Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING/TAIPEI, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Chinese military on Sunday condemned the United States and Canada for each sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait last week, saying they were threatening peace and stability in the region.

China claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, and has mounted repeated air force missions into Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the past year, provoking anger in Taipei.

MACAO, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- All members of the seventh Legislative Assembly of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) were sworn in on Saturday and Kou Hoi In was re-elected as its president.

Ho Iat Seng, chief executive of the Macao SAR, administered the swearing-in ceremony. The legislators swore to uphold and implement the Basic Law of the Macao SAR as well as allegiance to the Macao SAR so as to serve the SAR wholeheartedly.

BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Second United Nations (UN) Global Sustainable Transport Conference concluded in Beijing on Saturday, with a Beijing Statement released as an outcome document.

Noting the importance of sustainable transport, the statement underscored that accelerating the transformation toward sustainable transport will be central toward creating a community of shared future for humankind.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Southeast Asian foreign ministers have agreed to downgrade Myanmar’s participation in an upcoming summit in their sharpest rebuke yet of its leaders following a Feb. 1 military takeover.

Myanmar objected to the decision by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to invite a non-political representative instead of Myanmar’s military leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the grouping’s chair Brunei said Saturday.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida donated ritual offerings Sunday to a Tokyo shrine viewed by Chinese and Koreans as a symbol of Japanese wartime aggression, though he did not make a visit in person.

Kishida donated “masakaki” religious ornaments to mark Yasukuni Shrine’s autumn festival. It was the first such observance by Kishida since he took office on Oct. 4.

JAKARTA, Oct 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Eleven students drowned and 10 others were rescued during a school outing for a river cleanup in Indonesia’s West Java Province, officials said.

Local officials said 150 students from an Islamic junior high school were participating in the cleanup on Friday along the banks of the Cileueur river bank when 21 of them slipped into the water.

BEIJING, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Friday slammed reported "vile" U.S. practice of hiring paid posters to spread rumors to discredit China.

Zimbabwe's media have revealed that the U.S. government, through such means as funding relevant agencies in hosting seminars, is paying private media journalists 1,000 U.S. dollars for every story they publish to discredit Chinese companies who invest in Zimbabwe.

TOKYO (AP) — The leaders of Japan and South Korea spoke by phone on Friday, saying they would look to deepen ties in the face of regional security threats despite strained bilateral relations.

Although are both military allies of the U.S. and share common concerns over North Korea and China, ties between Tokyo and Seoul have suffered over the legacy of Japan’s World War II atrocities. Disagreements over compensation for wartime Korean laborers are another big problem.

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — Three people were killed and another seven were injured when a moderately strong earthquake and an aftershock hit Indonesia’s resort island of Bali early Saturday.

The quake hit just before dawn, causing people to run outdoors in a panic. It struck just as the island is beginning to reopen to tourism as the pandemic wanes.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 4.8 quake was centered 62 kilometers (38.5 miles) northeast of Singaraja, a Bali port town. Its shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) may have amplified the amount of damage.

BEIJING, Oct 15 (APP)-: A signing ceremony for the establishment of an overseas practice base between Shandong Vocational College of Industry (SDVCI) and Infinity School of Engineering (ISE), Pakistan was held via video conference.

“In May 2018, we initially signed the cooperation agreement with Chairman Iqbal Khalid and CEO Abdur Razzaq Gauhar,” noted Wang Zhenguang, the Dean of School of International Exchange and Continuing Education at the Shandong Vocational College of Industry, in an exclusive interview with China Economic Net.