TOKYO -- More than a few people will have noticed the similarities between the military takeover of Myanmar in February and the way the Taliban Islamic militant group swept into Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, last month.

In both, a government created through democratic processes was toppled by force. And in both, events started moving quickly soon after key figures met with Wang Yi, China's state councilor and foreign minister.

Wang talked with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, seen as the Taliban's No. 2 leader,

SEOUL -- Six months from Thursday, South Korean voters will go to the polls to choose their next president, and the leaders of the two main parties are gearing up for what looks set to be a hard-fought race.

The approval ratings of the ruling progressive Democratic Party and the conservative People Power Party, the largest opposition party, are roughly neck and neck in the run-up to their primaries, which will select the final candidates in October and November, respectively. President Moon Jae-in is closing

TOKYO -- Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is preparing to offer small carbon-capture plants that will slash the costs of cleaning the exhaust of global warming gases by roughly half.

Mitsubishi Heavy is conducting trials of a small-scale facility that can capture 100 tons of carbon dioxide a day. The company plans a commercial model in 2023 that will capture up to 500 tons. The facilities will use common components to keep manufacturing costs down.

Currently, large facilities that remove 5,0

TOKYO -- At one of Nippon Steel's research laboratories, technicians spend their days slamming countless electric vehicles and hybrids into walls and other obstacles.

"Look at what happens to the center pillar," one lab tech says, analyzing the impact.

Despite the endless tests, there is no screech from twisted metal to be heard, no violent reverberations to be felt. This is because all the crashes take place within a virtual environment.

As the EV industry expands, so does the competition to find lighter materials that

SINGAPORE -- Washington and Beijing must try to improve their relationship and address issues around technology exchanges, Microsoft President Brad Smith said on Thursday during an online media session held by the company.

Smith, who leads various businesses, legal, and corporate affairs team of the U.S.-based software and cloud service giant, described the current U.S.-China relationship as "the world's most important bilateral technology relationship, and certainly the world's most complicated bilateral technology relationship."

Referring to

DHAKA -- The Bangladeshi government is turning its focus to Facebook, Twitter and other global social media platforms as it broadens efforts to quell critical reports.

The latest moves to keep an eye on public statements come three years after the government came down hard on TV stations and publications to stymie critical reporting.

The government says its intentions are to "make social media platforms accountable," Zunaid Ahmed Palak, junior minister for Information and Communication Technology Division, told Nikkei Asia.

It is planning a law that would require social media

BANGKOK -- Flash Express, an e-commerce startup and Thailand's sole unicorn at present, has entered a joint-venture with Lao conglomerate AIF Group to expand logistics in the fabled Land of a Thousand Elephants.

Flash Laos will start out in Vientiane, the Lao capital, serving the booming cross-border e-commerce with Thailand before expanding to other parts of the landlocked communist state, Flash Express Chief Executive Komsan Lee said on Thursday.

The initial focus will be business to business and business to consumers,

TAIPEI/BEIJING -- Taiwan on Thursday announced the commissioning of a powerful, locally built warship capable of taking on both air and sea threats.

The Ta Chiang corvette is being deployed at the Suao naval base in Yilan County, in the island's northeast, where the hope is that the presence of what has been dubbed a "carrier killer" will deter growing military pressure from mainland China.

At a ceremony there to mark the commissioning, President Tsai Ing-wen called the ship a step on the "road

NEW YORK -- Ford Motor will shut down auto manufacturing in India, the American company said Thursday, cutting its losses after years of struggling to compete in what once looked like a promising market.

Both of the company's assembly plants in India will be shuttered. Production for the Indian market is ending "immediately," and manufacturing for export to other Asian countries will wrap up by mid-2022. Ford said the restructuring will affect about 4,000 employees.

The company will continue