Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SHANGHAI, July 10 (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged his Australian counterpart Penny Wong to treat China as a partner, not an opponent, and to accumulate "postive energy" to improve ties between the two countries.

On the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bali on Friday, Wang expressed hope that Australia could "seize the opportunity, take concrete actions and come to a correct understanding of China", according to a summary published late on Saturday by China's foreign ministry.

TOKYO, July 10 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was projected to keep a majority in the upper house with its junior coalition partner in Sunday's election, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The widely expected outcome comes two days after the fatal shooting of prominent LDP member and power broker, former premier Shinzo Abe.

BANGKOK, July 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday urged China and members of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN to put pressure on Myanmar's rulers to return to democracy and to hold it accountable to a peace deal agreed with the group.

"It is incumbent on China and in China's interest to see Burma move back to the path it was on," Blinken said, using the country's former name.

BEIJING, July 10 (Reuters) - Several people protesting in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou over the freezing of deposits by some rural-based banks said they were injured on Sunday when heavy-handed security personnel dispersed the crowd.

The banks froze millions of dollars worth of deposits in April, telling customers they were upgrading their internal systems. The banks have not issued any communication on the matter since, depositors said.

SEOUL, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday fired what appeared to be artillery shots, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The JCS said in a statement that it detected the trajectories, presumed to be the artillery shots fired from multiple rocket launchers, from about 6:21 p.m. to 6:37 p.m. local time.

According to Yonhap news agency, the South Korean military spotted the trajectories of two DPRK artillery shots.

On June 12, the DPRK fired around five shots from multiple rocket launchers off its west coast.

BALI, Indonesia, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday, a day after the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers' meeting held in Bali, Indonesia.

The two sides had a comprehensive, in-depth and candid conversation over China-U.S. relations, as well as international and regional issues of common concern for long hours.

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will pay a brief condolence visit to Japan next week following the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the State Department said Sunday.

Blinken will travel to Tokyo on Monday to pay his respects to the former leader and meet with senior Japanese officials before returning to Washington from an Asian tour that he is now wrapping up.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese went to the polls Sunday in the shadow of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was gunned down while making a campaign speech. Abe’s governing party appeared to be cruising to a major victory.

As people voted, police in western Japan sent the alleged assassin to a local prosecutors’ office for further investigation. A day earlier a top regional police official acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed the attacker to get so close and fire a bullet at the still-influential former Japanese leader.

BEIJING, July 9 (APP): In recent years, Pakistan has accelerated the construction of its mobile communication facilities, with companies like China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak) playing a significant role in the local market and network.

Companies in Pakistan are now looking to provide services to allow people from all over the world to work from their homes. With the advent of online services in recent years, the trend has been gaining traction and platforms like CMPak are playing a big role in realizing the dreams of young Pakistanis when it comes to jobs.

SEOUL, Jul 9 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea recorded 20,286 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight, compared to 24 hours ago, taking the total number of infections to 18,491,435, the health authorities said, today.

The daily caseload was up from 19,323 the previous day, and far higher than 10,715 tallied a week ago, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

For the past week, the daily average number of confirmed cases was 15,989.

Among the newly reported infections, 223 were imported cases, lifting the total to 36,928.