TAIPEI -- Macao announced Wednesday it would follow Hong Kong in closing its representative office in Taiwan, an abrupt move that comes amid heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

"The Macao Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan will temporarily suspend operations from June 19," the Macao SAR Government said in a brief press statement, without providing reasons for the office closure.

The sudden suspension came right after China on Tuesday sent 28 military aircraft, including fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers, into Taiwan's air defense

JAKARTA -- Jobs for a rock guitarist and a prominent cleric as commissioners at Indonesia's state-owned enterprises are among a clutch of appointments raising questions over SOE Minister Erick Thohir's restructuring push.

State-owned Telekomunikasi Indonesia, or Telkom, the country's largest telecommunications operator, recently rekindled debates over what many see as political appointments after it named Abdi Negara Nurdin -- a guitarist with local rock band Slank and an ally of President Joko Widodo -- into its board of commissioners.

Abdee Slank,

YANGON/BANGKOK -- Myanmar's military on Feb. 1 detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint in the country's first coup since 1988, bringing an end to a decade of civilian rule.

The Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy had won a landslide in a general election in November . But the military has claimed the election was marred by fraud.

For all our coverage, visit our Myanmar Coup page.

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BANGKOK -- The third wave of COVID-19 that has broken over Thailand has brought a deceptive quiet to the country's streets. Anti-government protesters cannot stage big demonstrations, but the mood remains defiant and unrest is likely to erupt again as soon as the pandemic subsides.

The pro-democracy demonstrations, which drew massive support from young people last year, touch on the most sensitive issue in Thai politics: reform of the monarchy. But they have sputtered because the latest COVID-19 flare-

MANILA -- Philippine developer Megaworld, a top lessor of office space for call centers and other outsourcing companies, plans to raise up to 27.3 billion pesos ($567 million) in the country's largest real estate investment trust offering.

Megaworld is the fifth local real estate company to formally announce it will tap the new investment instrument to build a war chest for post-pandemic recovery. Two of those developers have already listed their REITs on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The company plans to offer

TOKYO -- Japan's semiconductor industry has attracted newfound attention as the race to build ever more powerful chips pushes development in a new direction: up.

Japan's concentration of the technology needed to stack chip layers has drawn the world's biggest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., into a new research and development center in the country. TSMC will partner with some of the top semiconductor industry players here, including chip packaging provider Ibiden, materials supplier JSR and cutting device maker Disco.

For Tokyo officials

HO CHI MINH CITY -- Amazon is stepping up its recruitment of sellers in Vietnam as the U.S. e-commerce giant takes on China's Alibaba in its own backyard.

The focus on Vietnam is part of Amazon's broader strategy of tapping suppliers in Asia, and it is starting to bear fruit -- the company says the number of merchants exporting at least $1 million worth of goods from Vietnam tripled last year as overseas customers in lockdown spruced up their homes and refreshed their wardrobes.

Amazon

TOKYO -- With the parliamentary session coming to a close after a failed no-confidence vote against his cabinet, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will now focus on hosting a successful Olympics, with an eye toward dissolving the lower house in early September.

The motion , submitted by four opposition parties, was voted down Tuesday by the ruling coalition as expected.

Before the vote, Yukio Edano, head of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, blasted the government's handling of the coronavirus and argued that Suga is "unfit to be

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Lina Khan, an antitrust researcher focused on Big Tech's immense market power, was sworn in on Tuesday as chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, a victory for progressives seeking a clampdown on tech firms who hold a hefty share of a growing sector of the economy.

Hours earlier, the U.S. Senate had confirmed Khan, with bipartisan support.

She recently taught at Columbia Law School. Previously, as a staffer for the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust