VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

New Zealand's health ministry sees strong signs that the country's latest COVID-19 wave has peaked, as new cases continue to trend lower.

The number of people in hospitals with COVID is also down on late July.

"The case rates have continued to trend lower across all regions for the second week running," Andrew Old, head of the New Zealand Public Health Agency, told reporters on Thursday.

In the past seven days there were on average 6,142 new cases daily of COVID, down from a seven-day rolling average of 7,776 new cases a week earlier, according to Health Ministry data released on Thursday.

According to data issued on Thursday, 663 people are in hospital with COVID, well below levels seen in late July, when more than 800 people were in hospital with the virus.

Australia is seeing signs of an unexpectedly early peak in its winter outbreak. Australian Health Minister Mark Butler told Nine News that the government was quietly hoping cases had begun falling.

New Zealand's latest modelling showed case numbers were at the lower end of what had been expected. The decline "strongly suggests we've reached a peak," Old said.

The Omicron BA.5 sub-variant is driving the current wave in New Zealand, which has 5.1 million people. There have been 44,776 active cases in the past seven days. (Reuters)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday told Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that Washington wanted a "strong, positive relationship" between their two countries.

The United States and Cambodia have had a frosty relationship in recent years, with Washington fiercely critical of Hun Sen's ongoing crackdown on his political opposition and increasingly wary of his increasing engagement with China's military. (reuters)

The Kremlin said on Thursday that China had the sovereign right to hold major military drills around Taiwan and accused the United States of artificially fuelling tensions in the region.

China fired multiple missiles around Taiwan on Thursday as it launched unprecedented military drills a day after a visit by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as its sovereign territory.

Asked about China's drills, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "This is China's sovereign right."

"The tension in the region and around Taiwan was provoked... by the visit of Nancy Pelosi," Peskov told reporters on a conference call. "It was an absolutely unnecessary visit and an unnecessary provocation." (Reuters)

North Korea warned it will "never tolerate" the United States' criticism of the isolated country's nuclear programme, calling Washington the "kingpin of nuclear proliferation" and saying it would not allow any encroachment of its sovereign rights.

North Korea has conducted missile tests at an unprecedented pace this year and international experts believe it is readying its seventh nuclear test, the first since 2017.

The North's permanent mission to the United Nations issued the statement on Wednesday as diplomats gathered in New York for a month-long U.N. conference to review the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during the meeting the North "continues to expand its unlawful nuclear programme" and "is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test."

"It is the peak of busy blaming that the United States alleges somebody's 'nuclear threats' given the fact that it is the kingpin of nuclear proliferation," North Korea said in the statement.

The North also said it pulled out of the non-proliferation treaty a long time ago, so nobody had the right to impinge on the country's right to self-defence.

"We will never tolerate any attempt by the U.S. and its servile forces to groundlessly accuse our State and encroach upon our sovereign rights and national interests," the North said in its statement.

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country was ready to mobilise its nuclear war deterrent and counter any U.S. military clash. (Reuters)