Top Asian News 3:57 a.m. GMT

French aircraft carrier stages combat drills with Filipinos in disputed sea and visits Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines on Sunday after holding combat drills with Filipino forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle docked on Friday at Subic Bay, a former U.S. Naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Filipino forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in the South China Sea, Philippine and French officials said.

South Korea requests to be excluded from Trump’s efforts to increase tariffs

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean officials have asked the Trump administration to exclude their country from U.S. plans to impose aggressive tariffs on trade partners, emphasizing that Seoul is already applying low duties on American products under the free trade agreement between the two nations. South Korea’s government on Friday said Deputy Trade Minister Park Jong-won made the request while traveling to Washington this week for meetings with unspecified officials from the White House, the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The South Korean Trade Ministry didn’t say what Park heard from the Americans.

Japan’s emperor marks his 65th birthday with a call to keep telling the tragedy of WWII to the young

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, marking his 65th birthday Sunday, stressed the importance of telling the tragedy of World War II to younger generations, pledging to contribute to efforts to promote the understanding of history and the determination for peace as the world this year observes the 80th anniversary of the war’s end. “As the memory of the war fades today, it is important that the tragic experiences and history are passed on to the generations who do not know the war,” Naruhito told a news conference in a pre-recorded comments released Sunday. Those who went through the ordeals during and after the war grew have grown older and it is difficult for younger generations to hear their firsthand stories, Naruhito said.

Rich in cash, Japan automaker Toyota builds a city to test futuristic mobility

SUSONO, Japan (AP) — Woven City near Mount Fuji is where Japanese automaker Toyota plans to test everyday living with robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous zero-emissions transportation. Daisuke Toyoda, an executive in charge of the project from the automaker’s founding family, stressed it’s not “a smart city.” “We’re making a test course for mobility so that’s a little bit different. We’re not a real estate developer,” he said Saturday during a tour of the facility, where the first phase of construction was completed. The Associated Press was the first foreign media to get a preview of the $10 billion Woven City.

A decades-old rocket-propelled grenade kills 2 toddlers who found it in the Cambodian countryside

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A rocket-propelled grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two cousins, a girl and a boy both 2 years old, when it blew up Saturday near their homes in rural northwestern Cambodia, officials said. The accident happened in Siem Reap province’s Svay Leu district, where there had been heavy fighting in the 1980s and 1990s between Cambodian government soldiers and rebel guerrillas from the communist Khmer Rouge. The group had been ousted from power in 1979. Muo Lisa and her male cousin, Thum Yen, lived in neighboring homes in the remote village of Kranhuong.

AP PHOTOS: Pilgrims make offerings to Hindu deities at a biennial festival in southern India

SURYAPET, India (AP) — Chants of “Om Linga, Om Linga” resonated as barefoot Hindu pilgrims, many balancing offering-filled baskets and clay pitchers on their heads, climbed more than 100 steps to a hilltop shrine in southern India. One family led a goat wearing a marigold garland around its neck. A burly man carrying two young children in his arms gripped a live chicken in his free hand while another man carried a goat across his shoulders. The animals were offered as sacrifices to Lingamanthula Swamy, believed to be a form of Lord Shiva, and his sister Choudamma, in return for prosperity and protection.

Yoon appears in 2 different South Korean courts while defending his martial law decree

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Shuttled around Seoul in a prison transport vehicle, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared in two different courts on Thursday, contesting his arrest on rebellion charges in one and fighting an effort to remove him from office in the other. Both cases — one on criminal charges, one an impeachment — are related to his brief imposition of martial law in December. Security was heightened at the Seoul Central District Court as the motorcade transporting Yoon arrived for a preliminary hearing that involved discussions of witnesses, proposed evidence and other preparations for his criminal trial.

Pakistan security forces kill 6 militants in a raid in the northwest

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Security forces in Pakistan acting on intelligence raided a militant hideout in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s northwest on Friday, triggering an intense shootout in which six militants were killed, the military said. The raid was carried out in Karak, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, the military said in a statement. An operation was underway to eliminate any other militants found there. The military provided no further details about the killed militants, but such operations are often conducted against the Pakistani Taliban, which are also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

AP Week in Pictures

Feb. 14-20, 2025 This photo gallery, curated by photo editor Subramoney Iyer, highlights some of the most compelling images worldwide made or published by The Associated Press in the past week. ___ Follow AP visual journalism: AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews X: http://twitter.com/AP_Images

Famed for Himalayan peaks and pristine lakes, Kashmir faces a water crisis amid dry weather

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — For days, people in the Himalayan region of Kashmir watched in agony as a famed ancient spring ran dry amid extreme dry weather conditions. It was the first time in living memory that the spring water had vanished. While the spring returned to life on Friday, replenished by fresh rain and snowfall, the locals are now discussing something they had long feared — that climate change and changing weather patterns could soon take a toll on Kashmir’s bodies of water that nurture its famed orchards and vast agricultural fields. Multiple springs and streams — including tributaries of the region’s main Jhelum River that cuts through the Kashmir Valley — have dried in Indian-controlled Kashmir, causing water shortages in recent weeks across the region known for its Himalayan peaks and pristine lakes.