Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets plunged Friday after President Donald Trump’s surprise threat of tariff hikes on additional Chinese imports.

In early trading, London’s main index lost 2% and Frankfurt fell 2.5%. Tokyo’s benchmark was off 2.1% and Hong Kong retreated 2.5%. Markets in Shanghai, Sydney and Paris also fell.

Trump’s announcement of 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods, due to take effect Sept. 1, surprised investors after the White House said Beijing promised to buy more farm goods. That came as their latest round of trade talks ended in Shanghai.

TOKYO (AP) — The Latest on Japan downgrading South Korea’s trade status (all times local):

7:10 p.m.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in a bid to try to defuse a brewing crisis between the two key U.S. allies.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired what appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles twice Friday into the sea off its eastern coast in its third round of weapons tests in just over a week, South Korea’s military and presidential office said.

BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday threatened retaliation if U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned tariff hikes go ahead, while the renewed acrimony between the two biggest global economies sent stock markets tumbling.

China’s government accused Trump of violating his June agreement with President Xi Jinping to revive negotiations aimed at ending a costly fight over Beijing’s trade surplus and technology ambitions.

NUR-SULTAN, August 1. /TASS/: The three guarantors of the Astana process on Syria — Russia, Iran and Turkey — plan to hold a summit on September 11, a source close to the negotiations' organizers told TASS on Thursday.

"A summit is planned to take place on September 11," it said.

However, the Kremlin has not announced the date for the summit yet.

The establishment of the Syrian Constitutional Committee will be announced at the upcoming Russia-Iran-Turkey summit, the source informed TASS.

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that Washington isn’t asking any Asian nation to take sides as it engages with the region where China is battling for influence and aggressively expanding territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Pompeo hailed an Indo-Pacific engagement framework adopted by the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in June, saying it supports sovereignty, transparency, good governance and a rules-based order among other things.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday leader Kim Jong Un supervised the first test firing of a new multiple rocket launcher system that could potentially enhance its ability to strike targets in South Korea and U.S. military bases there.

The report by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency differed from the assessment by South Korea’s military, which had concluded Wednesday’s launches were of two short-range ballistic missiles.

TOKYO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Hiroshige Seko said on Wednesday that the Japanese government has maintained its stance to remove South Korea from a list of nations entitled to simplified export procedures.

Japan has already tightened regulations earlier this month on its export to South Korea of three materials vital to make memory chips and display panels, which are the mainstay of the South Korean export.

The government will decide whether to exclude South Korea from the list as early as Friday at a cabinet meeting.

NUR-SULTAN, July 31. /TASS/: The government of Kazakhstan adopted a decree, which obliges the country’s authorities to buy passenger cars only from domestic manufacturers.

That is according to a report of the Union of enterprises of the automotive industry of Kazakhstan (KazAvtoProm) the organization posted on its website.

BANGKOK, July 31. /TASS/: The British delegation requested a bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok, a source close to the negotiations told TASS on Wednesday.

"The British had requested the meeting, but they disappeared saying that they needed instructions of the leadership," the source said.