Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

NARA, Japan, July 8 (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was gunned down on Friday while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country where guns are tightly controlled and political violence almost unthinkable.

Abe, 67, was pronounced dead around five and a half hours after the shooting in the city of Nara. Police arrested a 41-year-old man and said the weapon was a homemade gun.

"I am simply speechless over the news of Abe's death," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Abe's protege, told reporters.

NARA, Japan, July 9 (Reuters) - The man who killed Shinzo Abe believed the former Japanese leader was linked to a religious group he blamed for his mother's financial ruin and spent months planning the attack with a homemade gun, police told local media on Saturday.

Tetsuya Yamagami, an unemployed 41-year-old, identified as the suspect on suspicion of murder on Friday after a man was seen in videos repeatedly shown on Japanese television calmly approaching Japan's longest-serving prime minister from behind and firing.

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.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) — China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine is complicating U.S.-Chinese relations at a time when they are already beset by rifts and enmity over numerous other issues, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterpart on Saturday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed the U.S. for the downturn in relations and said that American policy has been derailed by what he called a misperception of China as a threat.

TOKYO (AP) — A top police official on Saturday acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed an assassin to fire his gun into former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe while he was addressing a campaign rally, raising questions how could the attacker get so close behind him.

Abe was shot in the western city of Nara on Friday and airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss. Police arrested the attacker, a former member of Japan’s navy, at the scene. Police confiscated his homemade gun and several others were later found at his apartment.

BEIJING, July 8 (APP): The Pakistani businessmen and traders participated in the 28th China Lanzhou Investment and Trade Fair kicked off in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China’s Gansu Province.

The five-day event that will feature business negotiations and forums aims to boost economic and trade cooperation among countries along the Belt and Road.

HONG KONG/XIANGGANG/, July 8. /TASS/: At least nine aircraft of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army entered Taiwan’s self-declared air defense identification zone, the island’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that the Chinese warplanes flew around the waters southwest of the island. The maneuvers involved two Y-8 electronic surveillance aircraft, four J-16 jets, two J-10 fighters and one J-11 plane. In response, the Taiwanese military issued radio warnings and deployed air defense missile systems.

BALI, Indonesia, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed here on Thursday to further expand bilateral cooperation and jointly safeguard the common interests of developing countries.

MANILA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos has tested positive for COVID-19, Press Secretary Rose Beatrix Cruz-Angeles said Friday.

Angeles told a press conference that Marcos, 64, has tested positive in an antigen test for COVID-19. "He has a slight fever, but he is otherwise okay," she said.

Angeles said the presidential management staff is currently informing those in close contact with Marcos to observe their symptoms per the protocol. Marcos' wife and children were not exposed.

BALI, Indonesia, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday called for upholding true multilateralism, conducting win-win cooperation, and achieving inclusiveness and connectivity within the framework of the Group of 20 (G20).

Wang made the remarks when delivering a speech at the G20 foreign ministers' meeting held in the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

The G20 members should be partners with mutual respect and consultation on equal footing, he said.