BANGKOK (AP) — China's response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan was anything but subtle — dispatching warships and military aircraft to all sides of the self-governing island democracy, and firing ballistic missiles into the waters nearby.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said her country will never accept South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's “foolish” offer of economic benefits in exchange for denuclearization steps, accusing Seoul of recycling proposals Pyongyang already rejected.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's leader said Friday that it's upsetting Indonesia has further reduced the prison sentence of the bombmaker in the Bali terror attack that killed 202 people — meaning the terrorist could be freed within days if he's granted parole.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's central bank chief said Thursday he hopes the government can reach a preliminary agreement that could lead to a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund when its officials visit the crisis-hit island nation later this month.
NEW DELHI (AP) — A Muslim woman who was gang raped while pregnant during India's devastating 2002 religious riots has appealed to the government to rescind its decision to free the 11 men who had been jailed for life for committing the crime, after they were released on suspended sentences.
LONDON (AP) — New coronavirus cases reported globally dropped nearly a quarter in the last week while deaths fell 6% but were still higher in parts of Asia, according to a report Thursday on the pandemic by the World Health Organization.
BEIJING (AP) — A sudden rainstorm in western China triggered a landslide that diverted a river and caused flash flooding in populated areas, killing at least 16 people and leaving 18 others missing, Chinese state media said Thursday.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A bombing at a mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul during evening prayers killed at least 21 people, including a prominent cleric, and wounded at least 33 others, eyewitnesses and police said Thursday.
HONG KONG (AP) — Authorities in Hong Kong say 29 out of 47 pro-democracy activists charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” under a tough National Security Law have entered guilty pleas in court, as the Beijing government seeks to further silence opposition voices in the regional financial hub.
Aug. 12-19, 2022
This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published by Associated Press photographers in Asia and Pacific.
The gallery was curated by AP photo editor Wally Santana in Bangkok.
MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — A judge refused to grant bail Thursday to the man accused of trying to kill Salman Rushdie as the acclaimed author prepared to give a talk in western New York.
Hadi Matar, 24, appeared in a western New York courtroom after a grand jury indicted him on charges that he rushed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and stabbed Rushdie multiple times in front of a horrified crowd.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of Myanmar’s military-installed government “expressed openness to arranging a meeting at the right time” between U.N. special envoy Noeleen Heyzer and the country’s imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the United Nations said Thursday.
HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — The U.S. government will hold trade talks with Taiwan in a sign of support for the island democracy that China claims as its own territory, prompting Beijing to warn Thursday it will take action if necessary to “safeguard its sovereignty.”
BANGKOK (AP) — Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi testified Thursday in a prison courtroom in the capital for the first time in her official secrets case, a legal official said.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained since the military ousted her government last year, is being tried in Naypyitaw with Australian economist Sean Turnell and three former Cabinet members on the same charge, which is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's top court on Thursday refused to allow ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak's new lawyer to withdraw from his graft case linked to the looting of the 1MDB state fund, preventing a possible delay in his final appeal.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of Unification Church followers rallied in South Korea on Thursday protesting negative Japanese media coverage of their religion after the suspect in the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe blamed the church for his family’s troubles.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand family who bought some abandoned goods from a storage unit got home with their purchases to discover the bodies of two children hidden in two suitcases, police said Thursday.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese and Japanese officials have met in northern China amid renewed tensions over Beijing's military threats against Taiwan and after Tokyo protested China's firing of missiles into Japan's exclusive economic zone during recent military drills.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Heavy rain continued to pelt New Zealand on Thursday, causing further disruptions and road closures from a storm that has already forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A bombing at a mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul during evening prayers on Wednesday killed at least 10 people, including a prominent cleric, and wounded at least 27, an eyewitness and police said.
TOKYO (AP) — Designer Hanae Mori, known for her elegant signature butterfly motifs, numerous cinema fashions and the wedding gown of Japan's empress, has died, her office said Thursday. She was 96.
BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. government plans talks with Taiwan on a wide-ranging trade treaty in a sign of support for the self-ruled island democracy claimed by China’s ruling Communist Party as part of its territory.
BANGKOK (AP) — The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Noeleen Heyzer, met Wednesday with the head of its military-installed government and called on him to urgently halt all violence, support a political path back to civilian rule and democracy, and allow the country’s imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu Kyi to return home and to meet with her.
LEH, India (AP) — The remains of an Indian army soldier have been found more than 38 years after he went missing on a glacier at the highest point along the heavily militarized contested border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, officials said Wednesday.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh's leader told a visiting U.N. official on Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority Rohingya refugees living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh must return home to Myanmar, where they had fled waves of violent persecution.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban on Monday marked a year since they seized the Afghan capital in a rapid takeover that triggered a hasty escape of the nation's Western-backed leaders, sent the economy into a tailspin and fundamentally transformed the country.
BEIJING (AP) — The world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases are sparring on Twitter over climate policy, with China questioning whether the U.S. can deliver on the landmark climate legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden this week.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — In the Brazilian Amazon these days, it's nearly impossible to run for office talking up the environment.
More common is a scene like this: A candidate for Congress parades a helicopter — the symbol of illegal gold mining — painted with the Brazilian flag, through the streets of the Amazon city of Boa Vista.
TOKYO (AP) — A former Tokyo Olympic organizing committee board member and three people from a clothing company that was a surprise sponsor of the 2020 Games were arrested on bribery suspicions Wednesday.
HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan is staging military exercises to show its ability to resist Chinese pressure to accept Beijing’s political control over the self-governing island, following new rounds of threatening drills from China.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president said Wednesday his government has no plans to pursue its own nuclear deterrent and called instead for more diplomacy in the face of growing North Korean nuclear weapons capabilities, even as the North test-fired two suspected cruise missiles.
HAT YAI, Thailand (AP) — A wave of arson and bombing attacks overnight hit Thailand’s southernmost provinces, which for almost two decades have been the scene of an active Muslim separatist insurgency, officials said Wednesday.
BEIJING (AP) — Factories in China’s southwest have shut down and a city imposed rolling blackouts after reservoirs to generate hydropower ran low in a worsening drought, adding to economic strains at a time when President Xi Jinping is trying to extend his hold on power.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — High on a mountain in the Himalayas, pristine drops fall from the mouth of a tiger statue installed at a stream thought to form the headwaters of the Bagmati River, long revered as having the power to purify souls.
SYDNEY (AP) — Scott Morrison said Wednesday that giving himself extra powers when he was Australia’s prime minister was necessary during the coronavirus crisis, as criticism rose the moves were deceptive and undemocratic.
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Assailants killed a Kashmiri Hindu man and wounded his brother in a shooting Tuesday that police blamed on militants fighting Indian rule in the disputed region.
Police said suspected militants fired at two Kashmiri Hindu brothers inside an apple orchard in the Shopian district in the south of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The head of Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region has sent a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling for cooperation amid signs the North is considering sending laborers for restoration projects in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Ellia Green realized as a young child -- long before becoming an Olympic champion -- that a person’s identity and a gender assigned at birth can be very different things.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Massive incentives for clean energy in the U.S. law signed Tuesday by President Joe Biden should reduce future global warming “not a lot, but not insignificantly either,” according to a climate scientist who led an independent analysis of the package.
BANGKOK (AP) — United Nations special envoy Noeleen Heyzer arrived in Myanmar on Tuesday on her first mission to the country since her appointment last year. Her visit follows a call by the U.N. Security Council for an immediate end to all forms of violence there and unimpeded humanitarian access to those affected by the strife.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar traveled to the Southeast Asian nation on Monday for the first time since she was appointed to the post last October.
BANGKOK (AP) — A group of German air force fighter jets landed in Singapore on Tuesday as part of a marathon bid to fly them some 12,800 kilometers (8,000 miles) from their home base to Southeast Asia in just 24 hours.
BEIJING (AP) — Unusually high temperatures and a prolonged drought are affecting large swaths of China, reducing crop yields and drinking water supplies.
The lack of rain has been especially marked in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, which encompasses a large area of mountains and rivers.
HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Chinese navy vessel arrived at a Beijing-built port in southern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, after its port call was earlier delayed due to apparent security concerns raised by India.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s president called on all citizens to remain united, vigilant and alert as they face crises fueled by the war in Ukraine and coronavirus pandemic in his State of the Nation address Tuesday.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Bill Gates on Tuesday called for South Korea to become more involved in international efforts to prevent infectious diseases like COVID-19 as he stressed the need for the world to be better prepared for the next pandemic.
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's top court ordered former Prime Minister Najib Razak on Tuesday to begin his final appeal in two days after rejecting his request that it throw out his graft conviction and 12-year sentence over alleged judicial bias.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States and South Korea will begin their biggest combined military training in years next week in the face of an increasingly aggressive North Korea, which has been ramping up weapons tests and threats of nuclear conflict against Seoul and Washington, the South Korean military said Tuesday.