CHINA

Russian-made jet fighters, helicopter gunships and tanks fired at ground targets while Chinese combat drones flew overhead on Saturday at the desolate Pester training ground in Serbia's westernmost region in a show of revamped military power.

Taiwan wants to have "meaningful dialogue" with China on an equal basis, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday, extending an olive branch at a time of heightened military tension with Beijing, which claims the island as sovereign Chinese territory.

China will invest close to $900 billion in the next five years to help further develop the country's power grids, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

An app launched this week in China allows access to some content on Western social media sites long banned domestically such as YouTube, marking the first product by a major Chinese tech firm that helps internet users bypass the Great Firewall.

Malaysia's maritime authorities said on Saturday they had detained 60 Chinese nationals and six Chinese-registered fishing vessels they said were trespassing into the Southeast Asian country's waters.

Japan's Maritime Self-defense Force conducted anti-submarine drills in the South China Sea on Oct. 9, deploying three vessels including a helicopter aircraft carrier and a submarine, according to the Japanese defence ministry.

Detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun will face trial in Beijing on an espionage charge with a judge expected to be appointed in the next fortnight, friends said on Saturday.

Mainland China reported 15 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Oct. 9, down from 21 a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Saturday.

Senator Marco Rubio, who has successfully urged the Trump administration to pursue investigations of Chinese companies, called on Friday for the U.S. government to consider options to delay an initial public offering of China's Ant Group, the fintech arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba .

In a congratulatory message to Kim Jong Un for the founding anniversary of North Korea's ruling party, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he intends to deepen relations with Pyongyang, North Korean state media reported on Saturday.

The U.S. Treasury will press countries to keep up coronavirus stimulus during International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings next week and urge China to fully participate in debt relief for poor countries, a senior Treasury official said.

A Chinese military spokesperson said on Friday that the U.S. destroyer John McCain had entered waters around the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea claimed by China without China's permission.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will pledge to strengthen the island's defences and work more with regional partners on security in a major speech on Saturday, at a time when tensions with its giant neighbour China have risen dramatically.

Chinese state television said on Friday that it will resume airing National Basketball Association (NBA) games on its sports channel on the morning of Oct. 10, almost a year after it halted broadcasts of the competition following a diplomatic spat.

China's cabinet said the country still faces great pressure on employment and supportive policies will continue, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

China's agriculture ministry confirmed on Friday African Swine Fever in piglets illegally transported to the southwestern city of Chongqing, the first reported outbreak since July 25.

President Xi Jinping beamed down benevolently from a poster in the new flat of unemployed Jigu Gatie, provided by the Chinese government as part of efforts to tackle poverty nationwide.

China will purchase COVID-19 vaccines for 1% of its population, or 15 million people, via a global scheme backed by the World Health Organization, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

China has joined a global scheme for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine backed by the World Health Organization (WHO), it said on Friday, giving a major boost to an initiative shunned by U.S. President Donald Trump.