BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar's government confirmed Monday it had carried out its first executions in nearly 50 years, hanging a former lawmaker, a democracy activist and two other political prisoners who had been accused of a targeted killing after the country's military takeover last year.
BEIJING (AP) — Taiwan’s capital staged air raid drills Monday and its military mobilized for routine defense exercises, coinciding with concerns over a forceful Chinese response to a possible visit to the island by U.S.
PAJU, South Korea (AP) — As a medical student in North Korea, Lee Gwang-jin said he treated his fevers and other minor ailments with traditional herbal medicine. But bad illness could mean trouble because hospitals in his rural hometown lacked the ambulances, beds, even the electricity at times needed to treat critical or emergency patients.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed to considerably ease poverty, boost economic recovery and defend the country’s territory in his first key policy speech Monday that avoided contentious issues like human rights and pervasive corruption.
BANGKOK (AP) — A court in military-ruled Myanmar ruled Monday that there is sufficient evidence for the bribery trial of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to continue, a legal official said.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A human rights group said Sunday it had filed a criminal complaint with Singapore’s attorney general to seek the arrest of Sri Lanka’s former president for alleged war crimes during his country’s civil war.
TOKYO (AP) — The alleged assassin of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be detained until late November for mental evaluation so prosecutors can determine whether to formally press charges and send him to trial for murder, officials said Monday.
BEIJING (AP) — Indonesian President Joko Widodo was heading to Beijing on Monday for a rare visit by a foreign leader under China's strict COVID-19 protocols and ahead of what could be the first overseas trip by Chinese President Xi Jinping since the start of the pandemic more than two years ago.
MILAN (AP) — The first of some 300 Afghan refugees arrived in Rome on Monday along a new humanitarian corridor organized by the Italian government, charities and international organizations, Italy's Foreign Ministry announced.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Wei Chen wants people who visit Philadelphia’s Chinatown to look through the community’s gateway arch and see the residents chatting in Mandarin on the steps to the apartments above or the vendors selling traditional Chinese food to families walking by, not a giant Philadelphia 76ers arena a block away.
BEIJING (AP) — China added a laboratory to its permanent orbiting space station Monday as it moves toward completing the structure in coming months.
TOKYO (AP) — Dozens of people have evacuated two towns on Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu where a volcano spewed ash and large rocks into the nighttime sky.
Large rocks fell as far as 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the Sakurajima volcano Sunday night in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill to boost semiconductor production in the United States has managed to do nearly the unthinkable — unite the democratic socialist Sen.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years, the top U.S. military officer said during a trip to the Indo-Pacific that included a stop Sunday in Indonesia.
TOKYO (AP) — A volcano on Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu erupted Sunday night, spewing ash and rocks. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in nearby towns but residents were advised to evacuate.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A gunman opened fire on university campus in the Philippine capital region on Sunday, killing a former town mayor and two others in a brazen attack ahead of a graduation ceremony, police said.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Sunday launched one of two laboratory modules to complete its permanent orbiting space station.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — International human rights groups on Saturday urged Sri Lanka’s new president to immediately order security forces to cease use of force against protesters after troops and police cleared their main camp following months of demonstrations over the country’s economic meltdown.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The death toll from more than five weeks of monsoon rains and flash flooding across Pakistan has reached 304, authorities said Saturday.
Since mid-June, the deluge has swollen rivers and damaged highways and bridges, disrupting traffic.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A Chinese man convicted of killing his former wife by setting her on fire was executed in southwestern Sichuan province on Saturday in a domestic violence case that had drawn national outrage.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Six times Sri Lanka's prime minister, President Ranil Wickremesinghe had long aspired to the pinnacle of power, enduring setback after setback but always managing to recover from seemingly impossible defeats.
Soki Wu's food stall, tucked in a food court in a shopping mall in Singapore, is a crowd favorite for its fresh, juicy “chicken rice," a national dish. But customers recently began complaining that his chicken didn't taste quite as good as it used to.
BANGKOK (AP) — Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha sailed through his fourth and final no-confidence vote in Parliament on Saturday with no surprises, ahead of a general election next year.
The vote came after four days of debate targeting Prayuth and 10 of his Cabinet members for economic mismanagement and their failure to prevent corruption.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A Chinese court has overruled a rare legal challenge brought by an unmarried Beijing woman seeking the right to freeze her eggs.
The Chaoyang Intermediate People's Court in Beijing said in a judgment that the hospital did not violate the woman's rights in denying her access to freeze her eggs.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea plans to lift its decadeslong ban on public access to North Korean television, newspapers and other publications as part of its efforts to promote mutual understanding between the rivals, officials said Friday, despite animosities over the North's recent missile tests.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Judges at the United Nations’ highest court on Friday dismissed preliminary objections by Myanmar to a case alleging the Southeast Asian nation is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A woman from Pakistan and another from Iran appeared to be the first from their countries to scale K2 on Friday, the world's second-highest mountain and one of the most dangerous summits, a mountaineering official said.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan forces violently cleared the main protest camp of demonstrators outraged by the country’s economic meltdown as the newly elected and deeply unpopular president put army troops in the streets of the capital Friday to maintain order.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has warned that the United States and South Korea will face “unprecedented” security challenges if they don’t stop their hostile military pressure campaign against the North, including joint military drills.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s nuclear regulator on Friday approved details of a planned release of treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea next year.
The approval by the Nuclear Regulation Authority will enable Tokyo Electric Power Co.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan warned of escalating national security threats stemming from Russia’s war on Ukraine and China’s tensions with Taiwan in an annual defense paper issued Friday, as Japan tries to bolster its military capability and spending.
SYDNEY (AP) — New U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy said Friday the United States needs to engage more with the Pacific region at a time when China is asserting its presence.
Kennedy spoke with reporters at Sydney International Airport after arriving to take on her new role.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's Cabinet on Friday formally decided to hold a state funeral on Sept. 27 for assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe amid national debate over the plan, which some criticize as an attempt to glorify a divisive political figure.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka's new president Thursday to take charge of a nation bitterly angry that he will remain in power amid an unprecedented economic crisis.
July 15-21, 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.
NEW DELHI (AP) — A woman who hails from a minority ethnic community was chosen Thursday as India’s new president, a largely ceremonial position.
BEIJING (AP) — A tornado blew through 11 villages in a farming region of eastern China, damaging homes, killing at least one person and injuring 25 others, while swaths of the country face extreme heat.
HONG KONG (AP) — The oldest-ever male giant panda in captivity has died at age 35 at a Hong Kong theme park after his health deteriorated.
An An lived most of his life at Ocean Park after he and a female panda were gifted to Hong Kong by China in 1999.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The death toll from five weeks of monsoon rains and flash floods jumped to at least 282 in Pakistan on Thursday, officials said, as the latest downpours continued lashing the impoverished country.
BANGKOK (AP) — Army-ruled Myanmar’s economy remains fragile as civil strife, inflation and onerous policy decisions add to troubles facing farmers and businesses, reports by the World Bank and other experts said Thursday.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Human rights activists on Thursday launched a new campaign in the Philippines to prevent a repeat of the abuses and plunder of the martial-law era that began 50 years ago under the father of the country's new president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics survived the COVID-19 postponement, soaring expenses and some public opposition. A year later, the costs and benefits remain as difficult to untangle as the Games were to pull off.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Thousands of cattle are covered in blisters from highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia, sounding the alarm for the country, its Southeast Asian neighbors and Australia.
HONG KONG (AP) — Baidu, a Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence firm, unveiled its latest electric autonomous driving vehicle on Thursday.
The Apollo RT6 will be soon be part of Baidu's robotaxi fleet, as China pushes forward with its autonomous driving ambitions.