Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

HONG KONG, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's security chief called on Wednesday for the city's main press association to disclose to the public who its members work for and how many of them are students, a day after he accused the group of infiltrating schools.

The comments by Secretary for Security Chris Tang are likely to deepen concern over a crackdown on civil society in the Asian financial hub after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the former British colony last year.

TAIPEI, Sept. 15 (Reuters) - Taiwan is a "sea fortress" blocking China's expansion into the Pacific and is willing to share with other democracies its knowledge of countering Beijing's efforts to undermine it, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told a U.S. audience on Wednesday.

The United States, like most countries, does not have formal diplomatic ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but is the democratically ruled island's most important international backer and arms supplier.

Beijing, Sep 15 (AP-PTI) China tightened lockdowns and increased orders for mass testing in cities along its east coast Wednesday amid the latest surge in COVID-19 cases.

Checks have been set up in toll stations around the city of Putian in Fujian province, with a dozen of them closed entirely.

The nearby cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou have also restricted travel as the delta variant spreads through the region.

BEIJING (AP) — China tightened lockdowns and increased orders for mass testing in cities along its east coast Wednesday amid the latest surge in COVID-19 cases.

Checks have been set up in toll stations around the city of Putian in Fujian province, with a dozen of them closed entirely. The nearby cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou have also restricted travel as the delta variant spreads through the region.

The National Health Commission on Wednesday said an additional 50 cases had been diagnosed in various parts of Fujian, most of them in the Putian region.

HONG KONG (AP) — Nine Hong Kong activists and ex-lawmakers on Wednesday were handed jail sentences of up to 10 months over their roles in last year’s banned Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil, the latest blow in an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the city.

The nine are part of a group of 12 defendants who pleaded guilty earlier this month to participating in the vigil that was the only large-scale public commemoration on Chinese soil of the 1989 crackdown in Beijing on student-led protests. Three others were given suspended sentences.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street down on Wednesday after U.S. inflation was lower than expected amid unease about the impact of the spread of the coronavirus’s delta variant.

Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney all retreated, giving up the previous day’s gains.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index fell despite data showing consumer prices rose at their slowest rate in seven months in August.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities lost contact with a small Rimbun Air cargo airplane 50 minutes after it took off Wednesday in the country’s easternmost province Papua.

Local airport authorities with the National Search and Rescue Agency are searching for the plane.

The Twin Otter 300 plane was heading to Intan Jaya district from Nabre district with construction materials on board.

The Transportation Ministry in a statement said a pilot, co-pilot and technician are on board.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The rival Koreas test-launched ballistic missiles hours apart from each other on Wednesday in a display of military assets that came amid a faltering diplomatic push to strip North Korea of its nuclear program.

South Korea’s presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test on Wednesday afternoon. It said a domestically built missile fired from a 3,000-ton-class submarine flew a previously set distance before hitting a designated target.

BEIJING, September 14. / TASS /: The leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) participating states will decide on expanding the SCO membership at the summit in Dushanbe on September 16-17, Secretary General of the organization Vladimir Norov told TASS on Tuesday.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 (NNN-Bernama) — A security warning issued by the government of Japan through its embassies in Southeast Asian countries was based on a media platform and did not have solid grounds. said Senior Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

Hishammuddin said from Malaysian Armed Forces intelligence, he confirmed the warning is not something to be worried about.

“In fact, the Inspector-General of Police (Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani) had issued a statement that the warning was unfounded.