Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — China’s first reusable spacecraft landed Sunday after two days in orbit, a possible step toward lower-cost space flight, the government announced.

The secretive, military-run space program has released few details of the craft, which was launched Friday aboard a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s desert northwest.

The craft landed as planned at Jiuquan, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

State media have yet to publish any photos. The craft’s size and shape are unclear.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has visited typhoon-stricken areas in the northeast, fired a top official there and promised to send 12,000 workers from Pyongyang for recovery efforts, state media reported Sunday.

It’s the latest in a series of high-profile visits by Kim and his deputies to areas hit by natural disasters in recent weeks. Some experts say Kim likely attempted to project an image of a leader looking after people’s livelihoods as he seeks to bolster internal unity in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and U.S.-led sanctions.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s leading maker of semiconductors has denied it has any links to the military following reports Washington is considering stepping up its feud with Beijing over technology and security by imposing export controls that could disrupt manufacturing for a national industrial champion.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, a frontrunner to be the next prime minister, said he would like the central bank to continue its ultra-loose monetary policy as the economy is still struggling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

In an interview that ran on Saturday in the Nikkei newspaper, Suga also said he would consider compiling another economic stimulus package by the end of this year to “put the pandemic to an end and shift the economy to a new stage.”

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has long positioned himself as a global internet entrepreneur, largely eschewing Chinese government involvement, but U.S. demands to sell his crown jewel TikTok are testing the boundaries with Beijing.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is bracing for powerful Typhoon Haishen as it bears down on the country’s southwest, with weather forecasters warning of potential record rainfall, violent wind, high waves and tides.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has urged residents of Okinawa and Kyushu to exercise maximum caution as Typhoon Haishen was on course to approach Okinawa by Sunday and the main southern island of Kyushu afterwards.

BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China urges the United States to fulfill its due international responsibilities and obligations, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday.

Hua made the remarks at a press briefing in response to a query about U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus' statement on Thursday, announcing the next steps concerning the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the redirection of American resources, including scaling down its engagement with the WHO.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) has urged the government to reconsider the blanket entry ban on foreign citizens from 12 countries, including the US, which will take effect on Sept 7.

Chief executive officer Siobhan Das in a statement today said the ban would affect amongst others, expatriates with valid work permits in Malaysia such as Employment Passes and Professional Visitor Passes.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s government said on Friday it would bear the cost of providing coronavirus vaccines to the populace, as it aims for a comprehensive inoculation against the pandemic.

The government also said it planned to establish funds to compensate for possible side effects from the vaccines. The plans were outlined in documents distributed at a briefing by Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who also heads the coronavirus response.

TOKYO (AP) — His boss Carlos Ghosn escaped financial misconduct charges by fleeing the country, but another former Nissan executive is still awaiting trial in Japan: Greg Kelly.

Kelly’s trial in Tokyo District Court is to open Sept. 15, nearly two years after his arrest, and the same day he turns 64 . If convicted of charges related to alleged under-reporting of Ghosn’s income, Kelly could face up to a decade in prison.