CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia needs to spend more money on defense, make its own munitions and develop the ability to strike longer-range targets as China’s military buildup challenges regional security, according to a government-commissioned review released Monday. The Defense Strategic Review supports the so-called AUKUS partnership among Australia, United States and Britain, who in March announced an agreement to create an Australian fleet of eight submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government commissioned the review to assess whether Australia had the necessary defense capability, posture and preparedness to defend itself in the current strategic environment.
BANGKOK (AP) — Former U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is on a surprise visit to military-run Myanmar on behalf of a group of elder statesmen that engages in peace-making and human rights initiatives around the world, a South Korean diplomat said Monday. The arrival of Ban, the deputy chair of The Elders, in the capital Naypyitaw was announced Sunday night by state television MRTV. It said he arrived with a small delegation, and was greeted by the deputy ministers for defense and foreign affairs. “This visit by Mr. Ban Ki Moon was totally scheduled by The Elders. We are not engaged in this process,”″ said a South Korean Embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.
TOKYO (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Japan on Monday to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials as part of his four-nation trade mission seen as an attempt by the expected Republican presidential candidate to improve his diplomatic profile. During their meeting Monday at the Prime Minister’s Office, Kishida told DeSantis that reinforcement of Japan-U.S. ties is key to ensuring the peace, stability and prosperity of the international society, and the two exchanged views on regional issues, according to a Japanese Foreign Ministry statement. DeSantis is considered the biggest challenger to former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea formally restored Japan to its list of countries it gives preferential treatment in trade on Monday, three years after the neighbors downgraded each other’s trade status amid a diplomatic row fueled by historical grievances. In announcing the move through a government gazette, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy also said Seoul will further restrict technology and industrial exports to Russia and its ally Belarus to support the U.S.-led pressure campaign against Moscow over the war in Ukraine. After years of friction, Seoul and Tokyo are working to repair relations as they tighten their three-way security cooperation with Washington to counter the threat posed by North Korea.
HELSINKI (AP) — The three Baltic states have strongly condemned comments by China’s envoy to France, who appeared to suggest in a recent French television interview that former Soviet republics aren’t sovereign nations. The foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in separate announcements late Saturday deemed statements by Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to France, as unacceptable. In a recent interview with the French news channel LCI, he was asked if he thought that the Crimean Peninsula belongs to Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world denounced as illegal. “That depends … on how one perceives this problem,” the envoy told the broadcaster.
BANGKOK (AP) — A top election official in Myanmar was fatally shot in his car in Yangon, the country’s commercial capital, in the latest attack attributed to militants opposed to military rule. Sai Kyaw Thu, deputy director-general of the military-appointed Union Election Commission, was shot multiple times on Saturday, according to the military’s information office, media reports and a statement of responsibility from an urban guerrilla group. The information office on Sunday said the attack was carried out by the People’s Defense Force, the loosely organized armed wing of the pro-democracy National Unity Government, an underground group that opposes the military-installed government that was established when the army seized power two years ago.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian police on Sunday arrested a separatist leader who has revived calls for an independent Sikh homeland and the secession of India’s northern Punjab state, which has a history of violent insurgency. Amritpal Singh had been on the run since last month after capturing national attention in February, when hundreds of his supporters stormed a police station in Ajnala, a town in Punjab state, with wooden batons, swords and guns to demand the release of a jailed aide. Punjab state police tweeted Sunday that Singh was arrested in Moga, a town in the state. A Sikh religious leader, Jasbir Singh Rodde, said Singh surrendered after offering morning prayers at a Sikh shrine in Moga.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An Indian climber who was rescued after spending three days in a 300-meter (980-foot) -deep crevasse is recovering in a Kathmandu hospital but his condition is still critical, his family said Sunday. Anurag Maloo had fallen into the crevasse while descending Mount Annapurna, the world’s 10th highest, on April 17. After several attempts, he was rescued on Thursday. “He is under medical supervision, but doctors are saying he is slowing improving,” his younger brother, Ashish Maloo, told reporters, adding that he remains critical. He called the rescue and recovery “a miracle.” After he was plucked out of the crevasse, Maloo was flown to a hospital in the resort town of Pokhara.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A magnitude 7.1 quake struck in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean on Monday but did not appear to generate a tsunami. The quake struck near the Kermadec Islands about 900 kilometers (560 miles) northeast of New Zealand’s North Island at a depth of 49 kilometers (30 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake posed no threat to Hawaii and the wider Pacific. A localized potential for a tsunami passed without any confirmed impact. New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency said it was assessing whether the quake could affect New Zealand but gave its standard advice for people to move away from coastal areas if they felt a long or strong quake.
SYDNEY (AP) — A team of explorers announced it found a sunken Japanese ship that was transporting Allied prisoners of war when it was torpedoed off the coast of the Philippines in 1942, resulting in Australia’s largest maritime wartime loss with a total of 1,080 lives. The wreck of the Montevideo Maru was located after a 12-day search at a depth of over 4000 meter (13,120 feet) — deeper than the Titanic — off Luzon island in the South China Sea, using an autonomous underwater vehicle with in-built sonar. There will be no efforts to remove artifacts or human remains out of respect for the families of those who died, said a statement Saturday from the Sydney-based Silentworld Foundation, a not-for-profit dedicated to maritime archaeology and history.
