BANGKOK -- Thai cinema is riding a wave of international critical attention, but the pandemic-related closure of movie theaters in the country has clouded the outlook for Southeast Asia's most vibrant film industry.

On Sept. 10, the 78th Venice International Film Festival will host the premiere of the Thai film "Anatomy of Time" (2021), a ruminative drama about old age, memory and the tyranny of time. But the film's critical success coincides with uncertainty about the

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's economy in the April-June period grew an annualized real 1.9 percent from the previous quarter, upgraded from the 1.3 percent expansion initially reported, government data showed Wednesday.

The increase in real gross domestic product, the total value of goods and services produced in the country adjusted for inflation, corresponds to a 0.5 percent rise on a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, according to the Cabinet Office.

It was the country's first GDP increase in two

JAKARTA -- Intudo Ventures, a venture capital company investing exclusively in Indonesian homegrown startups, on Wednesday announced the closing of its latest fundraising at $115 million.

The Intudo Ventures Fund III was oversubscribed and the money was raised in less than three months, even amid the coronavirus pandemic, with founding partner Eddy Chan attributing the interest partially to the successful market debut of e-commerce company Bukalapak on the Indonesia Stock Exchange last month. Bukalapak became the first Indonesian unicorn -- a startup valued at more than $

TOKYO -- Robert "Skipp" Orr, former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank and a key figure in the U.S-Japan relationship, died Aug. 12. He was 68.

Published obituaries duly noted his many considerable accomplishments. In addition to his work at the Asian Development Bank, Orr served as vice president of Motorola in Japan, and later as president of Boeing Japan, where the components for the Boeing Dreamliner were manufactured.

He also earned a doctorate from Tokyo University

BANGKOK -- The ceremony commemorating Malaysian independence from Britain on Aug. 31 fully revealed the Southeast Asian nation's political turmoil.

King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah called for an end to political bickering to shield the country from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who took office only 10 days earlier, said this year's ceremony should be Malaysia's last pandemic-stricken National Day in a televised speech on Aug. 30. But he was forced to attend the

TOKYO -- Amazon.com will partner with Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp. to build solar power stations in Japan and procure renewable energy from them to supply electricity to its data centers for ten years, Nikkei has learned.

In a rare move for companies in Japan, Amazon will directly contract with power generation operators. This contract -- a corporate power purchase agreement, or PPA -- enables Amazon to procure stable electricity from exclusive renewable energy power stations for the long term, without buying it from electric companies.

It

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor Group on Tuesday discussed its aspirations of producing fuel cell editions of all 20 of its truck and bus models by 2028 as Korea Inc. goes all-in on the clean energy technology.

The South Korean automaker also said it intends to fully re-energize global commercial vehicle markets, including Europe's, with its advanced next-generation fuel cell technologies.

"To achieve this, the group is planning to introduce a new generation fuel cell system in 2023

DUBAI -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Taliban officials had agreed to allow safe passage out of Afghanistan for all people with valid travel documents -- and Washington would hold the militant Islamist group to their word.

Blinken was speaking at news conference with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Qatari counterparts in Doha after Washington's first formal meeting with the Taliban since their Aug. 15 takeover of Kabul.

"My understanding is that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document

HONG KONG -- The operator of Yoshinoya beef-over-rice restaurants and Dairy Queen ice cream shops in China plans to go private through a buyout by the founding family, making its thinly traded shares likely to delist from the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Under a proposal announced Monday by Hop Hing Group Holdings, the founding Hung family would pay 0.08 Hong Kong dollar (1 cent) per share for stock they do not own -- a 74% premium to Hop Hing's undisturbed price on