Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TAIPEI, April 11 (Reuters) - Chinese warplanes and navy ships were still in the waters around Taiwan, the island's defence ministry said on Tuesday after the end of three days of war games, as Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen criticised Beijing for its "irresponsible" behaviour.

China began the exercises on Saturday after Tsai returned to Taipei following a meeting in Los Angeles with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

TOKYO (AP) — The new governor of Japan’s central bank signaled Monday that he plans no drastic changes in its ultra-low interest rate policy, sticking to earlier messaging on the topic.

Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda said Japan’s financial institutions are not facing the sorts of turmoil seen recently with bank failures in the U.S. and Europe. He pledged to do his utmost to maintain stability in both prices and financial systems in the world’s third-largest economy.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has condemned China’s military drills in the Taiwan Strait, saying Tuesday that China did not demonstrate the “responsible” behavior of a major Asian nation.

China’s three-day, large-scale drills that ended Monday were retaliation for Tsai’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week on her tour of Taiwan’s official and unofficial allies.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — American and Filipino forces on Tuesday launched their largest combat exercises in decades to be highlighted by a ship-sinking rocket barrage in waters across the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, where Washington has repeatedly warned China over its increasingly aggressive actions.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to enhance his nuclear arsenal in more “practical and offensive” ways as he met with senior military officials to discuss the country’s war preparations in the face of his rivals’ “frantic” military exercises, state media said Tuesday.

The meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission on Monday came amid heightened tensions as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the U.S.-South Korean joint military drills have intensified in recent weeks in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Hundreds of South Koreans were forced to flee a wildfire fueled by strong winds that burned parts of an eastern coastal city Tuesday, destroying dozens of homes.

More than 700 firefighters and 300 vehicles were dispatched to fight the fire that started on a mountain in a central part of Gangneung, according to the Gangwon Province Governor Kim Jin-tae and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The United States and the Philippines on Tuesday launch their largest combat exercises in decades that will involve live-fire drills, including a boat-sinking rocket assault in waters across the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait that will likely inflame China.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 (NNN-Bernama) — Ringgit bonds drew the largest monthly inflow in over a year following bank failures and aversion to credit risk in the United States and Europe, says a reserach firm based in Malaysia. 

Maybank Investment Bank Group Research (Maybank IB Research) in a note said this was due to the fact that regional local currency debts offered both yields and relative safety.

TOKYO, Apr 10 (NNN-NHK) – Japan logged a current account surplus of 2.2 trillion yen (16.6 billion U.S. dollars) in Feb, the government said today, back to the black, following a deficit in Jan.

According to the Finance Ministry’s preliminary information, the figure was 2.3 percent lower than in the same period last year.

According to the ministry, the country had a goods trade deficit of 604.1 billion yen (4.56 billion U.S. dollars) and a services trade deficit of 220.4 billion yen (1.66 million U.S. dollars), among key components in the recording period.

MANILA, April 10 (Reuters) - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr assured China on Monday that military bases accessible to the United States would not be used in any offensive action, stressing the arrangement with Washington was designed to boost his country's defences.

China's foreign ministry last week said the United States strengthening military deployment in the Philippines would only lead to more tension in the region, after Manila allowed Washington access to more of its bases.