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Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1030 GMT, April 20

Xinhua, April 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Nobutaka Machimura, speaker of the Japanese Diet's House of Representatives, on Monday quitted from his post due to health reasons after handing his resignation to the chamber's vice speaker Tatsuo Kawabata.

Machimura, 70, was hospitalized recently due to a symptom of light stroke and therefore missed the lower house's assembly.

The seasoned politician said in a press conference that his health condition would bring difficulties to him to fulfill the duty as the chamber's speaker and he decided to resign.

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NEW DELHI -- At least six school students were killed and five others injured in a road mishap in the eastern Indian state of Bihar on Monday, a senior police official said.

"The mishap happened when a school van in which the victims were traveling collided with an auto-rickshaw in the state's Siwan district, some 125 km from capital Patna this morning," the official said on condition of anonymity.

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MANILA -- The "Shoulder to Shoulder" (Local name: Balikatan) exercises begins in locations in five provinces of the Philippines on Monday, involving 11,500 Filipino and U.S. military personnel. "The 31st iteration of Balikatan Exercise aims to enhance interoperability not only for combined operations among Philippines, U.S. and Australian armed forces, but also for the joint operations capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to conduct effectively the mission areas in Internal Security Operations (ISO), territorial defense, Humanitarian Assistance and Development Response (HADR) and peacekeeping operations," military spokesman Brig. Gen. Joselito Kakilala said.

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GARDEZ, Afghanistan -- Gunmen abducted 19 de-miners of a mine clearing agency in Paktia province with Gardez as its capital 100 km south of Kabul on Sunday, deputy to provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman said Monday.

"The gruesome incident took place on Gardez-Zarmat road and the unidentified armed men took 19 persons working for a land mine clearance agency to unknown location," Zaman told Xinhua. Endi