Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Morning Edition

HONG KONG (AP) - China's economy expanded at a 5% annual pace in 2025, buoyed by strong exports despite U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. However, growth slowed to a 4.5% rate in the last quarter of the year, the government said Monday. That was the slowest quarterly growth since late 2022, when China was beginning to loosen stringent COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The economy, the world's second largest, grew at a 4.8% annual pace in the previous quarter. China's leaders have been trying to spur faster growth after a slump in the property market and disruptions from the pandemic rippled through the economy.

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - The death toll from a massive fire at a shopping plaza in Karachi rose to 23 on Monday as rescuers recovered more bodies from the badly damaged building, police said. Dozens remain missing. Firefighters extinguished the blaze at the multistory plaza late Sunday, nearly 24 hours after it erupted, allowing rescue teams to enter the building. Authorities fear the death toll will rise as they look for 46 more people, according to city police chief Asad Raza. Raza told The Associated Press on Monday that only six bodies have been identified so far. The rest will need DNA testing as the "bodies were beyond recognition," police surgeon, Dr.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An explosion at a restaurant in downtown Kabul on Monday killed at least seven people and wounded about a dozen more, according to police and an Italian charity running a surgical unit in the city. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. The explosion occurred in a Chinese restaurant in the Shahr-e-Naw district of the Afghan capital, according to Kabul police command spokesman Khalid Zadran. He said the restaurant was jointly owned by an Afghan man, a Chinese national and his wife. The restaurant was popular with Chinese Muslims, Zadran said, adding that one Chinese national and six Afghans were killed and several others were wounded.

BANGKOK (AP) - How do you persuade a population to have more babies after generations of limiting families to just one? A decade after ending China's longtime one-child policy, the country's authorities are pushing a range of ideas and policies to try to encourage more births - tactics that range from cash subsidies to taxing condoms to eliminating a tax on matchmakers and day care centers. The efforts haven't paid off yet. At least, that's what population figures released Monday show for what is now the world's second-most populous nation. China's population of 1.4 billion continued to shrink, marking the fourth straight year of decrease, new government statistics show.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnam's most important political conclave began Monday, as the ruling Communist Party convened to decide the country's leadership and broad policy course for the next five years. A total of 1,586 delegates from across Vietnam gathered in the capital, Hanoi, for the National Congress, the party's highest decision-making body, which meets every five years to elect its top leadership and set priorities shaping the country's political and economic direction. Delegates will elect about 200 members to the party's Central Committee, which in turn appoints 17 to 19 members to the powerful Politburo in a tightly choreographed process.

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese police have detained those in charge of a steel factory in the Inner Mongolia region after an explosion killed four people and left 84 others hospitalized, state media said. The death toll rose to four during the day Monday as rescuers searched for the missing. State broadcaster CCTV said six more people remained unaccounted-for. The 3 p.m. blast at a Baogang United Steel plant in the city of Baotou on Sunday caused tremors in the surrounding area and sent a massive cloud of white smoke skyward. A pressurized storage tank designed to hold steam and high-temperature water exploded, city officials said.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Novak Djokovic had the big stage and a list of milestones that he needed to celebrate with his 100th win at the Australian Open. He delivered the kind of performance that showed his rivals and his fans he's here with a single objective: a 25th Grand Slam title. The 38-year-old Djokovic equaled two all-time tennis records by starting his 21st Australian Open and his 81st Grand Slam event, and he added another milestone Monday night with his 100th win at Melbourne Park. He already owns so many tennis records, but he really liked the sound of this one.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced Monday the discovery of a new natural gas deposit near the disputed South China Sea, which could shield his country from a potential power crisis. The "significant discovery" northwest off Palawan province, close to an existing gas field in waters adjacent to the critical waterway, could eventually supply power to more than 5.7 million households or nearly 200,000 schools for a year, Marcos said, adding further tests and another drilling in the area would be done "to pursue more potential gas resources." The undersea reservoir is estimated to contain about 98 billion cubic feet (2.7 billion cubic meters) of gas.

NEW DELHI (AP) - India and the UAE finalised a series of agreements on Monday, hoping to double bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2032. The United Arab Emirates president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital as part of a visit aimed at bolstering bilateral and strategic partnership. The meeting largely focused on strengthening cooperation across trade, energy, defense and emerging technologies, India's foreign secretary Vikram Misri told reporters, reaffirming the comprehensive strategic ties that has expanded over the past decade. India and UAE have emerged as major economic partners in recent years.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Four gunmen who crossed from Afghanistan into neighboring Tajikistan were killed in a skirmish with border guards overnight, Tajikistan's National Security Committee said Monday. It was the second violent incident since November along the border between the two countries. The Tajik border guards spotted the gunmen near a village close to the border with Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, the committee said in a statement. It added that the four men refused an order to surrender and offered armed resistance, and were killed in the ensuing skirmish. The committee described the men as "members of a terrorist organization," but did not offer details.