Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TOKYO (AP) — A man dressed in a Joker costume and brandishing a knife stabbed at least one passenger on a Tokyo commuter train before starting a fire, injuring passengers and sending people scrambling to escape and jumping from windows, police and witnesses said.

The Tokyo Fire Department said 17 passengers were injured, including three seriously. Not all of them were stabbed and most of the other injuries were not serious, the fire department said.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s economic rebound from the coronavirus pandemic is stalling as President Xi Jinping’s government cracks down on surging corporate debt.

For a decade, the ruling Communist Party has talked about shifting to economy based on spending by 1.4 billion consumers instead of on building factories and apartments. But with each slowdown, Beijing fell back on pepping up growth with more construction and borrowing.

Finally, Xi’s government is confronting the problem by clamping down on borrowing by a real estate industry that supports millions of jobs.

MANILA, Oct 31 (NNN-PNA) – A Philippine ranking army general said, troops had killed an alleged “topmost wanted” rebel leader in a clash yesterday, in southern Bukidnon province.

Major General Romeo Brawner, commander of the army’s 4th infantry division, said, New People’s Army (NPA) commander, George Madlos, also known as Ka Oris, was killed, after a 30-minute firefight in Impasugong town, around 11:30 a.m. local time yesterday.

TAIPEI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Taiwan's air force scrambled on Sunday to warn off eight Chinese aircraft including fighter jets that entered its air defence zone, its defence ministry said, at a time of heightened tensions across the sensitive Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China's air force near the self-ruled island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence zone near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.

TOKYO, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Japan's ruling coalition of Liberal Democratic Party and its partner Komeito will secure a majority of lower house of parliament seats in the general election on Sunday, the NHK exit polls projected.

Voting of the country's general election finished Sunday evening with polling stations closing nationwide at 8 p.m. local time (1100 GMT), and ballots counting is expected to last late into the night.

BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- China on Sunday slammed the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for releasing a declassified version of its report on the novel coronavirus origins on Friday, and said that the report has no scientific basis or credibility.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks when asked to comment on the release of the report. He stressed that when the U.S. intelligence agency released the so-called unclassified summary of assessment on COVID-19 origins in August, China made clear its firm opposition.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s governing coalition is expected to keep a majority in a parliamentary election Sunday but will lose some seats in a setback for his weeks-old government grappling with a coronavirus-battered economy and regional security challenges, according to exit polls.

Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito together were expected to win between 239 to 288 seats in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber Diet, public broadcaster NHK’s exit poll showed.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese voters are casting ballots in national elections Sunday, a first big test for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to determine if he has a large enough mandate to tackle a coronavirus-battered economy, a fast-aging and dwindling population and security challenges from China and North Korea.

Up for grabs are 465 seats in the lower house, the more powerful of the two-chamber Japanese Diet, or parliament.

HANOI, Oct 30 (NNN-VNA) – Vietnam recorded an estimated trade value of 537.31 billion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months of this year, up 22.2 percent year-on-year, with a trade deficit of 1.45 billion U.S. dollars, the General Statistics Office said yesterday.

Specifically, the export revenue stood at 267.93 billion U.S. dollars, up 16.6 percent year-on-year, while the import revenue totaled 269.38 billion U.S. dollars, surging 28.2 percent.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 (NNN-Bernama) — The Malaysian Foreign ministry has described the tabling of National Budget 2022 as inclusive, high impact and crucial to the Malaysian Family in meeting the unprecedented challenging situation faced by the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.