Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Chinese troops will travel to Russia to take part in joint military exercises led by the host and including India, Belarus, Mongolia, Tajikistan and other countries, China's defence ministry said on Wednesday.

China's participation in the joint exercises was "unrelated to the current international and regional situation", the ministry said in a statement.

JAKARTA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Six tenants died after allegedly being trapped in a fire at a rooming four-story house in Indonesia's capital Jakarta on Wednesday morning, local authorities reported.

Three other tenants were also injured in the incident that started at around 6:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT on Tuesday) in the densely-populated residential area of Duri Selatan in Tambora sub-district.

It took firefighters an hour to bring the fire under control.

TOKYO, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic saw the suicide rate in Japan spike between March 2020 and June 2022, with females in their 20s accounting for the largest increase, local media said Wednesday.

Citing a recent study conducted by a team of researchers including Taisuke Nakata, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, Kyodo News said there were 8,000 more suicides in Japan during the pandemic period.

The study showed that large numbers of women aged 19 years or younger also committed suicide during the period.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president said Wednesday his government has no plans to pursue its own nuclear deterrent and called instead for more diplomacy in the face of growing North Korean nuclear weapons capabilities, even as the North test-fired two suspected cruise missiles.

The launches were detected from North Korea’s western coast hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol used a news conference to urge Pyongyang to return to diplomacy aimed at exchanging denuclearization steps for economic benefits.

TOKYO (AP) — A former Tokyo Olympic organizing committee board member and three people from a clothing company that was a surprise sponsor of the 2020 Games were arrested on bribery suspicions Wednesday.

Haruyuki Takahashi, 78, a former executive at advertising company Dentsu, is suspected of receiving bribes from the former head of Aoki Holdings Inc. and two company employees, the prosecutors’ office said.

BEIJING (AP) — The world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases are sparring on Twitter over climate policy, with China questioning whether the U.S. can deliver on the landmark climate legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden this week.

“You can bet America will meet our commitments,” U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns tweeted in response on Wednesday, using a national flag emoticon for “America.” He called on China to resume suspended climate talks, writing, “We’re ready.”

BEIJING, Aug 16 (APP): The first urban railway system Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) in Lahore is going to go solarized to save the soaring more than Rs 1.9 billion annual electricity bill being consumed on entire operationalization of Metro Train.

Punjab Mass Transit Authority (PMAT) is operating OLMT since the train was handed over to it by the Chinese contractor CR-NORINCO, a joint venture between China State Railway Group (CR) and China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) in 2020, CEN reported.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Aug 16 (NNN-ANN) – Brunei logged a daily average of 420 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, the country’s Health Ministry said, yesterday.

According to the ministry’s weekly briefing, 62,348 antigen rapid test (ART) results were uploaded to the government platform within one week, with 4.7 percent of them being positive.

Currently, no hospitalised cases are held in intensive care unit, but two cases require assisted breathing, according to the ministry.

TOKYO, Aug 16 (NNN-NHK) – The chemical waste, that is extremely high in carcinogens and stored near Japan’s disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant, was transported today, to a city in Hokkaido, among protests from local residents.

The toxic and radioactive waste, mostly condensers and lighting ballasts, contain high concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that are harmful to humans.

Prior to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, carcinogenic waste was disposed of in regions surrounding the now-stricken nuclear plant.

SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The combined forces of South Korea and the United States on Tuesday launched annual military drills as planned, three days after liberal activists held a massive rally to protest against it.

The South Korea-led crisis management drills, designed to practice procedures to respond to possible pre-war crisis scenarios, kicked off earlier in the day.

The four-day preliminary drills will be conducted ahead of the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise, a newly-named summertime military exercise between the two allies involving field maneuvers.