SINGAPORE -- Japan's SoftBank Group has led a $360 million Series C funding round in Singapore online car sales platform Carro, propelling the Southeast Asian startup into the ranks of unicorns -- companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more.

Carro announced on Tuesday that the new round of financing, which included other investors such as Indonesia-based fund EV Growth, made the company the first automotive unicorn in Southeast Asia.

The startup said it will use the funds to expand its retail presence across

SINGAPORE -- Defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will meet online on Tuesday to discuss regional security, with South China Sea tensions and recent Chinese moves expected to be high on the agenda.

The 10-member bloc will also hold an expanded meeting the next day with counterparts from eight key countries, including China, the U.S., Japan and India. Amid frosty ties between Beijing and Washington, the event marks an opportunity for the two powers and other players to discuss geopolitical issues.

Brunei

SINGAPORE/PARIS (Reuters) -- French power group EDF has begun examination of a potential issue linked to a build-up of inert gases at its nuclear power station in China, though the company and its Chinese partner said the plant was operating safely.

CNN reported on Monday that the U.S. government had spent the past week assessing a report of a leak at the Taishan power plant in Guangdong province run by a joint venture between EDF and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN).

The U.

TOKYO -- Japanese opposition parties submitted a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Tuesday as headwinds grow over his handling of the pandemic and the Summer Olympics here.

Leaders from the Constitutional Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Democratic Party for the People and the Social Democratic Party came to the decision on Monday after the ruling coalition rejected their request for a three-month extension to the current parliamentary session, which ends Wednesday.

"The government has lost the public's confidence on numerous occasions,

BANGKOK/YANGON -- Prosecutors on Monday began examining witnesses in the trial of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a special court set up in the capital Naypyitaw, while elsewhere in the country the military appears to be taking steps to outlaw Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

Suu Kyi faces five counts of alleged violations, including for importing walkie-talkies without a license and for defying COVID-19 countermeasures.

In a separate court in Yangon, Suu Kyi is on trial for allegedly violating

MANILA -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has suspended the termination of a key military agreement with the U.S. by another six months, his foreign minister said late Monday, prolonging the uncertainties around one of the region's oldest defense alliances.

Duterte has now put off ending the pact for a third time. The move essentially extends the Visiting Forces Agreement, a crucial component of the alliance, which is being tested by China's expansion in the disputed South China Sea.

"The president conveyed to us his

HANOI -- Vietnam's domestically developed coronavirus vaccine candidate has begun Phase 3 clinical trials, with the country hoping to package doses for market by the end of the year.

Nanocovax, developed by startup Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in collaboration with Vietnam Military Medical University, started the final trials on Thursday, the company said. About 13,000 people will participate in the trials, and the results will be compiled by September, Nanogen said.

The first phase of the Nanocovax trials started in December. Everyone injected

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- NATO leaders designated China as presenting "systemic challenges" in a summit communique on Monday that marked a forceful stance for the Western military alliance, declared a priority for U.S. President Joe Biden after the Trump years.

In a diplomatic victory for Biden, who has urged his fellow NATO leaders to stand up to China's authoritarianism and growing military might, the final statement branded China a security risk to the Western alliance.

The language, which will now set the path for alliance

SEOUL -- Japan decided to cancel a prearranged meeting between Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the just-concluded Group of Seven summit in the U.K., according to South Korean media.

The Yonhap News Agency reported Monday that Tokyo called off the meeting in response to plans by Seoul for military exercises near Dokdo, referring to the South Korean-administered islands that Japan calls Takeshima and claims as its own.

The two countries had reached a tentative agreement to hold informal "pull