VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC (2330.TW) said on Tuesday its board had approved a plan of capital injection of up to $3.5 billion to TSMC Arizona.

TSMC in December tripled its planned investment at the Arizona chip plant, which began construction late last year, to $40 billion.

The company said the capital injection is part of the planned $40 billion spent.

The factory, among the largest foreign investments in U.S. history, will start production in 2024, using advanced 5 nm technology.

TSMC expects its Phoenix factories to create 13,000 high-tech jobs, including 4,500 under TSMC and the rest at suppliers. (Reuters)

Visitors to Japan climbed to nearly 1.5 million in January, the national tourism agency said on Wednesday, showing an accelerating recovery in tourism after the government scrapped COVID-19 curbs in October.

The number of foreign visitors for both business and leisure rose to 1,497,300 last month from 1,370,000 in December, the Japan National Tourism Organization said in a release. More than a third of the arrivals were from South Korea.

Arrivals were down 44% from January 2019, before the pandemic hit. (Reuters)

Avalanches killed 10 people in Tajikistan's eastern Gorno-Badakhshan region on Wednesday, authorities said, after heavy snowfall in the area.

One avalanche destroyed several buildings in the provincial capital Khorog, killing eight people, the emergencies committee said. Another hit the town of Vanj, killing one person; the third casualty was reported on a highway between capital Dushanbe and the city of Varzob. (Reuters)

China said on Wednesday that U.S. high altitude balloons flew over its Xinjiang and Tibet regions, and that it will take measures against U.S. entities that undermine Chinese sovereignty as a diplomatic dispute festered.

Washington and Beijing are locked in a tussle over flying objects after the U.S. military this month shot down what it called a Chinese spy balloon over the coast of South Carolina. Beijing says its balloon was a civilian research vessel mistakenly blown off course, and that Washington overreacted.

This week, China countered that U.S. balloons had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times on round-the-world flights since May 2022.

"Without the approval of relevant Chinese authorities, it has illegally flown at least 10 times over China's territorial airspace, including over Xinjiang, Tibet and other provinces," Wang told a regular daily briefing on Wednesday.

The White House has disputed China's allegations.

Washington has added six Chinese entities connected to Beijing's suspected surveillance balloon program to an export blacklist.

"The U.S. has abused force, overreacted, escalated the situation, and used this as a pretext to illegally sanction Chinese companies and institutions," Wang said.

"China is firmly opposed to this and will take countermeasures against relevant U.S. entities that undermine China's sovereignty and security in accordance with the law," Wang said, without specifying the measures.

The balloon dispute has delayed efforts by both sides to mend relations, although U.S. President Joe Biden has also said that he does not believe ties between the two countries were weakened by the incident.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who postponed a planned trip to Beijing over the balloon, is considering meeting China's top diplomat Wang Yi in Munich this week, sources have said. (Reuters)