MEXICO CITY (AP) - The latest on world reaction to the U.S. election (all times EST):
1:10 a.m.
A couple of Chinese participants at a U.S. Embassy event in Beijing say they'd welcome a Trump presidency, while another says he thinks the Republican candidate projects a flawed image of the United States.
Blogger Wang Yiming says he hopes Trump will win because the Republican Party has been typically more willing to demonstrate American leadership globally, and he hoped a Republican president would do more to encourage freedom of speech in China.
Wang says: "I think America has stagnated and Trump represents justice, the rule of law and personal freedom."
Lou Bin, a 43-year-old academic at a university in Beijing, says he didn't support either candidate but Trump didn't come across as much of a "gentleman." He says: "As president you want someone who represents the country's image."
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1 a.m.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says at this stage, it would appear that Donald Trump is most likely to claim the presidency.
Bishop told reporters in Canberra, Australia's capital, that her government is ready to work with whomever the American people, "in their wisdom," choose to be their president.
She says a U.S. presidential election is always a momentous occasion, and in this instance, "it has been a particularly bruising, divisive and hard-fought campaign."
She also says the new administration will face a number of challenges, including in Asia-Pacific, and Australia wants to work constructively with the new administration to ensure the continued presence and leadership of the United States in the region.
She calls the U.S. "our major security ally" and the largest foreign direct investor and the second-largest trading partner.
She says: "The United States is also the guarantor and defender of the rules-based international order that has underpinned so much of our economic and security issues. And interests."
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11:45 p.m.
Watching the results of the U.S. election at a New Zealand bar, 22-year-old student Sarah Pereira says she is looking forward to working as an intern in the U.S. Congress, but dreads the prospect of Donald Trump winning the presidency.
Pereira, a master's student in strategic studies, says she will leave for Washington this weekend after winning a scholarship to work for Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks.
She predicts the effects of a Trump on international relationships would be "catastrophic."
Pereira commented while attending an event hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Wellington.
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11:20 p.m.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told an aide that "the competition is closer than expected" in the U.S. election.
Aide Tateo Kawamura tells Japan's Kyodo News service that Abe is following the vote count in his office.
The Japanese government has remained neutral in public statements, but analysts on both sides of the Pacific have talked about a possible change in U.S. policy toward Japan and the rest of Asia if Republican candidate Donald Trump should win.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is reaffirming his government's commitment to the U.S.-Japan security alliance. He tells reporters that whoever is the next president, the Japan-U.S. alliance will remain the cornerstone of Japan-U.S. diplomacy.
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11 p.m.
Chinese state media outlets are casting the U.S. election as the embodiment of America's democracy in crisis in contrast to China's perceived stability under authoritarian rule.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency says the campaign has highlighted that, in its words, "the majority of Americans are rebelling against the U.S.'s political class and financial elites."
The official Communist Party newspaper People's Daily says in a commentary that the presidential election reveals an "ill democracy."
On Tuesday, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV ran man-on-the-street interviews with unidentified American voters in which they expressed disgust with the system and dissatisfaction with both candidates.
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10:45 p.m.
The Mexican peso has fallen sharply against the U.S. dollar as early returns show a tight race for the White House.
Financial research firm FactSet says the currency is currently trading at 20.45 to the dollar. The Bank of Mexico's interbank rate stood at 18.42 at the end of Tuesday's trading day.
The peso has closely tracked the U.S. presidential race during the campaign, hardening when Clinton's chances are seen as bullish and weakening when Donald Trump is seen as rising.
Financial analyst Gabriela Siller of Banco BASE issued a forecast Tuesday that a Trump victory could cause the peso to fall to 24 to the dollar next year and lead to a 3 percent economic contraction in Mexico.
Trump has threatened to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and vows to build a wall along the United States' southern border and force Mexico to pay for it.
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10:30 p.m.
Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, says this could be a historic U.S. election comparable to her father John F. Kennedy breaking a religious barrier in 1960 as the first Catholic president and Barack Obama become the first African American one in 2008.
That will be true if Hillary Clinton wins the race and becomes the first female U.S. president. In Kennedy's words, "This year is another chance to break a barrier with a woman on the top of a major party ticket for the first time."
Kennedy supported Obama in 2008 and, while she didn't support Clinton by name, she made clear that the Democratic candidate is her preference. She added: "I think we're going to get the president we deserve," she concluded.
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10:10 p.m.
U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus says "the world's most important relationship" between Beijing and Washington will remain stable regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.
Asked by a Chinese reporter about Trump's proposal for a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods imported in the U.S., Baucus says that "people say a lot of things in the heat of a campaign that are not quite as feasible as they think when they're elected."
Trump has also pledged to withdraw U.S. support for the Paris climate change agreement that was reached largely through hard negotiating with China.
Baucus says he doesn't believe the two countries would stop collaborating on issues already agreed to, including climate change, containing North Korea's nuclear ambitions and reaching a political settlement in Afghanistan.
In his words, "The issues are the same, the good faith is the same."
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10 p.m.
Chinese state media and government-backed commentators are continuing to signal Beijing's preference for a Donald Trump win in the U.S. presidential election.
Like Russia, China is seen as favoring Trump because he appears less willing to confront China's newly robust foreign policy, particularly in the South China Sea. Clinton, by contrast, is disliked in Beijing for having steered the U.S. "pivot" to Asia aimed at strengthening U.S. engagement with the region, particularly in the military sphere.
Writing in the Communist Party newspaper Global Times, scholar Mei Xinyu says: "From a comprehensive view, it would make it easier for China to cope if Trump is elected. This is because under the policy line advocated by Obama and Clinton, the political and military frictions between China and the U.S. will be more frequent."
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9:45 p.m.
Japanese are tweeting about their interest in the U.S. election, and retweeting developments, though not everyone is happy. One Twitter user complains: "The U.S. presidential election is the only thing I can see on any channel!"
Several major television stations have suspended their regular morning programming to cover the vote, with a running tally of results and explanations of the U.S. electoral vote system.
A dramatic sinkhole in Fukuoka city eclipsed the U.S. election on the front pages of Japan's major newspapers, but online editions and media such as Yahoo! Japan have launched special election pages.
The Nikkei economic newspaper calls it an "unprecedentedly heated U.S. presidential election."