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Asia Pacific

FILE - Solar panels work near the small town of Milagro, Navarra Province, northern Spain, Feb. 24, 2023. Billions of people are using different kinds of energy each day and 2023 was a record-breaking year for renewable energy sources, according to a report published Wednesday, May 8, 2024, by Ember, a think tank based in London. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos, File)

Global clean energy just set a record. These 5 charts show how

A record 30% of global electricity was generated from renewables in 2023, according to a report released by Ember, a think tank based in London.

Aboard a small fishing boat, Rohingya refugees faced abuse and other horrors. (AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)

‘They tortured us': Rohingya survivors of fatal capsize say captain raped girls, purposely sank boat

FILE - Local residents sing a theme song written by protesters "Glory to Hong Kong" at a shopping mall in Hong Kong on Sept. 11, 2019. An appeals court Wednesday, May 8, 2024 granted the Hong Kong government's request to ban a popular protest song, overturning an earlier ruling and deepening concerns over the erosion of freedoms in the once-freewheeling global financial hub. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

Protest song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ now banned in city after appeals court overturns ruling

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, shakes hands with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic greet the crowd at the Serbia Palace in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

China and EU-candidate Serbia sign an agreement to build a ‘shared future’

This satellite photo taken by Planet Labs PBC shows two Chinese corvettes docked at the Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Cambodia's Defense Ministry insisted Wednesday that the monthslong presence of two Chinese warships at a strategically important naval base that has been newly expanded with funding from Beijing does not constitute a permanent deployment of the Chinese military in the country. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Chinese warships have been docked in Cambodia for 5 months, but government says it’s not permanent

Pakistani security forces kill 6 militants in twin raids in volatile northwest near Afghanistan

Pakistan’s military says its security forces have killed six militants in twin raids in the volatile northwest region bordering Afghanistan.

Chinese national flags are placed next to Hungarian flags on the Elisabeth Bridge in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

China’s Xi arrives in Hungary for talks on expanding Chinese investments

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Hungary, the final stop on his five-day European tour. During his two-day visit from Wednesday to Friday, he’s expected to finalize a number of agreements with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that will deepen China’s economic footprint in the region.

U.S. troopers in battle gear walk under the scorching sun during a joint military exercise on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, northern Philippines. American, Australian and Filipino forces launched a barrage of high-precision rockets, artillery fire and airstrikes to sink a ship Wednesday as part of largescale war drills in waters facing the disputed South China Sea that has antagonized Beijing. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

US and Philippine forces sink a ship during largescale drills in the disputed South China Sea

U.S. and Philippine forces, backed by an Australian air force surveillance aircraft, have unleashed a barrage of high-precision rockets, artillery fire and airstrikes and sank a mock enemy ship as part of largescale war drills in and near the disputed South China Sea that have antagonized Beijing.

FILE - North Korean Chief delegate Kim Ki Nam leaves after paying a silent tribute for the late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung during a memorial service at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, on Aug. 21, 2009. Kim Ki Nam, a North Korean propaganda chief who helped build personality cults around the country’s three dynastic leaders, has died at 94, the North’s state media said. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

The North Korean official whose propaganda helped build the Kim dynasty dies at 94

North Korea says Kim Ki Nam, the propaganda chief who helped build personality cults around the country’s three dynastic leaders, has died at 94.

FILE - Rattapon Sanrak founder of the Highland Cafe prepares a flower bud of marijuana for a customer, at Highland cafe shop in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Feb. 12, 2024. The Prime Minister of Thailand said Wednesday, May 8, 2024 that he wants cannabis to be officially classified as a narcotic drug, a rollback from the complete decriminalization of the plant two years ago. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

Thailand’s prime minister wants to outlaw cannabis, 2 years after it was decriminalized

The prime minister of Thailand says he wants to outlaw the cannabis over concerns the lack of regulation had made it available to children and increased crimes.

Taliban reject claims of Afghan involvement in recent attacks in Pakistan

The Taliban has rejected claims of Afghan involvement in recent attacks in Pakistan, calling it “irresponsible and far from the reality.”

In this undated photo provided by the Australian Defence Force, a Seahawk helicopter prepares to take off from the deck of HMAS Hobart during flying operations while on a regional presence deployment off northern Australia. Australia has protested to Beijing through multiple channels that a Chinese fighter jet endangered an Australian navy helicopter with flares over international waters, the prime minister said Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (LSIS Matthew Lyall/Australian Defence Force via AP)

Albanese rejects China’s argument that Australia was at fault in dangerous aircraft encounter

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected China’s argument that Australia was responsible for a dangerous weekend encounter between their military aircraft in international airspace over the Yellow Sea.

Members of British Columbia's Sikh community gather in front of the courthouse in Surrey, British Columbia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Three men accused of murdering temple leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar made their first court appearance by video. (Chuck Chiang/The Canadian Press via AP)

3 Indian men charged with killing Sikh separatist leader in Canada appear in court

Three Indian men charged with killing Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year have appeared in court in the case that set off a diplomatic spat after Canada’s prime minister said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement.

TikTok sues US to block law that could ban the social media platform

TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, are suing the U.S. government over a law that would ban the popular video-sharing app unless it’s sold to an approved buyer.

Former head of one of China’s top state-owned phone companies sentenced to 16 years for corruption

A Chinese court sentenced the former head of one of the country’s three major state-owned phone carriers to 16 years in prison on charges of accepting bribes and abusing his authority, part of leader Xi Jinping’s politically-tinged anti-corruption campaign.

This is a locator map for Pakistan with its capital, Islamabad, and the Kashmir region. (AP Photo)

Pakistan’s military says March attack that killed Chinese engineers was planned in Afghanistan

Pakistan’s military says a suicide bombing that killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver in March was planned in Afghanistan and the bomber was an Afghan citizen.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan enjoy a drink in a restaurant, Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the Tourmalet pass, in the Pyrenees mountains. French president is hosting China's leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees for private meetings, after a high-stakes state visit in Paris dominated by trade disputes and Russia's war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)

Chinese leader Xi visits the French Pyrenees in a personal gesture by Macron

France’s president has hosted China’s leader at a remote mountain pass in the Pyrenees for private meetings.

Veterans watch a parade commemorating the victory of Dien Bien Phu battle in Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Vietnam is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, where the French army was defeated by Vietnamese troops, ending the French colonial rule in Vietnam. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Vietnam celebrates 70 years since Dien Bien Phu battle that ended French colonial rule

Vietnam has started commemorations for the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu battle in which the French colonial army was defeated by Vietnamese troops.

A knife attack at a Chinese hospital kills 2 people and injures 21. The motive is unclear

A knife attack at a hospital in southwestern China has killed two people and injured 21 others. No motive was given for Tuesday’s attack at Zhenxiong County People’s Hospital in Yunnan province.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, shows the indelible ink mark on his index finger after casting his vote during the third phase of general elections, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

India votes in third phase of national elections as Modi escalates his rhetoric against Muslims

Millions of Indians across 93 constituencies are voting as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mounted an increasingly shrill election campaign, ramping up polarizing rhetoric against Muslims.

Workers stick a Chinese national flag on a billboard in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to European ally Serbia on Tuesday falls on a symbolic date: the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO's air war over Kosovo. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Xi begins Serbia visit on the 25th anniversary of NATO’s bombing of the Chinese Embassy

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to European ally Serbia falls on a symbolic date: the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy during NATO’s air war over Kosovo.

A boy holds a placard at a rally for Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party leader and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state, M. K. Stalin, in the southern Indian city of Chennai, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Why voters in southern India are more resistant to Modi’s Hindu-centric politics

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has exercised near-total control over Indian politics since coming to power 10 years ago, with one exception: He has failed to win over the country’s wealthier southern region.

The photos of the foreign surfers who disappeared are placed on the beach in Ensenada, Mexico, Sunday, May 5, 2024. Mexican authorities said Friday that three bodies were recovered in an area of Baja California near where two Australians and an American went missing last weekend during an apparent camping and surfing trip. (AP Photo/Karen Castaneda)

How a beach trip in Mexico’s Baja California turned deadly for surfers from Australia and the US

Two Australians and an American were doing what they loved on the stunning, largely isolated stretch of Baja California’s Pacific coast.

Powerful ethnic armed group in western Myanmar claims to capture base and hundreds of soldiers

A powerful ethnic armed group battling Myanmar’s army in the country’s west claims it took hundreds of government soldiers prisoner when it captured a major command post.

Bangladeshi students wave Palestinian flags, as they march during a pro- Palestinian demonstration at the Dhaka University area in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/ Mahmud Hossain Opu )

Activists in Bangladesh march through universities to demand end to Israel-Hamas war

Thousands of activists in Bangladesh backed by the ruling party’s student wing have demonstrated in the nation’s capital and elsewhere to demand an end to the Israel-Hamas war and the establishment of an independent Palestine state.

U.S. Army CH-47s takes off at Paredes Air Station at Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte province as it carries the U.S. and Philippine troops during a joint military exercise in northern Philippines on Monday, May 6, 2024. American and Filipino marines held annual combat-readiness exercises called Balikatan, Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder, in a show of allied battle readiness in the Philippines' northernmost island town of Itbayat along the strategic Bashi Channel off southern Taiwan. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

US and Philippine forces stage combat drills near strategic channel off southern Taiwan

U.S. Marines and their Filipino counterparts have staged joint combat drills on the Philippines’ northernmost island along the strategic Bashi Channel off southern Taiwan, a flashpoint in the Washington-Beijing military rivalry.

Wu Jianmin speaks during an interview with the Associated Press, Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Washington. American officials say foreign countries like Iran and China intimidate, harass and sometimes plot violence against political opponents and activists in the U.S. Jianmin, a former student leader in China’s 1989 pro-democracy movement, was targeted in 2020 by a group of protesters outside his home in Irvine, Calif. The harassment lasted more than two months. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

As China and Iran hunt for dissidents in the US, the FBI is racing to counter the threat

American officials say foreign countries including China and Iran intimidate, harass and sometimes plot attacks against political opponents and activists in the U.S.

FILE - A Qantas Boeing 737 passenger plane takes off from Sydney Airport, Australia, on Sept. 5, 2022. Qantas Airways agreed to pay 120 million Australian dollars ($79 million) in compensation and fines for selling tickets on thousands of cancelled flights, the airline and Australia’s consumer watchdog said on Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

Qantas agrees to pay $79 million in compensation and a fine for selling seats on canceled flights

Qantas Airways has agreed to pay $79 million in compensation and a fine for selling tickets on thousands of cancelled flights.

This image from a video, shows a parking lot where an incident occurred in Perth, Australia Sunday, May 5, 2024. A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation via AP)

Boy shot dead after Perth stabbing was in deradicalization program, but no ties seen to Sydney teens

Authorities say a 16-year-old boy who was shot dead by police after stabbing a man in western Australia had been in a deradicalization program for two years but had no ties to an alleged network of teen extremists in Sydney.

In this image from a video, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook speaks at a press conference in Perth, Australia Sunday, May 5, 2024. A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said Sunday. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation via AP)

Australian police shoot dead a boy, 16, armed with a knife after he stabbed a man in Perth

Australian officials say a 16-year-old boy armed with a knife has been shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the west coast city of Perth.

Juro Kara speaks during a press conference in Osaka, western Japan in March, 2005 after he was appointed as a guest professor at a university. The playwright, director and troupe leader died late Saturday from a blood clot in the brain after he collapsed at home and was rushed to a Tokyo hospital on May 1, his theater group Karagumi said in a statement on Sunday, May 5, 2024. He was 84. (Kyodo News via AP)

Juro Kara, rebel playwright behind Japan’s modern underground theater, dies at 84

Juro Kara, who helped shape Japan’s postwar avant-garde theater, defiantly yet playfully transforming the essence of Kabuki aesthetics into modern storytelling, has died.

FILE - President Joe Biden arrives on Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday, April 30, 2024.. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Japan and India reject Biden’s comments describing them as xenophobic countries

Japan and India have decried remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden describing them as “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants while he was speaking during a campaign fundraising event earlier in the week.

Afghanistan’s only female diplomat resigns in India after gold smuggling allegations

An Afghan diplomat in India who was appointed before the Taliban seized power in 2021 and says she was the only woman in the country’s diplomatic service has resigned.

Youngsters wade through a flooded street caused by heavy rain in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, April 15, 2024. Lightening and heavy rains killed dozens of people, mostly farmers, across Pakistan in the past three days, officials said Monday, as authorities declared a state of emergency in the country's southwest following an overnight rainfall to avoid any further casualties and damages. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

Pakistan records its wettest April since 1961 with above average rainfall

Pakistan’s national weather center says the country has recorded its wettest April since 1961. The weather service said on Friday that the extreme weather last month killed scores of people and destroyed property and farmland.

Parking attendant Andy Tinto uses laundry clips to put a blue towel over his cap to protect himself from the sun in Manila, Philippines on Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

South and Southeast Asian countries cope with a weekslong heat wave

South and Southeast Asian countries have been coping with a weekslong heat wave rendering record high temperatures that have posed a severe health risk.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shake hands for the media during a meeting at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, May 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)

Brazil’s Lula invites Japan’s prime minister to eat his country’s beef, and become a believer

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has welcomed Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on his first visit to the country, with the two meeting in Brasilia and the South American leader pushing his counterpart to buy his beef.

FILE - A banner that shows the late Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar is displayed outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib in Surrey, British Columbia, Sept. 18, 2023, where he was gunned down in his vehicle while leaving the temple parking lot. Canadian police said Friday, May 3, 2024, that they have made three arrests in the June slaying. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Canadian police make 3 arrests in Sikh separatist’s slaying that sparked a spat with India

Canadian police say they arrested three suspects in the slaying of a Sikh separatist leader last June that became the center of a diplomatic spat with India, and are investigating possible ties between the detainees and the Indian government.

FILE - Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4, left, is hit by two Chinese coast guard water canons as they tried to enter the Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, in the disputed South China Sea on March 5, 2024. For the first time, China has publicized what it claims is an unwritten 2016 agreement with the Philippines over access to South China Sea islands. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

China publicizes for the first time what it claims is a 2016 agreement with Philippines

China has publicized for the first time what it claims is an unwritten 2016 agreement with the Philippines over access to South China Sea islands.

Improvised explosive kills three and wounds seven in Pakistan’s southwest Baluchistan province

Pakistani police say a blast from an improvised explosive device has killed three people and wounded seven in southwestern Baluchistan province.

FILE - Supporters of NagaWorld's union leader Chhim Sithar hold a protest in front of Phnom Penh Municipal Court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on May 25, 2023. Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Friday May 3, 2024 upheld the two-year prison sentence of a labor union leader who led a long-running strike against the country’s biggest casino. Chhim Sithar, president of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld, had originally been convicted in May 2023 of incitement to commit a felony. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, File)

Cambodia’s Supreme Court upholds the 2-year prison sentence of a casino strike leader

Cambodia’s Supreme Court has upheld the two-year prison sentence of a labor union leader who led a long-running strike against the country’s biggest casino.