Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1600 GMT, Dec. 22

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia -- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Friday leveled a thinly veiled criticism at U.S. President Donald Trump when attending a rally in protest of the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, saying the warm welcome he received at the White House during a visit will not waver his determination to defend Islam.

"The United States should not look down upon Malaysia," said Najib at the rally held in the Putra Mosque in front of the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya, days after Trump threatened to pull funding for all countries who voted against U.S. on the Jerusalem issue. (Malaysia-US-Criticism)

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TOKYO -- Japan's Cabinet on Friday approved a record-high budget plan for fiscal 2018, with provisions made to address Japan's skyrocketing social security costs to support the rising numbers of seniors and significant allocations made for defense spending.

The budget plan, a record-high for a sixth successive year, amounts to 97.71 trillion yen (861.80 billion U.S. dollars), outlines 32.97 trillion yen (290.79 billion U.S. dollars) in allocations for spending on social security and 5.19 trillion yen (45.77 billion U.S. dollars) on defense spending. (Japan-Record high budget)

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MANILA -- Tropical storm Tembin caused heavy rains, floods, landslides in southern Philippines on Friday which also killed at least seven people, a government disaster official said.

Saripada Pacasum, head of the Lanao del Sur provincial disaster agency, said four people died in Madalum town, two in Wato and one in Tugaya. (Philippines-Tropical storm)

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SEOUL -- South Korea on Friday picked 12 commercial banks as liquidity providers in a local market to directly exchange the domestic currency with the Chinese currency, according to the joint statement by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and Seoul's finance ministry.

The selected banks for the Won-Yuan direct transactions market will take charge with providing liquidity and setting prices to help the trading between the two currencies done smoothly in South Korea. (South Korea-China-Currency) Enditem