Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

3 September 2019; AFP: China said Monday it had lodged a complaint against the United States with the World Trade Organization (WTO), one day after new tariffs imposed by Washington on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods came into force.

The world's two biggest economies have been embroiled in a bruising year-long trade war which escalated further on Sunday when Washington moved ahead with fresh levy hikes which Beijing had promised to match.

3 September 2019; AFP: Eight schoolchildren have died and two others were injured in a "school-related criminal case" in central China, with a 40-year-old suspect arrested, local authorities said Tuesday, the latest attack targeting an educational institution in the country.

The man was detained by police on the spot following Monday's incident in Chaoyangpo Village in Hubei province, according to a statement on the website of the government of Enshi city.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A letter threatening to hunt Koreans and containing what appeared to be a bullet has been sent to the South Korean embassy in Japan amid worsening ties between the Asian neighbors, Japanese media said on Tuesday.

Relations between the two countries have been overshadowed by Japan’s 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean peninsula, and recently a dispute over Korean forced laborers spilled into trade and then into security when South Korea scrapped an intelligence sharing pact last month.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - This is a transcript of a talk given last week by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to a group of businesspeople in the city. The transcript is taken from an audio recording of Lam’s remarks that was obtained by Reuters.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday she had never asked the Chinese government to let her resign to end the Chinese-ruled city’s political crisis, responding to a Reuters report about a recording of her saying she would step down if she could.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of the former British colony since mid-June in sometimes violent protests against now-suspended draft legislation that could have seen people sent to mainland China for trial in Communist Party controlled courts.

BANGKOK, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Thailand and South Korea on Monday signed several agreements in varied aspects of bilateral cooperation.

At Government House, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and the visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in witnessed the signing of the cooperation agreements between the two governments. Thailand and South Korea are mutually viewed as strategic partners at bilateral, sub-regional and regional levels.

The South Korean president is paying an official visit to Thailand as guest of the Thai government from Sunday until Tuesday.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Sept 3 (NNN-AKP) – Cambodia and Malaysia signed two pacts today (Tuesday), to boost bilateral trade, investment and tourism, said a joint statement.

Cambodian Prime Minister, Samdech Techo Hun Sen and visiting Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, presided over the signing ceremony of the deals after their bilateral talks at the Peace Palace here.

The documents included an agreement on the avoidance of double taxation or DTA and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on tourism cooperation, it said.

PHNOM PENH, Sept 3 (NNN-BERNAMA) – Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today slammed several world superpowers  for imposing sanctions on small countries in the region.

He said the sanction would hurt not only the country involved but also other countries for ‘no reason at all’.

 “We have no quarrel with this country but we are stopped from doing any business with this country because of the sanction. This is grossly unfair.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Plans announced by Myanmar’s military to prosecute soldiers for actions at a village where security forces reportedly killed as many as 400 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority drew skepticism Monday from the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch.

NUR-SULTAN, September 2. /TASS/: On Monday, the upper house of Kazakhstan’s parliament elected Dariga Nazarbayeva as Senate Speaker, Chairman of the Senate’s Counting Commission Alimjan Kurtayev announced after a secret ballot.

"There were 48 ballots in favor [of Nazarbayeva]. No one voted against or abstained. Dariga Nazarbayeva was thus elected chairperson of Kazakhstan’s Senate," he stated.

Nazarbayeva was nominated by Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.