Prerna Sharma Singh is an award-winning analyst specializing in policy and regulation with special reference to the agriculture and food sectors. She is a director on the board of Indonomics Consulting Private Limited.

HONG KONG (Reuters) -- The dollar hit a new four-and-a-half-year top against the yen on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was renominated for a second term, reinforcing bets that U.S. interest rates would rise next year and diverge from Japan's.

TOKYO -- As China and Japan both seek greater influence in Southeast Asia, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh are set to meet here Wednesday.

SEOUL (Reuters) -- Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, whose iron-fisted rule of the country following a 1979 military coup sparked massive democracy protests, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, his former press aide said.

TOKYO -- Farm machinery maker Kubota is expanding its smart agriculture platform to help growers become more efficient and environmentally friendly, President Yuichi Kitao told Nikkei Asia in an interview.

HONG KONG -- Cloud Village, the main streaming rival to China's Tencent Music Entertainment Group, has restarted its Hong Kong initial public offering after halving its earlier sales target amid Beijing's clampdown on internet data.

Nikkei Asia is tracking the spread of the coronavirus that was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Cumulative global cases have reached 258,268,775 according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The worldwide death toll has hit 5,159,194.

For more information about the spread of COVID-19 and vaccination progress around the world, please see our interactive charts and maps.

-- Global coronavirus tracker charts

-- Status of vaccinations around the