China's 3rd qtr GDP slips below 7% for 1st time since 2009

China's 3rd qtr GDP slips below 7% for 1st time since 2009

BEIJING, Oct. 19 Kyodo - Sheng Laiyun, spokesman for China's National Bureau of Statistics, announces at a press conference in Beijing on Oct, 19, 2015, that China's economy in the July-September quarter grew 6.9 percent from a year earlier. The gross domestic product figure of the world's second-largest economy slipped below 7 percent for the first time in more than six years.

Kendama World Cup in Hatsukaichi

Kendama World Cup in Hatsukaichi

HATSUKAICHI, Japan, July 19 Kyodo - Wyatt Bray of the United States plays "kendama," a traditional Japanese wooden ball-and-cup toy game, during the Kendama World Cup event in the western Japanese city of Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, on July 19, 2015. Bray, 19, won the event in which about 240 kendama players, including some 80 foreigners from 13 countries and areas, took part. Hatsukaichi claims to be the birthplace of the kendama.

Plarail diorama on Shinkansen bullet train

Plarail diorama on Shinkansen bullet train

FUKUOKA, Japan - Invited nursery school children play with Tomy Co.'s Plarail railroad toys placed on a special Shinkansen bullet train on July 14, 2014, between Hiroshima and Okayama stations. The train will be operated from July 19, 2014, through March 2015 between Shin-Osaka and Hakata stations, one round trip a day.

Plarail diorama on Shinkansen bullet train

Plarail diorama on Shinkansen bullet train

FUKUOKA, Japan - Invited nursery school children look at a Plarail railroad toy diorama displayed on a special Shinkansen bullet train on July 14, 2014, between Hiroshima and Okayama stations. The train will be operated from July 19, 2014, through March 2015 between Shin-Osaka and Hakata stations, one round trip a day.