SINGAPORE/HANOI -- Kamala Harris will start her first visit to Asia as U.S. vice president this weekend, with planned stops in Singapore and Vietnam.

She is expected to hold talks with leaders from the two countries on security and economic matters as well as COVID-19 recovery efforts -- all with China's growing regional presence in mind.

The trip comes at a crucial time for President Joe Biden's administration. The Taliban has retaken control of Afghanistan as the U.S. withdraws

TAIPEI -- Japan's plans to ramp up the defense of its remote southwestern islands are being seen as a move to boost support for Taiwan as it faces a heightened Chinese military threat.

The move to station anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles and hundreds of troops on Ishigaki island, 300 kilometers from Taiwan, comes amid a growing Chinese naval presence in the area and tensions between Beijing and Washington over Taiwan and a host of other issues.

Analysts say the plan is aimed as much at defending Taiwan

VIENNA/PARIS -- The U.S. and other rich nations have moved to start a third round of coronavirus shots to defend their economic recoveries, even as international health officials warn this risks worsening global disparities in vaccine rates.

The U.S. announced Wednesday a plan for every adult who obtained the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine to receive a booster shot from the same brand eight months after the last injection.

Fifty-one percent of Americans have completed their coronavirus vaccinations, data from the Centers

HONG KONG -- China Telecom shares opened 6.7% higher on their market debut in Shanghai on Friday, just months after the company was kicked off the New York Stock Exchange.

The response to the largest mainland listing in a decade can cause some worry for upcoming initial public offering of bigger rival China Mobile, which also was forced to delist by the U.S. in May, and Syngenta Group, the Swiss seed and fertilizer unit of China National Chemical Corp. There is a 44% cap on

SHANGHAI -- Valuations for ByteDance and Huawei Technologies have held up or even risen this year while the shares of many listed Chinese technology companies have tumbled amid Beijing's widening crackdown on the sector, according to a new ranking of the world's largest private sector companies.

The Hurun Research Institute in Shanghai said valuations for the world's 500 top private sector companies rose 17% to $58 trillion between Dec. 1, 2020 and July 15, with 428

TAIPEI -- Taiwan's leading opposition Kuomintang approved Thursday four candidates to run in next month's leadership race, as the Beijing-friendly party struggles to regain support following a crushing defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

The Sept. 25 vote is expected to boil down to a two-horse race between incumbent chairman Johnny Chiang, 49, and former party chair and former Taipei Mayor Eric Chu, 60.

Chu resigned as chairman after losing the 2016 presidential election to

TOKYO -- The International Atomic Energy Agency agreed Thursday to monitor on-site the planned release of treated radioactive water into the sea from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which suffered meltdowns after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.

Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama and IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi struck the deal at the agency's headquarters in Vienna. The review begins in September.

Plans are to release the wastewater over decades, starting in 2023. Japan expects

TOKYO -- A mayoral candidate with an endorsement from a sitting prime minister should coast to an easy victory.

But in the run-up to Sunday's Yokohama mayoral race, Hachiro Okonogi, a former national public security chief with the full backing of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, is waging a fierce battle against rival candidates.

The election in Yokohama, Japan's second-largest city and Suga's home turf, has turned into a proxy battle for national politics, with ruling and opposition parties going all-

KARACHI -- The fall of Kabul to the Taliban is raising concerns globally that Afghanistan could become a breeding ground for violent extremists but some experts say that the new regime is likely to clamp down on Pakistani militants.

Analysts who know the region well say that the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Baloch separatists could be reined in by the new Afghan regime.

Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban's spokesman, said at his first news conference on Tuesday that the Taliban would