Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez vows to continue releasing prisoners detained under former President Nicolás Maduro. She made the remarks Wednesday during her first press briefing since Maduro was ousted by the United States earlier this month. Rodríguez served as Maduro's vice president since 2018, running Venezuela's feared intelligence service and managing its crucial oil industry. A 56-year-old lawyer and politician, Rodríguez was sworn in as interim president two days after the Trump administration snatched Maduro from his fortified compound and claimed the U.S. would be calling the shots in Venezuela. President Donald Trump said he held his first conversation with Rodriguez since Maduro's ouster and that "we're getting along very well with Venezuela."

Rescuers are using backhoes and sniffer dogs to look for survivors in collapsed houses and other damaged buildings in the central Philippines, a day after an earthquake killed at least 69 people. Officials say the death toll is expected to rise from the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that hit at about 10 p.m. Tuesday. The quake trapped an unspecified number of residents in the hard-hit city of Bogo and outlying rural towns in Cebu province. Army troops, police and civilian volunteers were deployed Wednesday to carry out house-to-house searches. Officials say intermittent rain and damaged bridges and roads have hampered the race to save lives.

Rescuers in Pakistan's Punjab province are racing to reach stranded families after heavy rain and water from overflowing dams in India caused major rivers to burst their banks. The floods have displaced nearly 250,000 people and affected than 1 million, with crops and businesses destroyed. At least 15 people were killed in Gujranwala district. Officials have set up relief and medical camps to deliver essential supplies. Floods have killed more than 800 people in Pakistan since late June. In Indian-controlled Kashmir, heavy rains have triggered flash floods and landslides, killing at least 115 people.

Torrential rainfall has left at least 34 people dead in Pakistan and India and triggered flash floods and landslides in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Over 210,000 people in Pakistan have been displaced, and the shrine of the founder of the Sikh religion has been submerged. Many of the dead were trekking on a popular Hindu pilgrimage route. Forecasters say rain will continue across the region this week. Heavy downpours and flash floods in the Himalayan region have killed nearly 100 people in August. Scientists say climate change is fueling heavier monsoon rains in South Asia.

Anguished Pakistanis are searching remote areas for bodies swept away by weekend flash floods as the death toll has reached 277. A senior official has replied to the lack of evacuation warnings by saying people should have built homes elsewhere. More than 150 people are still missing Monday in the mountainous district of Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after Friday's flash floods. A changing climate has made residents of northern Pakistan's river-carved mountainous areas more vulnerable to sudden, heavy rains. A government official says torrential rains triggered a flash flood that killed 15 people in northwestern Swabi district on Monday.

A provincial emergency service spokesperson says a massive cloudburst triggered flash floods in northwestern Pakistan and has killed at least 157 people, including women and children. Mohammad Suhail told The Associated Press on Friday that dozens of people were still missing, and rescue operations were underway. He said 78 bodies were recovered from various parts of Buner district by midday Friday, and another 79 were pulled from the rubble of collapsed homes and flooded villages later. The latest fatalities bring the total number of rain-related deaths to 556 since June 26, according to disaster management officials.

Flash floods triggered by pre-monsoon rains swept away dozens of tourists in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing at least eight people. The nationwide death toll from rain-related incidents rose to 18 over the past 24 hours, officials said. Nearly 100 rescuers are searching for missing tourists along the Swat River in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Rescuers have saved 58 people and recovered eight bodies so far. Heavy rains have caused widespread damage, with more rain expected this week.