SHANGHAI (AP) — Protesters angered by strict anti-virus measures called for China’s powerful leader to resign, an unprecedented rebuke as authorities in at least eight cities struggled to suppress demonstrations Sunday that represent a rare direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter made a public appearance again, this time with missile scientists and more honorific titles as her father’s “most beloved” or “precious” child.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s terrorism threat level has been downgraded from “probable" to “possible” for the first time since 2014, the head of the main domestic spy agency said Monday.
The defeat of the Islamic State group in battle in the Middle East and an ineffective al-Qaida propaganda machine failing to connect with Western youth has resulted in fewer extremists in Australia, Australian Security Intelligence Organization Director-General Mike Burgess said.
Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.
“My decoration said ‘Happy Diwali’ and had a swastika on it,” said Deo, a physician, who was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Federal police in Pakistan have arrested a senator for comments critical of top military officers, colleagues from his Tehreek-e-Insaf political party said Sunday. It was the second time he was taken into custody in as many months.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's former premier Imran Khan said Saturday his party was quitting the country's regional and national assemblies, as he made his first public appearance since being wounded in a gun attack earlier this month.
LOPBURI, Thailand (AP) — A meal fit for monkeys was served on Sunday at the annual Monkey Feast Festival in central Thailand.
Amid the morning traffic, rows of monkey statues holding trays were lined up outside the compound of the Ancient Three Pagodas, while volunteers prepared food across the road for real monkeys — the symbol of Lopburi province, around 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Bangkok.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party following local election losses on Saturday in which voters chose the opposition Nationalist party in several major races across the self-ruled island.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Far from Doha's luxury hotels and sprawling new World Cup stadiums, scores of South Asian workers poured into a cricket ground in the city’s sandy outskirts to enjoy the tournament they helped create.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani security forces shot and killed nine alleged insurgents Saturday during a raid on their hideout in southwestern Baluchistan province, the military said.
A military statement said security forces conducted a raid on members of the separatist Baluchistan Liberation Army in the province's Kohlu district.
BEIJING (AP) — Protests against China's pervasive anti-virus controls that have confined millions of people to their homes spread to Shanghai and other cities after complaints they might have worsened the death toll in an apartment fire in the northwest.
BEIJING (AP) — A fire in an apartment building in northwestern China's Xinjiang region killed 10 people and injured nine, authorities said Friday, amid stringent lockdowns that have left many residents in the area stuck in their homes for more than three months.
BEIJING (AP) — Macao has tentatively renewed the casino licenses of MGM Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and three Chinese rivals after they promised to help diversify its economy by investing in non-gambling attractions, the government said Saturday.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Cuban counterpart pledged mutual support over their fellow communist states’ “core interests” Friday at a meeting further hailing a return to face-to-face diplomacy by Beijing.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan may amount to a crime against humanity and should be investigated and prosecuted under international law, a U.N. team of experts said Friday.
CIANJUR, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll from an earthquake that struck Indonesia's Java island early this week rose to 310 after rescuers found more bodies under landslides, an official said. At least 24 people remain missing.
BEIJING (AP) — Residents of some parts of China’s capital were emptying supermarket shelves and overwhelming delivery apps Friday as the city government ordered faster construction of COVID-19 quarantine centers and field hospitals.
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's airport on Friday officially launched a new third runway which is expected to boost the city’s status as an aviation hub.
The Airport Authority Hong Kong said about 140 flights a day are already using the new runway, which has been in operation since early July.
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court on Friday sentenced Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu to 13 years in prison on charges including rape.
Beijing’s Chaoyang District Court said Wu was given 11 years and 6 months for a 2020 rape, and 1 year and 10 months for the “crime of assembling a crowd to engage in sexual promiscuity” in a 2018 event in which he and others allegedly assaulted two women they had gotten drunk.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The prime suspect in the murder of a woman on an Australian beach four years ago was arrested in New Delhi's outskirts three weeks after he was targeted with a 1 million Australian dollar ($677,000) reward, authorities said Friday.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An inquiry into a former Australian prime minister secretly appointing himself to multiple ministries recommended Friday that all such appointments be made public in the future to preserve trust in government.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Reformist leader Anwar Ibrahim has won a hard-fought battle to become Malaysia’s new prime minister.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese prosecutors raided the headquarters of major advertising company Dentsu on Friday, as the investigation into corruption related to the Tokyo Olympics widened.
Major local TV broadcasters showed Tokyo District Prosecutors and Japan Fair Trade Commission officials entering Dentsu headquarters.
HONG KONG (AP) — A 90-year-old Roman Catholic cardinal and five others in Hong Kong were fined after being found guilty Friday of failing to register a now-defunct fund that aimed to help people arrested in the widespread protests three years ago.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has named the country's former spy chief as head of the military, the information minister said Thursday, ending months of speculation about the new appointment.
Nov. 19-25, 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 Tokyo.
BEIJING (AP) — As cases of COVID-19 hit record daily highs, China is reimposing a range of strict measures under its “zero-COVID" policy, including lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines for anyone suspected of having come into contact with the virus.
HONG KONG (AP) — In London, Wong Wai-yi misses the taste of home.
A year ago, the 31-year-old musician was in Hong Kong, earning a good living composing for TV and movies and teaching piano. Today, she makes about half as much in London working part-time as a server alongside her musical pursuits.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — More than two decades after his dramatic ouster from government and imprisonment, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim finally has his day.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Long-time reformist leader Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as Malaysia's prime minister Thursday and vowed to heal a racially divided nation, fight corruption and revive an economy struggling with the rising cost of living.
BEIJING (AP) — The company that assembles Apple Inc.’s iPhones apologized Thursday for a pay dispute that triggered employee protests at a factory where anti-virus controls have slowed production.
Employees complained Foxconn Technology Group changed the terms of wages offered to attract them to the factory in the central city of Zhengzhou.
CIANJUR, Indonesia (AP) — On the fourth day of an increasingly urgent search, Indonesian rescuers narrowed their focus Thursday to a landslide where dozens of people were believed trapped after an earthquake killed at least 272, more than a third of them children.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attacked South Korea with a string of insults on Thursday for considering new unilateral sanctions against the North, calling its president and his government “idiots” and “a running wild dog gnawing on a bone given by the U.S.”
BEIJING (AP) — Pandemic lockdowns are expanding across China, including in a city where factory workers clashed this week with police, as the number of COVID-19 cases hits a daily record.
Residents of eight districts of Zhengzhou, home to 6.6 million people, were told to stay home for five days beginning Thursday except to buy food or get medical treatment.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines has sought an explanation from China after a Filipino military commander reported that the Chinese coast guard forcibly seized Chinese rocket debris in the possession of Filipino navy personnel in the disputed South China Sea, officials said Thursday.
BEIJING (AP) — Police beat workers protesting over a pay dispute at the biggest factory for Apple's iPhone, whose new model is delayed by controls imposed as China tries to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Yoo Young Yi’s grandmother gave birth to six children. Her mother birthed two. Yoo doesn’t want any.
“My husband and I like babies so much … but there are things that we'd have to sacrifice if we raised kids,” said Yoo, a 30-year-old Seoul financial company employee.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban lashed three women and nine men in front of hundreds of spectators in a provincial sports stadium Wednesday, signaling the religious extremist group’s resumption of a brutal form of punishment that was a hallmark of their rule in the 1990s.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif is poised to appoint a new army chief after receiving a list of candidates for the key position, officials said Wednesday, despite ongoing political turmoil in the country.
CIANJUR, Indonesia (AP) — Searchers in Indonesia on Wednesday rescued a 6-year-old boy who was trapped for two days under the rubble of his house, which collapsed in an earthquake that killed at least 271 people, as heavy monsoon rains lashed survivors in makeshift shelters and forced a suspension of rescue efforts.
HAT YAI, Thailand (AP) — Police said Wednesday they were trying to identify the suspect in a bombing of police housing that killed one officer and wounded 45 other people in a part of southern Thailand troubled by a Muslim separatist insurgency for almost two decades.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's king met with lawmakers Wednesday and will next consult other royal families in a continuing search for a prime minister after inconclusive general elections that saw the rise of Islamists sparked anxieties in the multiracial nation.
The suspect in the weekend killings of four people at a marijuana farm in Oklahoma was arrested in the afternoon by officers in South Florida, police announced late Tuesday.
BEIJING (AP) — Four people have been detained over a fire at an industrial trading company in central China that killed 38 people, reports said Wednesday.
The fire Monday was caused by welding sparks that ignited cotton cloth being stored at a facility run by the firm Kaixinda, authorities said.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A 5.6 magnitude earthquake left more than 260 dead and hundreds injured as buildings crumbled and terrified residents ran for their lives on Indonesia’s main island of Java.