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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani police have fired tear gas and scuffled with stone-throwing supporters of ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan ahead of planned marches Wednesday toward central Islamabad. The defiant former premier had called followers to rally outside Parliament to bring down the government and force early elections.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan on Tuesday banned ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan from holding a massive, planned rally in the capital of Islamabad and cracked down on his supporters in overnight raids across the country, arresting hundreds.
BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Myanmar ruled Tuesday that a corruption trial for ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and three political colleagues will continue after finding that prosecutors presented sufficient evidence for their indictment.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s navy said Tuesday that it has arrested 67 people who it believes were trying to travel by sea to Australia illegally.
The navy said in a statement that 12 men were arrested first near the port town of Trincomalee, 260 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of the capital Colombo on Monday and, upon questioning them, intercepted 55 more people traveling in a fishing vessel.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang wrote to congratulate Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his election victory, which some Australian media reported on Tuesday was a thawing of bilateral relations that Beijing put into deep freeze more than two years ago.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Seven people on two small boats that drifted for days in the Pacific have been rescued after a New Zealand plane spotted them near the remote island nation of Kiribati.
NEW DELHI (AP) — The devastating heat wave that has baked India and Pakistan in recent months was made more likely by climate change and is a glimpse of the region's future, international scientists said in a study released Monday.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sharply criticized Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the killings of innocent civilians in Ukraine, saying while the two of them have been tagged as killers, “I kill criminals, I don’t kill children and the elderly.”
TOKYO (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden met Monday with families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago to show his support for their efforts to win the return of their loved ones.
The families said Biden talked to each of them and listened to their stories, encouraging them as their hopes were fading because of North Korea's escalating development of missiles and nuclear devices.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka received a first consignment of a $16 million humanitarian aid package from neighboring India to help mitigate severe shortages caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in recent memory.
TOKYO (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, declaring the commitment to protect the island is “even stronger” after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The head of the U.N.’s World Food Program is telling billionaires it’s “time to step up” as the global threat of food insecurity rises with Russia's war in Ukraine, saying he’s seen encouraging signs from some of the world's richest people, like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the third time in less than a year, President Joe Biden has stirred controversy with his comments about Taiwan. The latest example came during his visit to Japan, when a reporter asked if the United States would respond militarily if China invaded the island.
BANGKOK (AP) — The United States and four other nations that walked out of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group meeting in Bangkok over the weekend underlined their support Monday for host nation Thailand, saying their protest was aimed solely at Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing extended orders for workers and students to stay home and ordered additional mass testing Monday as cases of COVID-19 rose in the Chinese capital.
Numerous residential compounds in the city have restricted movement in and out, although conditions remain far less severe than in Shanghai, where millions of citizens have been under varying degrees of lockdown for two months.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Pre-monsoon deluges have flooded parts of India and Bangladesh, killing at least 24 people in recent weeks and sending 90,000 people into shelters, authorities said Monday.
TOKYO (AP) — President Joe Biden launched a new trade deal with 12 Indo-Pacific nations Monday aimed at strengthening their economies as he warned Americans worried about high inflation that it is "going to be a haul” before they feel relief.
BEIJING (AP) — Allegations of human rights abuses in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region will dominate a visit by the United Nations’ top rights official that began Monday.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan launched a new anti-polio drive on Monday, more than a week after officials detected the third case so far this year in the country’s northwestern region bordering Afghanistan.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A ferry carrying more than 130 people caught fire in the northeastern Philippines on Monday, killing seven passengers and forcing many survivors to jump into the sea where they were rescued by other vessels.
TOKYO (AP) — President Joe Biden faced a dilemma on trade in Asia: He couldn't just rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership that his predecessor had pulled the U.S. out of in 2017. Many related trade deals, regardless of their content, had become politically toxic for U.S.
BANGKOK (AP) — Residents of the Thai capital Bangkok, in their first opportunity in nine years to vote for their city’s governor, have elected an independent politician seen as representing opponents of the country’s military-backed government, results released Monday showed.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s new prime minister was sworn in Monday and flew to Tokyo for a summit with President Joe Biden while vote counting continued to determine whether he will control a majority in a Parliament that is demanding tougher action on climate change.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A huge number of North Koreans including leader Kim Jong Un attended a funeral for a top official, state media reported Monday, as the country maintained the much-disputed claim that its suspected coronavirus outbreak is subsiding.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Sunday began enforcing an order requiring all female TV news anchors in the country to cover their faces while on-air. The move is part of a hard-line shift drawing condemnation from rights activists.
BERLIN (AP) — The COVID-19 pandemic is “most certainly not over,” the head of the World Health Organization warned Sunday, despite a decline in reported cases since the peak of the omicron wave. He told governments that “we lower our guard at our peril.”
TOKYO (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday is expected to come out with a list of nations that will join a long-anticipated Indo-Pacific trade pact, but Taiwan won't be among them.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that Taiwan isn't among the governments signed up for the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a pact that's meant to allow the U.S.