death while giving a campaign speech in July.

HONG KONG/XIANGGANG, August 30. /TASS/: Arizona Governor Doug Ducey arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday, Taiwan’s Central News Agency said.

During his three-day visit, the politician will meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and take part in a US Business Day. He also plans to meet with companies in the semiconductor industry and universities that offer education in that area.

BEIJING, August 30. /TASS/: The Chinese Communist Party’s 20th congress will begin on October 16, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

The date was announced at a meeting in Beijing of the Politburo of the party’s Central Committee, the official news agency said. Large-scale preparatory work for the event is underway already.

SINGAPORE, Aug 30 (NNN-CNA) – Singapore reported 1,410 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, bringing the total tally to 1,834,190.

Of the new cases, 198 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, and 1,212 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.

Among the PCR cases, 180 were local transmissions and 18 were imported cases.

Among the ART cases, with mild symptoms and assessed to be of low risk, there were 1,128 local transmissions and 84 imported cases.

PENGHU, Taiwan, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Taiwan fired warning shots at a Chinese drone which buzzed an offshore islet on Tuesday shortly after President Tsai Ing-wen said she had ordered Taiwan's military to take "strong countermeasures" against what she termed Chinese provocations.

It was the first time warning shots have been fired in such an incident amid a period of heightened tension between China and Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory. Taiwan strongly disputes China's sovereignty claims.

BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Some 70 journalists of Chinese and foreign media outlets from a dozen of countries and regions, joined by several Chinese scholars, attended here a press salon Monday to discuss human rights violations in the Middle East by the United States.

The press salon was hosted by the All-China Journalists Association, following a recently released China Society for Human Rights Studies report, which reveals a series of crimes committed by the United States in the Middle East and surrounding areas that seriously violated international law.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks were mixed Tuesday after Wall Street fell following last week’s Federal Reserve pledge to fight inflation by keeping interest rates elevated.

Shanghai and Hong Kong fell while Tokyo and South Korea advanced. Oil prices retreated.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.7% on Monday, adding to last week’s losses.

29 August 2022; MEMO: Japan has pledged to support Africa's bid to secure a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council in order to "address the historical injustice" committed against the continent.

"Japan reiterates its determination to redress the historical injustice against Africa of not being represented through a permanent membership on the Security Council," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Tunis on Sunday.

VIENTIANE, Aug 29 (NNN-KPL) – Thousands of people in northern Laos have been affected by flash floods, triggered by heavy rains in recent days.

Oudomxay, Bokeo, Huaphan and Phongsaly are among the provinces hit by the floods.

Oudomxay province, some 310 km north of the Lao capital, Vientiane, has been the hardest hit, since last Friday, chief of the Lar district, Houmphan Bouphakham, told local media today.

He said, roads were flooded and impassable, houses destroyed or damaged, and electricity and water supplies cut off.

TOKYO, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The latest opinion poll has shown that the disapproval rate of the Japanese government headed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida jumped to 39 percent, a record high since Kishida took office in October 2021, Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Monday.