TOKYO, July 1 — Asia's factory pain showed signs of easing in June, as a rebound in China's activity offered some hope the region may have passed the worst of the devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah wants the rakyat (people) to comply with the guidelines set by the National Security Council (MKN) and the Health Ministry to curb the spread of Covid-19 following more sectors being allowed to reopen today.

MELBOURNE, July 1 — Authorities will lock down around 300,000 people in suburbs north of Melbourne for a month from late on Wednesday to contain the risk of infection after two weeks of double-digit rises in new coronavirus cases in Australia's second most populous state.

BRUSSELS, July 1 — The European Union has excluded the United States from its initial "safe list" of countries from which the bloc will allow non-essential travel from Wednesday.

LONDON, June 30 — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out plans to spend the economy out of its coronavirus-induced crisis with a speech on Tuesday promising to fast-track RM26.3 billion (5 billion pounds or US$6.15 billion) of infrastructure investment.

SEPANG, June 30— As the Covid-19 pandemic left the global aviation industry in dire straits, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has implemented a cost optimisation plan where its capital expenditure has been reduced to RM320 million from RM1.8 billion set earlier.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — The Special Ministerial Meeting on the implementation of Movement Control Order (MCO) has decided to open the Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security Complex (ICQS) at Padang Besar, Perlis and Durian Burung, Kedah.

SYDNEY, June 30 — The Australian state of Victoria introduced the country's first lockdown measures specifically targeted at local suburban areas after a spike in coronavirus cases in Melbourne, the nation's second largest city.

GENEVA, June 30 — Tracing contacts of people with coronavirus infections is the most important step in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and countries that are failing to do so have no excuse, the World Health Organization chief said on Monday.

SEOUL, June 30 — South Korea will share its experience in battling the coronavirus and developing vaccines and treatments with other countries through an online seminar this week, Yonhap News Agency reported officials as saying Tuesday.

KATHMANDU, June 30 — Nepali housewife Shiba Kala Limbu grimaced as she recalled how she went hungry in order to feed her five-year-old daughter after the coronavirus pandemic cost her husband his job as a mason in the Gulf state of Qatar.

PEKAN, June 30 — Corporal Muhamad Muhaidin Haripen today created history when he became the first person to vote under the new normal for elections in the country.

BANGKOK, June 30 — Thailand's economy is expected to be severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, shrinking by at least 5 per cent this year and taking more than two years to return to pre-pandemic GDP output levels, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

BANGKOK, June 29 — Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha insisted on the necessity to extend the state of emergency for one more month and said the 5th round of business lockdown relaxation was aimed at helping poor and jobless people, Thai news agency (TNA) reported.

BEIJING, June 29 — China's military has received the greenlight to use a Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by its research unit and CanSino Biologics after clinical trials proved it was safe and showed some efficacy, the company said on Monday.

PUTRAJAYA, June 29 — The Special Ministerial Meeting on the implementation of the movement control order (MCO) today announced more flexibility, including allowing theme parks to reopen from July 1.

BANGKOK, June 29 — Thailand will allow pubs and bars to re-open on Wednesday and plans to let in some foreign travellers after recording five weeks without any community transmission of the coronavirus, a government official said.

BRUSSELS, June 29 — At the start of the year, U.S.-China tensions were easing after their Phase I trade deal, while Washington, Brussels and Tokyo agreed on new global trading rules to curb subsidies.

MADRID, June 29 — Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is to make his first international trip since the coronavirus crisis to west Africa on Tuesday for a summit on Sahel region issues with other heads of state including France's President Emmanuel Macron.

LONDON, June 29 — Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the coronavirus crisis had been a disaster for the United Kingdom and while the government would look at what went wrong it was not the right time to have an inquiry into missteps.