Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

TOKYO (AP) — Voters in Japan’s capital are electing the Tokyo city assembly amid worries about health risks during the Olympics, opening in three weeks, as coronavirus cases continue to rise.

In Sunday’s balloting, 271 candidates are vying for 127 seats. Eligible voters total 9.8 million people in the megacity with a population of nearly 14 million.

Public opinion surveys show most people want the Games canceled or postponed again. Behind the fears is the lagging vaccination rollout, with only about 10% of the population fully vaccinated.

TOKYO (AP) — A powerful mudslide carrying a deluge of black water and debris crashed into rows of houses in a town west of Tokyo following heavy rains on Saturday, leaving at least 19 people missing, officials said.

As many as 80 homes in Atami were completely buried, according to an official with the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Sri Dewi stood in the graveyard with her family, waiting their turn to bury her brother. He suffered a stroke and needed oxygen, but there wasn’t any in a hospital overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

“We took him to this hospital, but there was no room for him,” said Dewi. “The hospital was out of oxygen.”

The family finally bought an oxygen tank at a shop and brought the brother home, but he died later that evening.

BEIJING, July 2 (APP): China has independently researched and developed green coal power including an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power station located in Tianjin.

“Due to its difficulties, only a few western countries developed IGCC. As we are gradually completing the project, we’d love to share our research results, technologies, and devices with our iron brother, said Wang Xiang Ping, Vice President of Tianjin IGCC project.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 (NNN-Bernama) — A total of 2,393,882 individuals or 7.3 per cent of the Malaysian population have completed the two-dose COVID-19 vaccination as of Thursday, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said.

The COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) targets that 10 per cent of the country’s population or 3.2 million people will be fully vaccinated by the middle of July.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia will not be affected by the current heatwave in Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia).

Its director-general Jailan Simon said, therefore, the people should not worry about the hot weather phenomenon being experienced by the two countries which recorded temperatures up to 47.9 and 56.6 degrees Celcius.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 (NNN-Bernama) — The Malaysia-Singapore Business Council (MSBC) has established a Malaysia-Singapore private sector task force in an effort to boost economic recovery post-pandemic.

In a joint statement Friday, it said the task force, headed by co-chairs of MSBC, was to compile business inputs from both Malaysian and Singaporean businesses for submission to the governments.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 (NNN-Bernama) — Parliament sitting will be called as soon as possible before Aug 1 as decided by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin as the Leader of the House.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Takiyuddin Hassan said the matter will be finalised in the Cabinet meeting on July 7.

“The federal government has always been consistent in upholding the Malaysian King Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decree in all matters concerning the country’s administration, including those related to parliamentary proceedings.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian King Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, today expressed his appreciation to the Japanese government for donating one million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to help intensify the vaccination process under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK).

SEOUL/SYDNEY, July 2 (Reuters) - The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is surging through Asia this week, with record numbers of infections in Australia and South Korea, prompting some countries to tighten curbs and others to hasten vaccination.

The variant, first detected in India in December last year, has spread to about 100 countries and the World Health Organisation warned recently that it could soon become the dominant form of the virus. It is also driving a spike in cases in Japan, casting a pall over this month's Olympic Games.