TOKYO -- President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said the Philippines will not take sides in the ongoing "big power competition" and urged large countries not to pursue dominance to the detriment of smaller ones.

Speaking on the second day of Nikkei's Future of Asia conference, held in Tokyo and online , Duterte also called for global cooperation in the fight against COVID-19, including equitable access to vaccines.

At the same time, Duterte said the pandemic "impelled, if not accelerated, the de-globalization process

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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-- Japan

BANGKOK -- Myanmar's military horribly tortures political prisoners, journalist Yuki Kitazumi said after his return to Japan.

"I have heard from many inmates that they would be first blindfolded, have their hands handcuffed behind their back, and be forced to kneel on concrete floors," Yuki Kitazumi told reporters in an online news conference hosted by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on Friday. "If they would deny any of the accusations being made against them, they would be struck with a stick. The military continued

THIMPHU -- If all goes as planned, the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan will fully vaccinate its entire adult population against COVID-19 by the end of June, making it one of the first countries to do so.

But the devastating second wave of coronavirus infections raging through India has cast doubt on whether enough vaccines will be available to achieve this milestone, with India itself facing a dire shortage.

The government remains hopeful. At a news conference earlier this month, Bhutanese Foreign Minister Tandi Dorji said the Indian government

TAIPEI -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's biggest contract chipmaker, said it will increase its production of automotive chips by 60% this year after taking what it described as "unprecedented actions" to alleviate the semiconductor shortage that is squeezing the global car industry.

"TSMC has taken unprecedented actions, including the reallocation of capacity from customers from other industries who are experiencing stressfully high demand due to the acceleration of digital transformation," the company said in an announcement on Friday.

TSMC -- a

NEW YORK -- Moderna is considering manufacturing its coronavirus vaccine in Japan, with chief executive Stephane Bancel telling Nikkei in a phone interview, "We're having discussions in several countries in Asia, including Japan."

The news comes soon after the Japanese health ministry officially approved the manufacture and sale of the vaccines developed by Moderna and AstraZeneca on Friday.

For production in Japan, there is a possibility that Moderna will seek production contracts or license agreements with Japanese companies. Bancel said that discussions are still in the early stages

TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Thursday that he wants to lead the formation of international standards for next-generation communications and build up Indo-Pacific digital infrastructure, trumpeting a broad and ambitious agenda for the post-COVID era.

In a speech at Nikkei's Future of Asia conference, held in Tokyo and online through Friday, Suga also reiterated hopes to expand the Trans-Pacific Partnership and vowed to step up efforts to provide fair access to vaccines.

"We will work on research and development for

TOKYO -- With flying cars inching closer to real-world use, Japan will start working on new legislation as early as next month to allow passengers on the soaring sedans at the World Exposition in Osaka in 2025.

The Japanese government expects flying cars to launch full-scale in urban areas by the 2030s. It wants to use the expo to promote the cutting-edge technology and smooth the way for their real-life adoption.

Flying cars can take off and land vertically without

SINGAPORE -- YouTube's Taiwan-born co-founder is betting on the island for his next venture, lauding its abundance of tech talent to rival the U.S.

Steve Chen said in an interview that he planned to launch a global internet startup from Taiwan, where he has now moved. He said the island had plenty of "very high-quality engineers and product managers" even compared to Silicon Valley in the U.S., where he lived for 20 years.

Chen also said he