Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The German community in Malaysia marked the 30th anniversary of its Unity Day with a grand dinner hosted by the country’s ambassador to Malaysia Nikolaus Graf Lambsdorff at a hotel here Thursday evening.

Also known as the National Day, the Day of German Unity is celebrated on October 3 every year to commemorate the unification of east and west Germany following the historic fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The day also marked the 70th anniversary of the republic’s Constitution, famously known as the Grundgesetz or the Basic Law.

HONG KONG (AP) — Masked pro-democracy protesters marched Friday in central Hong Kong ahead of an expected ban on wearing facemasks in a hardening of the government’s stance to the territory’s most disruptive crisis since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT), her office said without giving details. Local media reported Lam planned to bypass the legislature to announce the mask ban under emergency powers to quash four months of anti-government demonstrations.

BEIJING, Oct 3 (APP): The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) construction has entered the second stage, focusing on industrial-agricultural cooperation, Gwadar Port construction and socio-economic development, of which 27 new projects will be launched within this year.

TOKYO, Oct 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Japanese government is planning to grant pardons to about 600,000 petty criminals to mark Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement ceremony on Oct 22, the Mainichi Shimbun daily said on Wednesday, citing unidentified government sources.

Those pardoned will have restrictions on their legal rights lifted, the paper said. In Japan, those who are convicted and fined are banned from obtaining physicians’, nurses’ and some other licenses for five years.

SEOUL, Oct 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least six people were killed and several others missing after Typhoon Mitag lashed South Korea with heavy rain and strong winds, authorities said Thursday.

The storm hit southern parts of the country on Wednesday night, prompting flood warnings and triggering landslides in affected areas.

A woman in her 70s died after she was swept away by strong winds in the southeastern city of Pohang while another woman was killed after heavy rain caused her house to collapse as she slept, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.

SINGAPORE, Oct 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Southeast Asia’s Internet economy was forecast to grow 39 per cent this year to US$100 billion as millions of people in the region went online to shop for the first time and ride-share firms grew in popularity, an industry report said.

The annual report by Google, Singapore’s state investor Temasek Holdings and global business consultants Bain & Company also lifted its forecast for the region’s growth through 2025 to US$300 billion, from US$240 billion previously.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea confirmed Thursday it has carried out its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test in three years, in an apparent bid to dial up pressure on the United States ahead of a weekend resumption of their nuclear diplomacy.

HONG KONG (AP) — Born after the historic July 1 day when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the 18-year-old protester who was shot at close range in the chest by a police officer during violent demonstrations this week and then arrested in the hospital is part of a generation for whom the clock is ticking.

In the lifetimes of young Hong Kong citizens born after 1997, the sands will run out on China’s promise _ enshrined in the territory’s constitution _ that Hong Kong’s “capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years.”

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Before he was battling police on the front lines of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, Tony Tsang, 18, was best known to his peers as a school vice-captain, organizing events for fellow students, friends said on Wednesday.

They were speaking a day after the teenager was shot in the chest at point-blank range as he fought an officer with a metal pipe in Tsuen Wan district during some of the most violent clashes in Hong Kong since protests escalated in mid-June.

Tsang is stable in hospital where he is under arrest.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 (NNN-BERNAMA) — A remark by Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the United Nations General Assembly last week on Jammu and Kashmir sent Twitter into overdrive today.

Several netizens, who seemed to be Indian nationals, expressed their disappointment through #BoycottMalaysia over the remark that Kashmir had been “invaded and occupied”.