Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

GUANGZHOU/HONG KONG, April 7 (Reuters) - China's Xi Jinping has given French President Emmanuel Macron an unusually lavish welcome on a state visit, which some analysts see as a sign of Beijing's growing offensive to woo key allies within the European Union to counter the United States.

The two leaders visited southern China together on Friday, where Macron was due to drink Chinese tea with Xi in a former residence of his father in the city of Guangzhou, capital of the economic and manufacturing powerhouse of Guangdong province.

TOKYO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of Japan (BOJ) said Friday it held more than 581 trillion yen (4.4 trillion U.S. dollars) in government bonds as of March, the largest on record for the end of a fiscal year.

The number was up 10.6 percent from a year earlier after the BOJ ramped up buying to hold down the yield on the benchmark 10-year issue, while the central bank's total assets, including exchange-traded funds, fell 0.2 percent to 734.85 trillion yen.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics said Friday it’s cutting the production of its computer memory chips in an apparent effort to reduce inventory as it forecasted another quarter of sluggish profit.

The South Korean technology giant in a regulatory filing said it has been reducing the production of certain memory products by unspecified “meaningful levels” to optimize its manufacturing operations, adding it has sufficient supplies of those chips to meet demand fluctuations.

TOKYO (AP) — An unused lifeboat, a door and other fragments believed to be from a Japanese army helicopter were found after the Black Hawk carrying 10 crew members was presumed to have crashed at sea, officials said Friday.

Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, apparently struggling to hold back tears, told reporters that none of the missing crew members have been found as the search continued Friday.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Friday ahead of a U.S. job market update that traders hope might encourage the Federal Reserve to ease off plans for more interest rate hikes.

Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul gained. Hong Kong and Australian markets were closed for a holiday.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China retaliated for the United States House speaker’s meeting with the Taiwanese president by announcing sanctions Friday against the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and other organizations, adding to strains over the self-ruled island democracy Beijing claims as part of its territory.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea, the U.S. and Japan called for stronger international support of efforts to ban North Korea from sending workers abroad and curb the North’s cybercrimes as a way to block the country’s means to fund its nuclear program.

Beijing, Apr 6 (PTI) China and the US flexed their naval might by deploying aircraft carriers in a rare showdown in the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing on Thursday fumed over US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's high-profile meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

The Taiwanese defence ministry said a Chinese naval fleet led by the Shandong aircraft carrier passed through the Bashi Channel - which runs between the self-ruled island and the Philippines - before reaching waters southeast of Taiwan.

BEIJING, April 6. /TASS/: China's position on the Ukrainian crisis is ‘supporting talks for peace’, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday during a trilateral meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Beijing.

SEOUL, April 6 (Reuters) - North Korea accused the U.S. and South Korea of escalating tensions to the brink of nuclear war through their joint military drills, vowing to respond with "offensive action", state media KCNA reported on Thursday.

KCNA released a commentary by Choe Ju Hyon, whom it called an international security analyst, criticising the exercises as "a trigger for driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the point of explosion".