Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TASHKENT, August 4. /TASS/: Uzbekistan is determined to boost cooperation with Russia in protecting children’s rights, Uzbek Children's Rights Commissioner Alia Yunusova said on Wednesday.

"We need to preserve what was created through cooperation in the field of child protection. We are ready to further boost this multifaceted cooperation," she pointed out, addressing an online conference dubbed "Protection of Children’s Rights: Cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan," which also involved Children’s Rights Commissioner for the Russian President Anna Kuznetsova.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 (NNN-Bernama) — ASEAN Foreign Ministers today underscored the importance of strengthening the 10-member grouping’s cooperation with external partners and international organisations to address the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Foreign Ministers said this in a joint communique of the 54th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting released today.

“We welcomed the continued contributions from ASEAN member states and external partners to the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund which now has pledged contributions amounting to USD 20.8 million.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Wednesday that he will seek a confidence vote in September to decide if he commands majority support among members of the country's lower house of parliament.

Muhyiddin said in a televised speech that he still held the support of a majority of members of parliament (MPs) and had informed the country's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.

"A motion for a vote of confidence in me will be tabled in the lower house when parliament convenes in September," he said.

BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Amid new spikes in COVID-19 deaths and infections in the United States, anti-science rhetoric and conspiracy theories are also gaining steam in the country, triggering concerns that the global anti-pandemic course could worsen further.

The latest episodes of such absurdity include Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson's assertion that it was Anthony Fauci, a top U.S. infectious disease expert, who had "helped to create COVID in the first place," and Congressman Clay Higgins's wild claim that the virus had been weaponized for biological attacks.

BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Over 1.7 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in China as of Tuesday, the National Health Commission said Wednesday.

With new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases reported in multiple regions, strict anti-epidemic measures were urged, especially concerning imported cases and key locations which are currently vulnerable to spreading the virus.

Disease control experts said the Delta variant is highly transmissible, yet still within the reach of existing vaccines.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia surpassed 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, a grim milestone in a country struggling with its worst pandemic wave fueled by the delta variant, amid concerns the actual figure could be much higher.

It took 14 months for Indonesia to exceed the 50,000 death mark at the end of May, and just over nine weeks to double it. The Health Ministry recorded 1,747 new deaths of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 100,636.

Those figures are believed to be an undercount.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic a year and a half ago escalated Wednesday with dozens more cases around the country, the sealing-off of one city and the punishment of its local leaders.

Since that initial outbreak was tamed last year, China’s people had lived virtually free of the virus, with extremely strict border controls and local distancing and quarantine measures stamping out scattered, small flareups when they occurred.

BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai protest leader on Tuesday renewed calls for the reform of the country’s monarchy and suggested that time was running out for the powerful institution to respond.

“This year shall be the last year that we will discuss monarchy reform. After this, whatever will happen, will happen. You can’t stop the sun rising. You can’t control what people believe in,” Arnon Nampha said at a candlelight rally in downtown Bangkok by about 200 people who defied coronavirus regulations to attend.

TOKYO, August 3. /TASS/: A member of Japan’s parliament, Muneo Suzuki, who has dealt with matters of dialog between Tokyo and Moscow for many years, suggested that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the forthcoming Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), the Kyodo news agency reports on Tuesday.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 (NNN-Bernama) — Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economic leaders should work together to find coherent and timely solutions to complex global challenges for the region to continue thriving.

Chair of APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) for 2021 Rachel Taulelei said a prosperous, peaceful and resilient future would only be achieved through collective efforts as the challenges faced were profound, but also shared.