BEIJING (AP) — On a balmy Sunday night, residents of an upscale Shanghai compound took to the streets to decry lockdown restrictions imposed by their community. By the following morning, they were free to leave.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — According to North Korea, its fight against COVID-19 has been impressive: About 3.3 million people have been reported sick with fevers, but only 69 have died.
If all are coronavirus cases, that's a fatality rate of 0.002%, something no other country, including the world's richest, has achieved against a disease that has killed more than 6 million people.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — When China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands in April it raised concerns from the U.S.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — China's foreign minister on Friday arrived on the remote Pacific nation of Kiribati, where the future of a vast fishing ground is at stake.
The planned four-hour visit by Wang Yi was his second stop on an eight-nation tour that comes amid growing concerns about Beijing’s military and financial ambitions in the South Pacific region.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday criticized a speech by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken focused on relations between the world’s top two economic powers, saying the U.S.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The United States on Friday won the latest round of a legal battle to seize a $325-million Russian-owned superyacht in Fiji, with the case now appearing headed for the Pacific nation's top court.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States on Thursday that would have imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea for its spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday the Biden administration aims to lead the international bloc opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine into a broader coalition to counter what it sees as a more serious, long-term threat to global order from China.
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Police in disputed Kashmir arrested at least 10 people during overnight raids following an anti-India protest that erupted as an Indian court sentenced a prominent Kashmiri pro-independence leader to life in prison, officials said Thursday.
HONG KONG (AP) — Incoming Hong Kong leader John Lee will travel to Beijing on Saturday to accept a letter that officially approves his appointment as the city’s next chief executive.
A government statement confirmed that Lee will go to Beijing with his private secretary and press secretary, as well as his wife.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A pregnant Sumatran elephant was found dead of suspected poisoning near a palm plantation in Indonesia’s Riau province on the island of Sumatra, officials said Friday.
Sumatran elephants are a critically endangered species and fewer than 700 remain on the island.
TOKYO (AP) — Nakagin Capsule Tower, a building tucked away in a corner of downtown Tokyo that is made up of boxes stacked on top of each other, is an avant-garde honeycomb of science-fiction-era housing long admired as a masterpiece.
HONOLULU (AP) — Women from the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands will likely have to travel farther than other Americans to terminate a pregnancy if the Supreme Court overturns a precedent that established a national right to abortion in the United States.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan will open its borders to foreign tourists in June for the first time since imposing tight pandemic travel restrictions about two years ago, but only for package tours for now, the prime minister said Thursday.
May 20-26, 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 Masayo Yoshida in Tokyo.
LONDON (AP) — Indian writer Geetanjali Shree and American translator Daisy Rockwell won the International Booker Prize on Thursday for “Tomb of Sand,” a vibrant novel with a boundary-crossing 80-year-old heroine.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's prime minister said Thursday that he will quickly prepare an economic reform program and seek approval from the International Monetary Fund — because global inflation and the financial impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on other countries could limit their ability to help the island nation.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's defiant former Prime Minister Imran Khan called off a planned, open-ended sit-in in Islamabad on Thursday, temporarily assuaging fears of a protracted civil conflict after he led thousands on a march toward Parliament and demanded the government's resignation.
LONDON (AP) — The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths are still falling globally after peaking in January, the World Health Organization said.
In its latest weekly assessment of the pandemic, the U.N.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan on Thursday expressed concern over the deterioration of rights in the country and called on the ruling Taliban to reverse new restrictions on women.
TOKYO (AP) — A Tokyo court began hearings Thursday in a lawsuit seeking nearly $5 million in damages for six people who were children in Fukushima at the time of its 2011 nuclear power plant disaster and later developed thyroid cancer.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a 20-strong delegation arrived in the Solomon Islands Thursday at the start of an eight-nation tour that comes amid growing concerns about Beijing’s military and financial ambitions in the South Pacific region.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese and U.S. forces have conducted a joint fighter jet flight over the Sea of Japan, Japan’s military said Thursday, in an apparent response to a Russia-China joint bomber flight while U.S.
BEIJING (AP) — China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting the South Pacific with a 20-person delegation this week in a display of Beijing's growing military and diplomatic presence in the region.
NEW DELHI (AP) — For nearly three centuries, Muslims and Hindus in India’s northern Varanasi city have prayed to their gods in a mosque and a temple that are separated by one wall. Many see it as an example of religious coexistence in a country where bouts of deadly communal violence are common.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Defiant former Prime Minister Imran Khan early Thursday warned Pakistan's government to set new elections in the next six days or he will again march on the capital along with 3 million people.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as finance minister as this Indian Ocean island nation confronts its worst economic crisis in memory.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was proclaimed the next president of the Philippines by a joint session of Congress on Wednesday following a landslide election triumph 36 years after his dictator father was ousted in a pro-democracy uprising.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — China wants 10 small Pacific nations to endorse a sweeping agreement covering everything from security to fisheries in what one leader warns is a “game-changing” bid by Beijing to wrest control of the region.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States called for a vote Thursday on a U.N. resolution that would impose tougher sanctions on North Korea for its recent launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A series of explosions shook Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Taliban said, including a blast inside a mosque in the capital of Kabul that killed at least five worshippers and three bombings of minivans in the country's north that killed nine passengers.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea test-launched a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile and two shorter-range weapons toward its eastern waters Wednesday, South Korea said, hours after President Joe Biden ended a trip to Asia where he reaffirmed the U.S.
Pfizer said Wednesday that it will provide nearly two dozen products, including its top-selling COVID-19 vaccine and treatment, at not-for-profit prices in some of the world’s poorest countries.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping defended his country's record to the top U.N. human rights official on Wednesday, saying each nation should be allowed to find its own path.
Xi, who heads the ruling Communist Party that allows no political opposition and strictly limits speech, criticized countries that he said lecture others on human rights and politicize the issue.
NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian court sentenced a Kashmiri separatist leader to life in prison on Wednesday after declaring him guilty of terrorism and sedition, triggering a clash between protesters and police and a partial shutdown of businesses in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — In Afghanistan, 1.1 million children under the age of 5 will likely face the most severe form of malnutrition this year, according to the U.N., as increasing numbers of hungry, wasting-away children are brought into hospital wards.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s new government has urged China to lift trade sanctions if it wants to reset a bilateral relationship that plumbed new depths under the previous administration.
TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese yen has weakened, trading in recent weeks at 20-year lows of 130 yen to the U.S. dollar just when prices of oil and other goods are surging partly due to the war in Ukraine.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China is trying to navigate its biggest coronavirus outbreak without a tool it could have adopted many months ago, the kind of vaccines that have proven to offer the best protection against the worst outcomes from COVID-19.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday said the U.S., Britain and other foreign powers are seeking to sabotage its foreign relations by orchestrating criticism surrounding a trip by the top United Nations official for human rights.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Wedged into a recliner in the corner of her assisted living apartment in Portland, Skylar Freimann, who has a terminal heart condition and pulmonary illness, anxiously eyed her newly arrived hospital bed on a recent day and worried over how she would maintain independence as she further loses mobility.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban announced a deal Tuesday allowing an Emirati company to manage three airports in Afghanistan after the fall of the country's U.S.-backed government. However, the United Arab Emirates did not immediately acknowledge the deal.
BANGKOK (AP) — At least 16 people from Myanmar’s Rohingya minority have died after a storm capsized the boat they were traveling on to seek refuge in another country, officials and a recovery team member said Tuesday.
TOKYO (AP) — President Joe Biden told fellow Indo-Pacific leaders assembled for a four-country summit Tuesday that they were navigating "a dark hour in our shared history” due to Russia's brutal war on Ukraine and he urged the group to make a greater effort to stop Vladimir Putin's aggression.
TOKYO (AP) — Leaders of the U.S., Japan, Australia and India gathered in Tokyo on Tuesday for a summit of the “Quad.” What is the group, where did it come from and why do diplomats keep coming up with strange names for various partnerships?
HONG KONG (AP) — Arrested former Hong Kong Catholic leader Cardinal Joseph Zen and five others denied charges on Tuesday that they failed to register a relief fund aimed at assisting protesters who faced legal costs during 2019 anti-government protests.
TOKYO (AP) — Hours after being sworn in as Australia's new prime minister, Anthony Albanese found himself fresh off a jet and thrown into the glare of a global spotlight Tuesday. He was rewarded with a warm welcome, as well as a bit of a gentle ribbing, from U.S.
BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Solomon Islands this week in what the South Pacific nation’s leader said was a “milestone” in his country’s relationship with China, amid concerns that their new security pact could allow Chinese military personnel on the islands.