Azar meets with Taiwan President Tsai on breakthrough visit

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday during the highest-level visit by an American Cabinet official since the break in formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei in 1979. Tsai said to reporters at the...

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under security law

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raided the publisher's headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. “Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at...

The Latest: China sees drop in new locally transmitted cases

BEIJING — New locally transmitted cases of coronavirus in China fell to just 14 over the past 24 hours, the National Health Commission reported Monday. The low figure was offset, however, by 35 cases brought into the country by Chinese travelers from overseas arriving in seven different cities and...

Japan's legacy of forced labor haunts ties with neighbors

TOKYO (AP) — For years, Yeom Chan-soon was haunted by the cracking sound of a leather belt eating into the flesh of a fellow Korean mine worker being punished for trying to escape from forced labor in Japan. That dark chapter in Japan’s history, when hundreds of thousands of people were brought...

Asia Today: Melbourne deaths rise at aged-care facilities

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia has reported fewer new daily cases from its virus hotspot in the city of Melbourne than on any single day since last month. But it has also reported the nation’s highest daily death total since the virus outbreak began. The state of Victoria reported 322 new infections and...

Aide says Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

Pelosi says election threats from Russia, China aren't equal

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday the threats of interference in the U.S. presidential election from Russia and China are not equal, pointing to a more serious risk with Moscow's efforts to boost President Donald Trump’s reelection bid. “They’re not...

Mauritius races to contain oil spill, protect coastline

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Thousands of students, environmental activists and residents of Mauritius were working around the clock Sunday, trying to reduce the damage to the Indian Ocean island from an oil spill after a ship ran aground on a coral reef. An estimated 1 ton of oil from the Japanese ship's cargo of...

Azar leads highest-level US delegation to Taiwan in decades

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar arrived in Taiwan on Sunday in the highest-level visit by an American Cabinet official since the break in formal diplomatic relations between Washington and Taipei in 1979. Beijing has already protested Azar’s visit as a...

Nagasaki urges nuke ban on 75th anniversary of US A-bombing

TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Sunday marked its 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing, with the mayor and dwindling survivors urging world leaders including their own to do more for a nuclear weapons ban. At 11:02 a.m., the moment the B-29 bomber Bockscar dropped a 4.5-ton...