China

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Manila, Philippines — China’s actions in the South China Sea are “patently illegal,” the Philippines’ defense secretary said Monday following a clash in disputed waters on Sunday over what Manila said was a resupply mission for fishermen. “We have to expect these kinds of behavior from China because this is a struggle. We have to be ready to anticipate and to get used to these kinds …

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Seoul, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a performance test of drones developed in the country, state media KCNA said Monday. On Saturday, Kim visited the Drone Institute of North Korea’s Academy of Defense Sciences — and viewed a successful test of drones correctly identifying and destroying designated targets after flying along different preset routes, KCNA said. Kim called for the production …

Karbala, Iraq — More than 21 million Shiite Muslims took part in the Arbaeen pilgrimage in Iraq this year, which reached its peak Sunday with attendees displaying their support for Gaza.    Arbaeen, which means forty in Arabic, marks the 40th day of mourning for the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and a founding figure in Shiite Islam. It is one …

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Israel and Hezbollah traded cross-border fire Sunday marking the heaviest exchanges in months. Israel’s military also hit Hamas targets in Gaza, all ahead of cease-fire talks in Egypt. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports. …

TERNATE ISLAND, Indonesia — Torrential rains caused a flash flood on Indonesia’s eastern Ternate Island, sweeping away residential areas and leaving 13 people dead on Sunday, officials said.  The deluges cut off the main road and access to the village of Rua in North Maluku province, the hardest hit area, and buried dozens of houses and buildings under the mud. Search and rescue teams worked with …

BANGKOK — Thirteen people including a Russian couple died in a mudslide on the Thai resort island of Phuket, the authorities said Sunday, after calling off a search for missing persons.    Heavy rains last week set off the mudslides near the Big Buddha, a popular tourist destination in the south of the country, said Phuket Governor Sophon Suwannarat.    Besides the Russians, nine of the dead were …

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who live in sprawling camps in Bangladesh on Sunday marked the seventh anniversary of their mass exodus, demanding safe return to Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The refugees gathered in an open field at Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar district carrying banners and festoons reading “Hope is Home” and “We Rohingya are the citizens of Myanmar,” …

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani Minister for Power Awais Leghari says contracts with Chinese power producers that built and run power plants in Pakistan need to be revised. “I think the terms and conditions that we already have with the Chinese as far as their IPPs [independent power producers] are concerned, they need another look,” Leghari told VOA in an interview this week. The power projects, set up …

JERUSALEM — Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon early Sunday in what it said was a preemptive strike on Hezbollah, as the militant group said it had launched hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the killing of one of its top commanders last month. The heavy exchange of fire threatened to trigger an all-out war that could draw in the United States, …

sydney, australia — Four people — including a police officer — were injured on Sunday in a mass stabbing in Sydney, Australia, police said. It was the latest in a series of stabbing attacks in the city this year.  Police said in a statement on Sunday morning that four people were “injured following a crash and suspected stabbing a short time ago.”  “There is definitely an …

Sulaimaniyah, Iraq — Several dozen demonstrators gathered Saturday in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region to protest a drone strike that officials blame on Turkey, which killed two women journalists working for outlets funded by Kurdish militants.   The Friday bombing killed Gulistan Tara, 40, a Kurdish journalist from Turkey and Hero Bahadin, 27, an Iraqi-Kurdish video editor, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Another person …

CAIRO/JERUSALEM — Gaza cease-fire and hostage negotiators discussed new compromise proposals in Cairo on Saturday, seeking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas, but there was no indication of progress after hours of talks.  “The talks in Cairo didn’t make any progress. Israel is insisting to keep eight positions along the Philadelphi corridor,” one Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters, asking not to …

BEIJING — Heavy rainstorms that swept through a city in northeast China this week killed 11 people and left 14 others missing, while causing more than $1 billion in damages, state media reported Friday.  State broadcaster CCTV said an officer who was trying to save lives was one of the people who died in the city of Huludao in Liaoning province. Rescuers were still trying to …

KARBALA, Iraq — Millions of Shiite Muslims packed the streets of the Iraqi city of Karbala Saturday on their annual pilgrim to mark the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, who became a symbol of resistance when he refused to pledge allegiance to the Umayyad caliphate, leading to his death in battle during the tumultuous first century of Islam’s history.  Tahseen Al-Khafaji, head of the Iraqi …

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Fires broke out Friday on a Greek-flagged oil tanker previously attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels this week, with the vessel now appearing to be adrift in the Red Sea, authorities said. It wasn’t immediately clear what had happened to the oil tanker Sounion, which had been abandoned by its crew on Thursday and reportedly anchored in place. The Houthis didn’t immediately …

CAIRO — A Hamas delegation headed by its senior official Khalil al-Hayya will arrive in Cairo on Saturday to hear from mediators on the latest round of Gaza cease-fire talks that took place in the Egyptian capital, the Palestinian group said in a statement. Two Egyptian security sources said that U.S. and Israeli delegations started a new round of meetings Thursday in Cairo that lasted for …

CAIRO — At least three dozen Palestinians were killed in multiple Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip, officials said Saturday, even as preparations moved ahead for high-level cease-fire talks in Egypt. Among the dead were 11 members of the same family, including two children, when an Israeli airstrike hit their home in the city of Khan Younis early Saturday, according to Nasser Hospital, where the …

sydney — An Australian court ruled Friday that removing a transgender woman from female-only social networking platform Giggle for Girls constituted discrimination, in a landmark decision on gender identity for the country.  Roxanne Tickle in 2022 sued the Australian app and founder Sally Grover for unlawful gender identity discrimination in its services, saying Grover revoked Tickle’s account after seeing her photo and “considered her to be …

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Jakarta, indonesia — Thousands of people rallied in several cities in Indonesia on Friday, pressuring its election commission to issue rules for regional voting amid outrage over an attempt by parliamentary allies of President Joko Widodo to change them in their favor.  The protests followed a day of demonstrations in which 301 people were detained and tear gas and water cannons used to disperse angry crowds …

BANGKOK — Press freedom in Hong Kong is at its lowest level in at least 11 years, according to the latest survey of its members and the public by the Hong Kong Journalists Association. One of the biggest factors in that decline is the introduction this year of Article 23, which penalizes anything deemed as sedition or external interference, the association, known as the HKJA, found. …