Top Asian News 3:40 a.m. GMT

Rescuers search for people out of contact in Taiwan after strong earthquake

HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — Rescuers searched for dozens of people out of contact Thursday a day after Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in a quarter century damaged buildings, caused multiple rockslides and killed nine people. In the eastern coastal city of Hualien near the epicenter, workers used an excavator to put construction materials around the base of a damaged building to stabilize it and prevent a collapse. Mayor Hsu Chen-wei previously said 48 residential buildings were damaged. Some of the damaged buildings tilted at precarious angles with their ground floors crushed. More than 1,000 people were injured in the quake that struck Wednesday morning.

Why is Taiwan so exposed to earthquakes and so well prepared to withstand them?

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan was struck Wednesday by its most powerful earthquake in a quarter of a century. At least nine people were killed and hundreds injured, buildings and highways damaged and dozens of workers at quarries stranded. Taiwan is no stranger to powerful earthquakes yet their toll on the high-tech island’s 23 million residents has been relatively contained thanks to its excellent earthquake preparedness, experts say. Here is a closer look at Taiwan’s history of earthquakes: Taiwan lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.

A fire in a tailoring shop in India kills 7, including children

NEW DELHI (AP) — A fire in a tailoring shop on Wednesday killed seven people, including two children, in the Indian city of Aurangabad, police said. The blaze created panic in part of the business district of the city in Maharashtra state. Authorities suspect that the deaths occurred due to smoke inhalation, the New Delhi Television cited city police chief Manoj Lohiya as saying. Authorities were investigating the cause of the fire in the city nearly 340 kilometers (210 miles) northeast of Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital. Fires are common in India, where builders and residents often flout building laws and safety codes.

Thailand has a plan to contain the monkey mayhem in the popular tourist town of Lopburi

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai wildlife officials laid out a plan on Wednesday to bring peace to a central Thai city after at least a decade of human-monkey conflict. The macaques that roam Lopburi are a symbol of local culture, and a major tourist draw. But after years of dangerous encounters with residents and visitors and several failed attempts to bring peace with population controls, local people and businesses have had enough. The monkeys frequently try to snatch food from humans, sometimes resulting in tussles that can leave people with scratches and other injuries. But outrage grew in March when a woman dislocated her knee after a monkey pulled her off her feet in an effort to grab food, and another man was knocked off a motorcycle by a hungry monkey.

Thailand’s Constitutional Court says it will rule on whether to dissolve popular Move Forward party

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday said it will rule on whether to dissolve the political party that won the most seats in last year’s election for allegedly violating the constitution by proposing to amend a law against defaming the country’s royal family. The court said it had accepted a petition from the state Election Commission to hear the case against the Move Forward party after finding there was enough evidence, and instructed the party to submit evidence on its own behalf within 15 days. It said the petition requested the party’s dissolution and a 10-year ban on political activity by the party’s executives.

North Korea says it tested a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile that’s easier to hide

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday it had tested a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile powered with solid propellants, extending a run of weapons tests that’s deepening a nuclear standoff with neighbors and the United States. With the supposed success of the demonstration, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared his country had acquired the ability to build solid-fuel, nuclear-capable missiles of all ranges as he pursues an arsenal that can credibly threaten rivals in Asia and the United States. But the South Korean military said the North is exaggerating the success of the test and its overall missile prowess.

South Koreans bid emotional farewell to beloved panda leaving for China

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A crowd of people, some weeping, gathered at a rain-soaked amusement park in South Korea to bid farewell to a beloved giant panda before her departure to China on Wednesday. Fu Bao has been a major attraction at the Everland theme park near Seoul since she was born there in 2020 to pandas Ai Bao and Le Bao, who came from China in 2016 on a 15-year lease program. China sends pandas abroad as a sign of goodwill but maintains ownership over the animals and their cubs. Decades of conservation efforts in the wild and study in captivity saved the species from extinction, increasing its population from fewer than 1,000 at one time to more than 1,800 in the wild and in captivity.

Indonesian president-elect vows to further strengthen ties with Japan after visiting China

TOKYO (AP) — Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto said he wants to “further strengthen” relations with Japan as he met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday on the heels of a visit to China. Subianto, who’s currently defense minister, told Kishida that the two countries are longtime friends who have built a cooperative relationship, and that he hoped to further strengthen the relationship. Japan has been seeking closer ties with Southeast Asian countries, especially in maritime security and defense, in the face of China’s increasingly assertive military presence. Subianto, who will succeed Joko Widodo in October, chose Beijing for his first official overseas trip after his February election victory in a bid to emphasize steady ties with China amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, where China and the Philippines have had repeated high-seas confrontations.

Violent storms kill 7 people in eastern China including 3 who fell from their apartments

BEIJING (AP) — Violent rain and hailstorms have killed seven people in eastern China’s Jiangxi province this week, including three people who fell from their apartments in a high-rise building. Dozens of homes were severely damaged by the storms, which started Sunday, and more than 800 people have been resettled, state broadcaster CCTV said Wednesday, citing a Jiangxi government emergency agency. Four people died on Sunday in Nanchang, the provincial capital. It wasn’t clear from the report when or where the other three died, but another violent storm on Tuesday left people trapped in a collapsed house in the same city.

AP PHOTOS: 10 years after her killing, Anja Niedringhaus’ images speak for her

If she had lived, there would have been so many more photos. Anja could have gone to Kabul for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal, and to war-shattered Ukraine after the Russian invasion. She would have been at the Olympics, and at center court at Wimbledon. She would have been at all the places where compassionate photographers with trained eyes make it their business to be. But on April 4, 2014, outside a heavily guarded government compound in eastern Afghanistan, Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus was killed by an Afghan police officer as she sat in her car. She was 48 years old.