Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s navy has seized a massive tanker believed to be loaded with thousands of tons of wasted black oil and has brought the ship to shore for further investigation, officials said Thursday.

The Panamanian-flagged MT Zodiac Star was located Wednesday after the navy received an intelligence tip about a suspicious tanker near Tolop island and escorted it about 22 kilometers (13 miles) to a naval base in Batam on the Indonesian archipelago’s southwestern tip near Singapore, said Rear Admiral Arsyad Abdullah, the country’s western fleet commander.

BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets mostly rose Wednesday as investors weighed the economic impact of the spread of the coronavirus’s delta variant.

Markets in London and Frankfurt opened higher. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced.

Wall Street futures were higher after the S&P 500 ended August with a 2.9% gain.

BEIJING, Sep 1 (APP): The favor of Chinese consumers for Pakistani pine nuts has driven huge import demand, and China has become the main export destination of Pakistani pine nuts.

It is still a month away from Pakistan’s pine nut harvest season, but Chinese buyers can’t wait. On a mainstream e-commerce platform in China, a store selling Pakistani pine nuts has sold 10,000+ bags a month, and got 3,009 comments.
“The pine nut has a strong flavor with full and large kernel. It can be shelled with just a slight pinch, and fresh kernels lay inside.”

BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- China has so far built 993,000 5G base stations, covering more than 95 percent of counties and 35 percent of rural townships, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Tuesday.

The number of 5G mobile phone users has exceeded 392 million, the ministry said at the 2021 World 5G Convention that opened Tuesday in Beijing.

The meeting attracted over 1,500 industry experts, scholars, and entrepreneurs from 20 countries participating online and offline.

INCHEON, South Korea, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The remains of 109 Chinese soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War were casketed in South Korea on Wednesday to be sent back to their homeland, the South Korean defense ministry said.

The ceremony to lay the 109 remains in coffins was held in Incheon, west of the capital Seoul.

The 109 remains and 1,226 related relics were excavated from six regions in South Korea between 2019 and 2020, according to the defense ministry.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese and U.S. officials plan to talk this week about reducing pollution by the world’s two largest economies — an area of potential cooperation between two governments whose relations are strained on other issues.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is scheduled for meetings with counterparts from the Chinese government beginning Wednesday.

Relations between Washington and Beijing have been strained by disputes over trade, technology and human rights, but the sides have identified the climate crisis as an area for possible cooperation.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mixed Wednesday as investors weighed the economic impact of the spread of the coronavirus’s delta variant and Wall Street ended August with a gain for the seventh straight month.

Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Sydney declined.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 declined 0.1% on Tuesday from the previous day’s record but ended August with a 2.9% gain.

BANGKOK, Aug 31 (NNN-Bernama) — The Malaysian Embassy here will continue to work closely with the Thai government to ensure that Malaysians residing in the country receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Malaysian Ambassador to Thailand Jojie Samuel said over the past few months, the embassy had shared and updated the information on immunisation programmes offered to foreign nationals residing in Thailand.

TOKYO, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is set to replace an unpopular long-term ally as he seeks to shore up support ahead of a party leadership election he must win before the general election planned for October, media said on Tuesday.

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai told Suga he would step down at a meeting on Monday, the reports said.

"I've been in the Secretary General post for more than five years, I want you to do the reshuffle without hesitation," Nikai told Suga, according to the public broadcaster NHK.

BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Officials and researchers in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have lashed out at some anti-China forces in Britain for interfering in Xinjiang affairs.

"The accusations made by some British politicians against Xinjiang are contrary to the facts and ridiculous. They are nothing but gimmicks born out of political manipulation," Xu Guixiang, a spokesperson with the regional government, said at a press conference held in Beijing.