NEW TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Key Apple supplier Foxconn on Friday said it expects limited impact from massive flooding in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, the world's biggest iPhone production base, alleviating concerns over possible effects on assembly of the latest version of the smartphone, which is set to begin in weeks.

"We now don't see much impact from the floods in Zhengzhou," Foxconn Chairman Young Liu told the company's annual shareholders meeting in New Taipei City, near Taipei. The ongoing, unprecedented chip

TOKYO -- As the Tokyo Olympics get underway on Friday, expectations are running high for the hosts. A forecast by Nikkei and the Financial Times projects Japan will win a record 56 medals.

Historical data suggests that hosting the Games tends to give countries a significant lift in the medal standings. Japan will be looking to increase its tally from the 41 it bagged in Rio in 2016, and is projected to rise from seventh to fourth in the overall ranking.

Some of the gold, silver and

Raffaello Pantucci is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

An attack on a busload of Chinese workers en route to the Dasu Hydropower plant in Pakistan has once again highlighted the complex precariousness of the relationship between Beijing and Islamabad.

The rapid comment by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs citing terrorism as the reason, while their Pakistani counterparts suggested an accident of some sort, did little for the dead Chinese engineers and their Pakistani

Boonsithi Chokwatana is the Chairman of Saha Group, Thailand's leading consumer products conglomerate. This is part 5 of a 30-part series.

In 1942, in the middle of the war, my father became independent from my grandfather and established his own general store. This was the beginning of what is now the Saha Group.

In those days, trading companies from Europe and Japan, such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi, had branches in Bangkok. My father frequently went to these companies and formed connections

TOKYO -- The Tokyo Olympics are finally upon us after a long journey filled with controversy, and an unprecedented one-year postponement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While some sports have already held events, it officially begins with the opening ceremony at the National Stadium on Friday evening.

Key events to watch on July 23 ( Tokyo time)

8 p.m. Opening ceremony

Archery

9 a.m. Women's individual ranking round. The field includes world record holder Kang Chae-young of

HAMBURG, Germany -- New EU e-commerce rules should make online retailers based in the bloc more competitive with Chinese rivals and bring in more tax revenue, but they are also likely to drive up prices for consumers.

One measure, which took effect at the beginning of the month, eliminates a loophole under which packages declared as gifts worth less than 22 euros ($26) were exempt from valued-added tax. Now all mailed imports will be taxed at 19%.

Another measure, effective

SHANGHAI -- Severe flooding in central China has prompted a social media outcry for official accountability, while a new typhoon heads for the country's east coast.

"Have you seen him?" a woman wrote on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo on Wednesday morning, posting a photo of her husband, Sha Tao.

Sha was one of the few still missing as of publication time. The city of Zhengzhou's Subway Line 5 was inundated on Tuesday evening, killing at least 12 passengers.

Across the capital city

TOKYO -- The opening ceremony of the first-ever postponed Olympics will held on Friday evening under a state of emergency, with virtually no spectators and a reduced contingent of athletes in attendance at the National Stadium.

"After a long tunnel, an exit is now in our sight," Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said earlier this week. "The world is faced with great difficulties. Now is the time that we have to learn to unite. And, with the efforts and wisdom of mankind, we will have to

BANGKOK -- Cambodia saw its dream of becoming the eighth oil producer among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations fizzle out in less than six months.

Singapore-based KrisEnergy, which operates the Apsara oil field in the Gulf of Thailand off Sihanoukville, in southern Cambodia, announced on June 4 that it had filed for liquidation. The company said at the time that output had remained less than half its initial estimate of 7,500 barrels a day since it started production on Dec. 2