BANGKOK -- Thai protesters cruised around Bangkok in cars and on motorcycles on Sunday as a new form of anti-establishment rally took shape to call for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's resignation.

Hundreds of motorists honked their horns as they passed in front of the entrance of the base of the 1st Infantry Regiment, known as the King's Guard. The prime minister and his family live in a house on the base.

The group mainly drove around central and northern Bangkok, occasionally tooting their horns to

TOKYO -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said on Monday that it returned to profitability in the April-June fiscal first quarter, as the Japanese industrial conglomerate aims to stage a turnaround from the COVID-induced aviation crisis.

Mitsubishi Heavy, the developer of Japan's first commercial jet program and the subcontractor of Boeing and Airbus, is one of the hardest hit Japanese manufacturers amid the COVID crisis. In October, the company decided to freeze the SpaceJet commercial jet program.

The company now looks to its mainstay business of energy to

SINGAPORE -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hold a series of ministerial meetings this week, with members huddling online among themselves as well as with key partners including the U.S. and China.

The packed schedule marks a crucial period for the grouping, which faces multiple challenges internally and externally. High on the agenda will be post-military-takeover Myanmar -- where the bloc hopes to advance its vision for a peaceful resolution, but where the army chief just made himself prime minister over the weekend.

Boonsithi Chokwatana is the Chairman of Saha Group, Thailand's leading consumer products conglomerate. This is part 11 of a 30-part series.

In the mid-1960s, I was helping my father with his plans to start producing washing powder while working at a factory to put powdered shampoo into containers. Thailand's shampoo and detergent markets certainly had a lot of growth potential but were crowded with competitors.

I kept wondering what could be a more promising business.

A stroke of luck

TOKYO -- Japanese people will not soon forget the summer of 2021, when the Tokyo Olympics took place amid a declared state of emergency prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summer of 1971, exactly 50 years ago, also burns brightly in the memory of Japanese people. Henry Kissinger, the U.S. national security adviser at the time, secretly visited China and met then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Following Kissinger's trip, President Richard Nixon surprised the world

TOKYO -- Like something out of a science-fiction movie, a mysterious, strangely shaped structure rises up from a barren red desert. Inside, buildings stand on tracts of green, grassy land and boats sail across vivid blue water -- all on near-vertical walls.

This computer-animated tableau was presented at the opening of Kyoto University's Human Spaceology Center as a potential vision for living on Mars.

The center was established amid a wave of renewed interest in space travel, with projects like NASA'

TOKYO -- Isuzu Motors and Hino Motors are making forays into no-emission light trucks next year as Japan trails other major automobile markets in embracing electrified fleets.

The Japanese commercial vehicle producers are eyeing business with shipping and logistics companies while fighting the growing presence of Chinese rivals, which offer competitive prices.

Hino intends to roll out the Dutro Z EV truck in early summer 2022, with Isuzu planning to release an electric version of its Elf truck next year after testing. They are following in the footsteps of

William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades."

You do not need to be a political genius to know that no national leader wants their name tied to a recession.

Welcome to Scott Morrison's hell year in Australia, where the prime minister cannot seem to avoid #MorrisonRecession chatter as the delta variant trolls his "zero COVID" strategy.

This is a hell partly of Morrison's making. Like Taiwan

HONG KONG -- A move to reorient Hong Kong's benchmark share index toward Chinese technology stocks was intended to reinvigorate interest and help investors capture growth in the country's highest-profile growth sector.

Instead, with China's widening regulatory crackdown, the shift toward tech now threatens to bring the Hang Seng Index into bear market territory.

A 30% hike in Hong Kong's stock trading transaction tax, due to kick in when the market opens Monday, is only adding to the gloom, alongside