Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been widely denounced by domestic media for his egregious performance in office, most recently on Monday with The Washington Post calling him "the worst secretary of state in history."

In an opinion piece published Monday, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of the newspaper Jackson Diehl pointed out that the top diplomat in Washington "has failed to fill dozens of senior positions at the State Department, and hundreds of career diplomats have left or been driven out in political purges."

TOKYO (AP) — When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, the first thing Hidekazu Tamura, a Japanese American living in California, thought was, “I’ll be killed at the hands of my fellow Americans.” It wouldn’t be the last time he felt that way.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong began a voluntary mass-testing program for coronavirus Tuesday as part of a strategy to break the chain of transmission in the city’s third outbreak of the disease.

The virus-testing program has become a flash point of political debate in Hong Kong, with many distrustful over resources and staff being provided by the China’s central government and fears that the residents’ DNA could be collected during the exercise.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to hold a leadership vote on Sept. 14 to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is stepping down due to ill health, local media reported on Monday.

The new party leader will become the country’s next prime minister, due to the party’s parliamentary majority, with four possible candidates vying for the position.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A group of lawmakers led by Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso will back Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga for the next premier, Kyodo news agency reported on Monday, giving Suga a boost from one of the largest factions within the ruling party.

Aso’s faction comprises 54 lawmakers, according to a spokeswoman from the faction’s office.

Former Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida as well as Suga are seen as major contenders in the race to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s commerce ministry said on Monday it has launched an anti-dumping probe into imports from the United States of certain monoalkyl ethers of ethylene glycol and propylene glycol, which are widely used in areas including automobile brake fluid and deicing products for aircraft fuel.

The launch of the probe followed a call for an investigation made by Jiangsu Yida Chemical Co and its units made on July 17 on behalf of domestic industry, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website.

Beijing, Aug 31 (AP/PTI) China's manufacturing activity held steady in August as domestic demand helped to offset weaker orders from exports markets that are struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, a survey showed Monday.

The monthly purchasing managers' index released by the Chinese statistics agency and an industry group declined to 51 from July's 51.1 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 indicate activity increasing.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s plan to more than triple its coronavirus testing is unlikely to improve its fight against the outbreak without an overhaul in the test approval process, which has kept daily coronavirus-testing well below capacity, experts say.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who announced his resignation on Friday due to health reasons, said on the same day the government would increase testing capacity to 200,000 a day.

BEIJING (AP) — When police arrested the middle-aged Uighur woman at the height of China’s coronavirus outbreak, she was crammed into a cell with dozens of other women in a detention center.

There, she said, she was forced to drink a medicine that made her feel weak and nauseous, guards watching as she gulped. She and the others also had to strip naked once a week and cover their faces as guards hosed them and their cells down with disinfectant “like firemen,” she said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Twenty-nine people were killed and seven seriously injured when a restaurant collapsed in northern China’s Shanxi province, the country’s emergencies ministry media said on Sunday.

The building collapsed at 9:40 a.m. (0140 GMT) on Saturday in Xiangfen county in the southwest of Shanxi, the Ministry of Emergency Management said in a statement.

The accident in the two-storey structure occurred as villagers and relatives gathered for a birthday party, and the rescue operation ended early on Sunday, state media said.