Top Asian News 3:47 a.m. GMT

Australia’s re-elected prime minister says voters chose unity over division

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday was greeted by well-wishers at a Sydney café and said the country had voted for unity over division. Albanese’s center-left Labor Party won an emphatic victory in elections on Saturday. As vote counting continued, the government was on track to win at least 85 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, the lower chamber where parties need a majority to form an administration. Labor held 78 seats in the previous Parliament, and gaining seats in a second term is rare in Australian politics. “The Australian people voted for unity rather than division,” Albanese told reporters in the crowded café in the inner-suburban Leichhardt where he and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, gathered with colleagues and supporters for coffee.

Singapore’s long-ruling party wins another landslide in election boost for new prime minister

SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore’s long-ruling People’s Action Party won another landslide in Saturday’s general elections, extending its 66-year unbroken rule in a huge boost for Prime Minister Lawrence Wong who took power a year ago. The Election Department announced the PAP won 82 Parliamentary seats after vote counting ended. The party had earlier won five seats uncontested, giving it 87 out of a total 97 seats. The opposition Workers Party maintained its 10 seats. The PAP’s popular vote rose to 65.6%, up from a near-record low of 61% in 2020 polls. Jubilant supporters of the PAP, which had ruled Singapore since 1959, gathered in stadiums waved flags and cheered in celebration.

Pakistan test fires ballistic missile as tensions with India spike after Kashmir gun massacre

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan test fired a ballistic missile Saturday as tensions with India spiked over last month’s deadly attack on tourists in the disputed Kashmir region. The surface-to-surface missile has a range of 450 kilometers (about 280 miles), the Pakistani military said. There was no immediate comment about the launch from India, which blames Pakistan for the April 22 gun massacre in the resort town of Pahalgam, a charge Pakistan denies. Pakistan’s military said the launch of the Abdali Weapon System was aimed at ensuring the “operational readiness of troops and validating key technical parameters,” including the missile’s advanced navigation system and enhanced maneuverability features.

Driver of Ctour Holiday van involved in Idaho crash was licensed in California

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. (AP) — Idaho State Police said Saturday that the driver of the tour van involved in a deadly collision with a pickup truck was licensed in California and the company that organized the trip was Ctour Holiday LLC, a large tour operator that provides international travel services. The pickup truck driver and six people in the Mercedes van were killed in the crash, which occurred Thursday evening on U.S. Highway 20 near Henry’s Lake State Park in eastern Idaho as the tour group was headed to Yellowstone National Park. Police identified the pickup driver as 25-year-old Isaih Moreno of Humble, Texas.

AP PHOTOS: A school under a highway is a sanctuary for disadvantaged children in India

THANE, India (AP) — It’s early morning at a traffic intersection in Thane, a city on the outskirts of Mumbai, the bustling financial capital of India that’s home to more than 20 million people. The roads are already crowded with commuters, while engines and horns fill the air with noise that’s amplified by the highway overhead. About a dozen young children are forming little splashes of color on the gray tarmac as they cross a busy road helped by two men. They are arriving to attend an innovative school operated by the NGO Samarth Bharat Vyaspeeth, using shipping containers under the highway as classrooms.

How the democracy sausage, a polling day snack, became Australia’s election symbol

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Many Australians arriving at polling places on Saturday followed their civic duty by eating what’s become known as a democracy sausage, a cultural tradition as Aussie as koalas and Vegemite, and for some just as important as casting their vote. The grilled sausage wrapped in a slice of white bread and often topped with onions and ketchup is a regular fixture of Antipodean public life. But when offered at polling places on election day, the humble treat is elevated to a democracy sausage — a national, if light-heated, symbol for electoral participation. Or, as a website tracking real-time, crowd-sourced democracy sausage locations on polling day notes: “It’s practically part of the Australian Constitution.” But the tradition is far from political.

South Korea’s main conservative party nominates Kim Moon Soo as its presidential candidate

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Former Labor Minister and staunch conservative Kim Moon Soo won the presidential nomination of South Korea’s main conservative party, facing an uphill battle against liberal front-runner Lee Jae-myung for the June 3 election. Observers say Kim will likely try to align with other conservative forces, such as former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, to prevent a split in conservative votes and boost prospects for a conservative win against Lee. In a party primary that ended Saturday, Kim won 56.5% of the votes cast, beating his sole competitor, Han Dong-hun, the party said in a televised announcement. Other contenders have been eliminated in earlier rounds.

Worshipers stampede at a temple in western India, killing 6 and injuring dozens

NEW DELHI (AP) — At least six people are dead and dozens injured after a stampede at a religious gathering in the western Indian state of Goa early Saturday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The stampede broke out as thousands of devotees thronged narrow lanes leading to a temple in Shirgao village, some 40 kilometers from the state capital of Panaji, the agency quoted police as saying. Tens of thousands of devotees from Goa and neighboring states of Maharashtra and Karnataka attended the annual Hindu festival at Sree Lairai Devi temple. The stampede was caused as people standing on a slope near the temple fell over, pushing more people to fall onto each other, Director General of Police Alok Kumar said, according to the news agency.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has survived a volatile political era

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Anthony Albanese hopes to become the first Australian prime minister in 21 years to lead a political party to two consecutive election victories when the country votes on Saturday. The last was John Howard, who won a fourth consecutive term in 2004, making him the second-longest serving leader in Australia’s history. But when he was voted out three years later, it marked the beginning of a turbulent period in Australian politics with six prime ministers. “There’s a lot of undecided voters. We have a mountain to climb. No one’s been reelected since 2004,” Albanese told reporters Friday.

Peter Dutton, a former police detective who’s hawkish on China, is leading Australia’s conservatives

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton is a former police detective who gained a reputation during his years in government for his tough stance on border security and as a vocal critic of China. If he becomes prime minister at general elections on Saturday, it will be the first time since 1931 — amid the economic turmoil of the Great Depression — that an Australian government has been ousted after a single three-year term. A major factor in his success or failure is likely to be his pledge to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with nuclear power instead of the government’s reliance on renewable energy sources.