Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares are mixed Monday in a cautious mode after Wall Street closed out the week with milestones as the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 28,000 for the first time and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record highs.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 inched up nearly 0.2% to 23,344.06 in morning trading. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5% to 6,760.60. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.2% to 2,157.19. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.3% to 26,657.14, while the Shanghai Composite was up nearly 0.2% at 2,896.47.

BANGKOK (AP) — China on Monday urged the U.S. military to “stop flexing muscles” in the disputed South China Sea, a point of persistent friction in a relationship both sides said was generally improving.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a parachuting drill of military sharpshooters and vowed to build an “invincible army,” displaying more defiance even as the United States and South Korea called off their own exercises to create space for nuclear diplomacy.

The report Monday by the Korean Central News Agency came hours after President Donald Trump in a tweet urged Kim to “act quickly, get the deal done” while hinting at another summit, writing, “See you soon!”

HONG KONG (AP) — For days, Hong Kong’s protesters fortified a university campus to keep police from getting in. Now, cornered by authorities, they are trying to get out.

Officers repelled one attempt Monday morning with tear gas, driving a few hundred protesters back into the Hong Kong Polytechnic campus.

The protesters want to avoid arrest. The police have set up a dragnet around the campus to pick up as many as they can.

BEIJING, Nov 17 (APP): Former Consul General of China in Karachi, Wang Yu has been appointed as new Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Afghanistan.

Wang presented the copy of Letter of Credence to the General Directorate of Protocol Department, Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, according to China Economic Net.

Colombo, Nov 17 (AFP) Sri Lanka's former wartime defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa took an early lead Sunday in a fiercely fought presidential election conducted under high security seven months after deadly Islamist attacks.

Rajapaksa, the main opposition candidate, was leading with 52.87 percent while housing minister Sajith Premadasa had 39.67 percent out of half a million votes counted, according to the Election Commission.

Leftist Anura Kumara Dissanayake was in third place with 4.69 percent. There were 32 other candidates for the top job.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper expressed confidence on Sunday in the U.S. military justice system’s ability to hold troops to account, two days after President Donald Trump pardoned two Army officers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan.

Trump also restored the rank of a Navy SEAL platoon commander who was demoted for actions in Iraq.

Asked how he would reassure countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq in the wake of the pardons, Esper said: “We have a very effective military justice system.”

BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chief of the Chinese side of the China-U.S. comprehensive economic dialogue, held a phone conversation at the request of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Saturday morning.

During their talks, the two sides had constructive discussions on each other's core concerns in the "phase one" deal, and agreed to maintain close communication.

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday the United States and South Korea have indefinitely postponed a joint military exercise in an “act of goodwill” toward North Korea.

The move comes even as Japan’s defense minister, whose country feels threatened by repeated North Korean missile launches, told Esper “no one could be optimistic about” changing the North’s behavior.

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong police officer was hit in the leg by an arrow Sunday as authorities used tear gas and water cannons to try to drive back protesters occupying a university campus and surrounding streets.

Police said the arrow struck a media liaison officer, who was taken to a hospital. Photos on the department’s Facebook page show the arrow sticking out of the back of the officer’s lower leg through his pants.