Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

18 September 2019; AFP: Toxic haze from Indonesian forest fires closed schools and airports across the country and in neighbouring Malaysia Wednesday, while air quality worsened in Singapore just days before the city's Formula One motor race.

Illegal fires to clear land for agriculture are blazing out of control on Sumatra and Borneo islands, with Jakarta deploying thousands of security forces and water-bombing aircraft to tackle them.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 (NNN-BERNAMA) – Fitch Solutions Macro Research today (Wednesday), forecast China’s and India’s import demand to remain strong over the coming months, which will continue to support global palm oil prices.

The research house said that, it maintained its forecast for palm oil price to average 2,150 ringgit (about 514 U.S. dollars) per tonne this year, which was slightly lower than 2,300 ringgit per tonne in 2018, as it believed palm oil price would remain supported around current levels over the remainder of 2019.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s exports fell 8% in August from a year earlier, as trade tensions took a growing toll on demand across the region.

Exports of machinery, vehicles and chemicals all declined, the Finance Ministry reported Wednesday.

Exports totaled 6.1 trillion yen ($56 billion), while imports slipped 12%, the fastest rate in almost three years, to 6.3 trillion yen ($58 billion), suggesting slack demand inside Japan.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock prices were mixed Wednesday after oil prices fell back and Wall Street advanced.

Benchmarks in Shanghai and Seoul advanced while Tokyo and Hong Kong slipped.

Markets steadied following a decline Tuesday in crude prices that spiked after a weekend attack on a Saudi oil facility. The Saudi oil minister said half of production that was cut already had been restored.

“Concerns surrounding elevated oil prices have eased,” said Mizuho Bank in a report.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, said on Tuesday she and her team would begin dialogue sessions with the community next week, while reiterating that violence that has roiled the city over three months of protests must end.

Lam, who is under pressure from Beijing to defuse the public anger stirring the protests, said the dialogue sessions would be as open as possible, with members of the public able to sign up to attend.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A rare train derailment disrupted services in Hong Kong on Tuesday, the rail operator said, threatening commuter chaos during rush hour.

The disruption to a usually seamless network used by nearly 6 million people every weekday happened after a train derailed while leaving a station in the Kowloon area, rail operator MTR Corp said.

The government’s information department said eight people were injured and five had been taken to hospital.

BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Upon invitation from the U.S. side, Liao Min, deputy director of the Office of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs and vice Finance Minister, plans to lead a delegation to visit the United States on Wednesday for trade consultations.

The visit will pave the way for the 13th round of China-U.S. high-level economic and trade consultations in October in Washington. 

SHENZHEN, China (AP) — Long before President Donald Trump threatened to cut off Huawei’s access to U.S. technology, the Chinese telecom equipment maker was pouring money into research that reduces its need for American suppliers.

Huawei’s founder says instead of crippling the company, the export curbs are making it a tougher competitor by forcing managers to focus resources on their most important products.

HONG KONG (AP) — Overseas, Joshua Wong has emerged as a prominent face of Hong Kong’s months-long protests for full democracy. At home, he is just another protester.

The 22-year-old activist, who rose to fame as a leader of democracy protests five years ago, speaks to a U.S. congressional committee on Tuesday, following visits to Germany and Taiwan to drum up support for the movement.

BISHKEK, September 16. /TASS/: The Center-2019 (Tsentr-2019) military drills involving Kyrgyz and Russian servicemen kicked off in Kyrgyzstan on Monday, the Central Asian state’s General Staff said in a statement. "An opening ceremony for strategic command and staff exercises Center-2019 took place at the Edelweiss training ground on September 16," the statement reads.

According to the General Staff, some 500 servicemen from the two countries, nearly 100 pieces of military and special equipment, artillery, transport and army aviation as well as drones are involved in the drills.