HANOI -- During their talks here on Friday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his visiting French counterpart Edouard Philippe affirmed their determination to bolster cooperative ties.

The two sides agreed to increase delegation exchanges at all levels, while forging stronger partnership in politics, economy, defense, science-technology, culture, and education-training, Vietnam News Agency reported. (Vietnam-France-Ties)

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SINGAPORE -- Singapore Institute of Purchasing and Materials Management (SIPMM) announced on Friday the country's purchasing managers' index (PMI), an early indicator of manufacturing activity, declined by 0.5 points to 51.9 for October.

It marks the 26th month of consecutive expansion of Singapore's manufacturing sector.(Singapore-Manufacturing)

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JAKARTA -- Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) would publish preliminary results of its examination on content of crashed Lion Air's blackbox next month, a KNKT investigator said.

KNKT investigator Oni Soerjo Wibowo said the preliminary results would contain data and facts about what happened to the crashed plane without complete explanations of KNKT analysis nor the conclusions on factors leading to the crash.(Indonesia-Air crash)

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KABUL -- Hundreds of shops have been burnt down as a massive fire engulfed a market in a main business hub in central Kabul, local police said Friday.

The blaze has affected more than 1,000 businesses in the market and surrounding shops, Jawad noted. (Afghanistan-Fire) Enditem