* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday revised down Malaysia's growth forecast this year to 5.5 percent from 6 percent, as the movement control order amid COVID-19 pandemic drags its economy.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) maintained the growth forecast for the Philippines at 4.5 percent in 2021 and 5.5 percent in 2022, according to an update to the Asian Development Outlook 2021 report released on Tuesday by the Manila-based bank.
* The National Jury of Elections (JNE) of Peru on Monday night officially declared Pedro Castillo to be president-elect, a month and a half after the June 6 presidential run-off.
* More than 17.6 million people aged 18 and above in Beijing, about 90.6 percent of the city's adult population, had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Tuesday noon, local authorities said. The Chinese capital had administered over 36.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines amid its mass vaccination drive, with over 95.6 percent of its adult population receiving at least one dose of vaccine.
* Russia registered 23,770 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 6,006,536, the official monitoring and response center said Tuesday. The nationwide death toll grew by 784 to 149,922, while the number of recoveries increased by 22,218 to 5,382,213.
* New COVID-19 hospitalizations in Los Angeles (United States) have spiked as test positivity has increased 10-fold over the last five weeks, according to data released by local public health authorities on Monday. Los Angeles returned to mandatory mask-wearing indoors over the weekend.
* In the wake of severe flash floods that have hit Germany in recent days, the government could greenlight emergency aid and reconstruction assistance worth billions of euros as early as Wednesday, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said at a press conference in Berlin on Monday.
* France has entered a fourth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic which is spreading at "lightning" speed, said government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Monday evening while announcing tough sanctions on non-compliance with the health pass rules.
* More than half of Australia's 25 million people were under lockdown after a third state adopted movement curbs to rein in the highly contagious Delta variant.
* Iran imposed a one-week lockdown in the capital and a nearby province as daily caseloads hit a record high amid a fifth wave of the pandemic, state television reported.
* The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported on Tuesday 4,516 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,517,903.
* Spain passed the benchmark of 50 percent of its population receiving two vaccine doses against COVID-19, the country's health ministry said on Monday.
* Over half of the population targeted by Italy's coronavirus vaccination campaign has already been fully immunized, the country's health authorities said here on Monday.
* At least 28 people were killed and 66 others wounded in a bomb explosion at a crowded market in eastern Baghdad on Monday, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
* More than 70 percent of Argentines over the age of 20 have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, the health ministry said Monday.
* The Maldives has received more tourist arrivals between January and July 2021 than that for the whole year of 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism quoted by local media on Tuesday.
* Iran completed the construction of a major onshore oil pipeline which will allow the country to bypass the Hormuz Strait, a vital passageway of the region, for its oil exports, Tasnim News Agency reported Tuesday.
