Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — As the World Health Organization draws up plans for the next phase of its probe of how the coronavirus pandemic started, an increasing number of scientists say the U.N. agency it isn’t up to the task and shouldn’t be the one to investigate.

Numerous experts, some with strong ties to WHO, say that political tensions between the U.S. and China make it impossible for an investigation by the agency to find credible answers.

They say what’s needed is a broad, independent analysis closer to what happened in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

TOKYO, Jul 1 (NNN-NHK) – IOC president, Thomas Bach, will arrive in Japan on Jul 8, with just over two weeks to go until the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.

The IOC announced on its official website that, Bach will go to Tokyo fully vaccinated, and follow the playbooks’ guidelines, to ensure that the Games is safe and secure.

July 1 (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Myanmar's biggest city Yangon on Thursday, setting fire to an army uniform and chanting calls for democracy five months after a military coup ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The protest was one of the biggest in Yangon in recent weeks, although demonstrations against the army take place daily in many parts of the Southeast Asian country.

"What do we want? Democracy! Democracy!" protesters chanted as they ran through the streets with colourful smoke flares.

HONG KONG (AP) — Marking the anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese control, a top city official defended the national security law imposed by Beijing to crush pro-democracy rallies and said Thursday it would be used further in the coming year to ensure stability.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Thousands of Indonesians lined up at a sports stadium to get a COVID-19 vaccine dose Thursday in a one-day, mass vaccination event that’s part of a push to dramatically scale up the nation’s virus fight as hospitals fill with sick patients.

Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo announced new community restrictions and the mobilization of the National Police and other resources to combat the surging infections.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday he’ll push to further upgrade relations with China, his main ally, as he struggles to navigate his country out of a deepening crisis linked to the pandemic.

Kim made the comments in a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulating him on the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s government began releasing about 2,300 prisoners on Wednesday, including activists who were detained for protesting against the military’s seizure of power in February and journalists who reported on the protests, officials said.

Buses took prisoners out of Yangon’s Insein Prison, where friends and families of detainees had waited since morning for the announced releases. It is standard practice to take freed prisoners to the police stations where they were originally booked to complete the processing for their freedom.

PUTRAJAYA, June 30 (NNN-Bernama) — The government will reconsider its previous decision to administer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents, following reports of incidents of side effects relating to heart inflammation, especially among male recipients.

National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, said that his party, together with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Education (MOE), would hold a meeting to discuss the issue.

HONG KONG, June 30 (Reuters) - Amnesty International said on Wednesday that Hong Kong authorities have used a new national security law to target dissent and justify "censorship, harassment, arrests and prosecutions that violate human rights" in the year since it was implemented.

Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in June last year that sets out punishment for anything it deems as subversion, secession, colluding with foreign forces and terrorism with up to life in prison, setting the city on a more authoritarian path.

HONG KONG, June 30 (Reuters) - Hong Kong media group Next Digital (0282.HK), owned by jailed tycoon Jimmy Lai, will cease operating from July 1 after the company's assets were frozen as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Next Digital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company is the publisher of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy newspaper that closed last week after its newsroom had been raided by 500 police officers investigating whether some articles breached the security law.