TOKYO/ AP Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged on Monday to accelerate his mix of policies to prop up Japan’s economic recovery and speed up parliamentary approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. In his policy statement opening the 66-day parliamentary session, Abe outlined an extra set of stimulus measures to help the economic recovery and spur more consumer and ...

  Bloomberg China National Chemical Corp. sought European Union approval for its $43 billion takeover of Syngenta AG, one of a trio of mega-deals reshaping the global agrichemicals industry already described as “quite concentrated” by the bloc’s antitrust chief.The European Commission set an initial Oct. 28 deadline to rule on the deal, according to a website filing on Monday. ChemChina ...

  Manila / AFP Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday he would seek closer economic ties with China and Russia, as the local currency and stock market extended declines following Western criticism of his deadly war on crime. The peso hit a seven-year low to the dollar on Monday and foreign investors pulled out from local shares for a ...

  Singapore / AFP A Singapore firm headed by a scion of one of Asia’s richest families has bought a 49 percent stake in Rolling Stone, with plans to diversify the iconic magazine into new business including live events and merchandising. BandLab Technologies, a music and technology start-up headed by 28-year-old Kuok Meng Ru, bought the stake for an undisclosed ...

  CANBERRA / AFP Australia’s trade minister will lead the country’s first business delegation to visit Iran in 14 years after sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program were eased. Steven Ciobo said he will leave on Tuesday for the visit that will include reopening an Australian trade office that closed in 2010. Ciobo said he will be accompanied by 20 representatives ...

  Seoul / AFP Tens of thousands of unionised workers at South Korea’s Hyundai Motor staged their first full strike on Monday for more than a decade after negotiations over a wage increase stalled. Nearly 50,000 workers at Hyundai Motor’s three plants across the country — including the main one in the southern city of Ulsan — walked off the ...

  AFP China’s coal imports from North Korea have surged in recent months, government data showed on Monday, raising questions about Beijing’s commitment to international sanctions intended to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. As the isolated country’s sole ally and main provider of trade and aid, Beijing’s participation in the UN-imposed restrictions is crucial for their success. But in August China ...

  Aleppo / AFP Residents of Syria’s Aleppo faced worsening food and medical shortages on Monday as warplanes again pounded the city after Western powers at the UN accused Russia of war crimes. A fresh wave of intensive air strikes hit the city’s opposition-controlled east from dawn on Monday, an AFP correspondent in the city said, on the morning after ...

  Bloomberg NATO will start deploying surveillance aircraft next month to support the US-led fight against IS extremists, Alexander Vershbow, deputy secretary general of NATO, said on Monday. The deployment of the airborne warning and control systems will take place after alliance defense ministers meet in October, Vershbow said at a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “The aircraft will ...

  Islamabad / AFP Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Pakistan’s police of routinely carrying out extra-judicial killings, torture and arbitrary arrests, and called on Islamabad to implement urgent reforms of its under-resourced forces. The findings were contained in a new report based on interviews with more than 30 police officers and 50 victims or witnesses of abuse across three ...