KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 (NNN-Bernama) — The Asia Pacific (Apac) remained a multi-speed region, with its developed economies undergoing soft landings and seeing low but positive growth, while the emerging market economies are poised for robust expansions, said S&P Global Ratings.

S&P said it expected China to continue to contain its macroeconomic stimulus following a property-driven downturn.

The research house cut China’s growth forecast for 2023 to 4.8 per cent from 5.2 per cent and to 4.4 per cent from 4.8 per cent in 2024.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s Lego said on Monday that it remains committed to its quest to find sustainable materials to reduce carbon emissions, even after an experiment by the world’s largest toymaker to use recycled bottles did not work.

Lego said it has “decided not to progress” with making its trademark colorful bricks from recycled plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate, known as PET, and after more than two years of testing “found the material didn’t reduce carbon emissions.”

MANILA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The Philippines said on Monday it executed a "special operation" to remove a floating barrier installed by China at a prime fishing patch in the South China Sea, a move that could stoke tension after a years-long detente in Asia's most disputed waters.

The Philippines expressed outrage on Sunday and shared images of Chinese coastguard policing a long, ball-buoy barrier near the Scarborough Shoal, a rocky outcrop 200 km (124 miles) from the Philippines and the site of years of intermittent flare-ups over sovereignty and fishing rights.

BAKU, September 25. /TASS/: The reintegration of Karabakh Armenians into Azerbaijani society will be successful, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

TEHRAN, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Finance Minister Ehsan Khandouzi said Monday that he has met and held constructive talks with his Egyptian counterpart during his visit to Cairo a day earlier.

In a post on social media platform X, Khandouzi said during his meeting with Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, the two agreed to form a committee for the implementation of joint projects.

LA PAZ, Sept 25 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Citing a “dirty” campaign against him, former Bolivian President Evo Morales announced during the weekend that he would run again in the 2025 elections.

His Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party, the same as current head of state Luis Arce Catacora claims Morales is the “king of cocaine” while the opposition regards him as a “drug trafficker,” according to local media.

Evo Morales assured that he was “forced” to make this decision for which he will “fight”, amid the division within the ruling party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Ethnic Armenians were streaming out of Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of the breakaway region, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Azerbaijan in a show of support to its ally.

The Azerbaijani military routed Armenian forces in a 24-hour blitz last week, forcing the separatist authorities to agree to lay down weapons and start talks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan after three decades of separatist rule.

24 September 2023; MEMO: The leader of PEGIDA, an Islamophobic group, once again tore down a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, in front of the Turkish Embassy in the Netherlands on Saturday, reports Anadolu Agency.

Tearing down more copies of the Quran outside the embassies of Pakistan, Indonesia, and Denmark in the Hague, Edwin Wagensveld also insulted Islam and Muslims.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Monday called South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol “a guy with a trash-like brain” and “a diplomatic idiot” as it blasted him for using a U.N. speech to issue a warning over the North’s deepening military ties with Russia.

In a speech at the U.N. General Assembly last week, Yoon said South Korea “will not sit idly by” if North Korea and Russia agree to weapons deals that would pose a threat to the South.

TORONTO (AP) — Information shared by members of an intelligence-sharing alliance was part of what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used to make public allegations of the Indian government’s possible involvement in the assassination of a Sikh Canadian, the U.S. ambassador to Canada said.

“There was shared intelligence among ‘Five Eyes’ partners that helped lead Canada to (make) the statements that the prime minister made,” U.S. Ambassador David Cohen told Canadian CTV News network.

23 September 2023; AA: Thousands of anti-Brexit protesters on Saturday gathered in the British capital to call for rejoining the EU.

Organized by the National Rejoin March, thousands of people marched toward Parliament Square and demanded "we want our star back."

The protesters were carrying EU flags and wearing hats and t-shirts which also featured the EU flag. They were also carrying banners that called on the government to resign.

Sept 24 (Reuters) - A NASA capsule carrying the largest soil sample ever collected from an asteroid is due to return to Earth on Sunday, expected to streak through the atmosphere and parachute into the Utah desert to deliver its celestial specimen to scientists.

The robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to release the gumdrop-shaped capsule, transporting about a cup of gravelly asteroid material, at 6:42 a.m. EDT (1042 GMT) for a final descent to Earth, climaxing a seven-year voyage.