Top Asian News 3:51 a.m. GMT

India fires missiles on Pakistan. Islamabad calls it an ‘act of war’

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan said Wednesday it will avenge those killed by India’s missile strikes that New Delhi called retaliation for last month’s massacre of Indian tourists in India-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan called the strikes an act of war and claimed it downed several Indian fighter jets. The missiles killed 31 people, including women and children, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the country’s Punjab province, Pakistan’s military said. The strikes targeted at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned,” India’s Defense Ministry said. Two mosques were hit. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country would avenge the dead but gave no details, fanning fears of all-out conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals.

The Latest: India fires missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory after massacre of tourists

A deadly attack on tourists preceded India’s strikes on Pakistan. Here’s where the rivals stand

NEW DELHI (AP) — India and Pakistan have been scrambling resources both military and diplomatic to respond to a crisis triggered by a massacre in Indian-controlled Kashmir that for days have raised fears of a conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals. On Wednesday, Pakistani officials said India fired missiles that struck at least three locations inside Pakistani-controlled territory. India said it was striking infrastructure used by militants. India blames Pakistan for backing the gunmen behind the April 22 killing of 26 people, most of them Indian Hindu tourists, and has described it as a terror attack. Islamabad denies the charge. Both countries have expelled each other’s diplomats and nationals, as well as closed their borders and shuttered airspace.

South Korea says North Korea has fired several missiles toward its eastern waters

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Thursday fired various types of short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern sea, South Korea’s military said, adding to a run in military displays that raised animosities in the region. South Korean military officials were analyzing whether the tests were linked to the North’s weapons exports to Russia during its war in Ukraine. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said multiple missiles were launched from the area around the eastern port city of Wonsan from about 8:10 to 9:20 a.m., with the farthest traveling about 800 kilometers (497 miles). It didn’t immediately confirm the exact number of the missiles it detected.

India and Pakistan face a new crisis. Here’s a look at their history of armed conflict

NEW DELHI (AP) — India struck multiple sites inside Pakistani controlled territory early Wednesday, two weeks after a deadly attack on tourists in the disputed Kashmir plunged relations between the neighbors to new lows. India accused Pakistan of backing the massacre, in which 26 men, mostly Indian Hindus, were killed, a charge Pakistan denies. Soldiers on each side have exchanged fire along their de facto border since the killings, with each blaming the other for shooting first. Both countries expelled diplomats and citizens, ordered the border shut and closed their airspace for each other. Here’s a look at multiple conflicts between the two countries since their bloody partition in 1947: ___ 1947 — Months after British India is partitioned into a predominantly Hindu India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan, the two young nations fight their first war over control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, then a kingdom ruled by a Hindu monarch.

India fired missiles into Pakistan, which has vowed to strike back. A look at the nuclear rivals

ISLAMABAD (AP) — India has launched missiles into Pakistani territory in retaliation for a gun massacre on tourists in April. Pakistan’s leader condemned the strikes and vowed his country would deliver a robust response. The missile launch, and Pakistan’s promise to hit back, have stoked fears of a war between the nuclear-armed neighbors. But the early morning strikes show that India can hurt Pakistan without entering its airspace or deploying nuclear weapons. A look at what might lie ahead for the two rivals: India and Pakistan have built up nuclear arsenals over the years. But their purpose is to stop wars, not start them.

A man with a knife slashes 2 people at a Tokyo subway station and is arrested

TOKYO (AP) — A man with a knife slashed two passengers on a train stopping at a Tokyo subway station during the evening rush on Wednesday, and their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, Japanese police and media reported. The 43-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder, Tokyo’s metropolitan police said. The suspect’s motives and other details were not immediately known. The suspect slashed a man in his 20s in the head as he got on a subway car. A passenger in his 30s had his finger slashed while he and nearby passengers seized the attacker, Japan ‘s NHK television reported.

China rolls out more stimulus and agrees to trade talks with the US as tariffs hit economy

BEIJING (AP) — China announced a barrage of measures meant to counter the blow to its economy from U.S. President Donald Trump ’s trade war, as the two sides prepared for talks later this week. Beijing’s central bank governor and other top financial officials outlined plans Wednesday to cut interest rates and reduce bank reserve requirements to help free up more funding for lending. They also said the government would increase the amount of money available for factory upgrades and other innovation and for elder care and other service businesses. Trump’s tariffs, set as high as 145% on imports from China, have begun to take a toll on its export-dependent economy at a time when it’s already under pressure from a prolonged downturn in the property sector.

Australian PM Albanese to visit Indonesia in first overseas trip since re-election

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s newly re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday he would visit Indonesia next a week to underscore a key bilateral relationship. Albanese said he would meet with President Prabowo Subianto on May 14, a day after his new government is sworn in. “That is … a signal to our region of the importance that we place on this region. We will in the fastest growing region of the world in human history,” Albanese said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Albanese described Subianto as a “good friend of mine on a personal level as well as our countries being close.” “We have no more important relationship than Indonesia.

North Korean leader urges increased artillery shell production amid alignment with Russia

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for his munitions industry to boost the production of artillery shells, state media said Wednesday, as the country continues to supply arms and troops to support Russia’s war on Ukraine. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim, during recent visits to unspecified munitions and machinery factories, praised modernization efforts that the agency claimed enabled the facilities to double their annual shell production capacity. Kim urged workers to further accelerate artillery shell production, calling it crucial to “strengthening the fighting efficiency” of his armed forces, and also called for the development of more advanced machinery to boost munitions output.