AP Week in Pictures: Asia

The Sydney Opera House is illuminated with a black ribbon Monday, April 15, 2024, as part of the national day of mourning following the stabbing deaths of several people at a shopping mall on April 13. Australian police are examining why a lone assailant who stabbed several people to death in a busy Sydney shopping mall and injured more than a dozen others targeted women while avoiding men. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre, where several people were stabbed, in Sydney, Saturday, April 13, 2024. A man stabbed multiple people to death at the busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, police said. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Lightning illuminates the sky behind the gunner on a Thai military armored vehicle, as he keeps watch along the Moei river, under the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Mae Sot in Thailand’s Tak province on Friday, April 12, 2024. Thailand’s foreign minister on Friday said he has urged Myanmar’s military authorities not to violently respond to its army’s loss of an important border trading town to its opponents, and that so far it seems to be exercising restraint. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A person sits near cherry blossoms in full bloom at a park in the Roppongi district Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Tokyo. Japan’s famed cherry blossoms are blooming later than expected in the capital because of cold weather. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A worker sprays water onto the statue of King Sejong for a spring cleaning at the Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. King Sejong, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), created the Korean alphabet, Hangul, in 1446. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Polling officials carry Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) across a dried riverbed of Brahmaputra on the eve of the national election at Baghmora Chapori (small island) of Majuli, about 350km (218 miles) east of the state capital Guwahati, India, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

A motorcyclist drives over the shadow of train tracks in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Thailand, Cambodia and other countries in this region are celebrating with their annual water festivals as they also suffer through the global heat wave. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A couple react as a bucket of water is splashed on them during the Songkran water festival to celebrate the Thai New Year in Prachinburi Province, Thailand, Saturday, April 13, 2024. It’s the time of year when many Southeast Asian countries hold nationwide water festivals to beat the seasonal heat, as celebrants splash friends, family and strangers alike in often raucous celebration to mark the traditional Theravada Buddhist New Year. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

An elderly Tibetan stands on a tin roof as he waters potted plants placed below his retirement home’s windows in Dharamshala, India, Friday, April 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A Hindu devotee prostrates as others stand in a queue to offer prayers inside the historical Kali Temple, situated inside Bahu Fort, on the fifth day of the Navratri, or nine nights festival, in Jammu, India, Saturday, April.13, 2024. Navaratri lasts for nine days, with three days each devoted to the worship of the goddess of valor Durga, the goddess of wealth Lakshmi, and the goddess of knowledge Saraswati. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Visitors walk through azalea blossoms at Nezu Shrine on a mild spring day Monday, April 15, 2024, in Tokyo. In the Shinto beliefs, Nezu Shrine was built about 1900 years ago, and it’s considered one of the oldest shrines in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)