Top Asia Pacific Breaking News Stories

HONG KONG (AP) – China’s military on Monday dispatched air, navy and missile units to conduct joint live-fire drills around the island of Taiwan, which Beijing called a “stern warning” against separatist and “external interference” forces. Taiwan said it was placing forces on alert and called the Chinese government “the biggest destroyer of peace.” Taiwan’s aviation authority said more than 100,000 international air travelers would be affected by flight cancellations or diversions. The drills came after Beijing expressed anger at what could be the largest-ever U.S. arms sale to the self-ruled territory, and at a statement by Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, saying its military could get involved if China takes action against Taiwan.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea said Monday it fired long-range strategic cruise missiles into the sea to test the country’s nuclear deterrence, days after it showed apparent progress in the construction of its first nuclear-powered submarine. Sunday’s launches were the latest weapons display by North Korea ahead of its planned ruling Workers’ Party congress early next year. Keen outside attention on the congress, the first of its kind in five years, will be on whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will establish new priorities in relations with the U.S. and respond to Washington’s calls to resume long-dormant talks.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday commuted to Cheong Wa Dae, the country’s traditional presidential palace, for the first time since taking office in June, more than three years after his ousted predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol moved the presidential office to the Defense Ministry compound. It was the first time a president had commuted to Cheong Wa Dae since May 9, 2022, the final day of former President Moon Jae-in’s term, before Yoon began his presidency working out of a converted Defense Ministry building. Following the relocation, Yoon opened parts of Cheong Wa Dae to the public as a tourist site, which drew millions of visitors.

HONG KONG (AP) – Foreign ministers from Cambodia and Thailand convened with their Chinese counterpart on Monday as the Beijing government, building on its expanding presence in global diplomacy, sought to play a stronger mediating role in the violent border dispute between the two Southeast Asian countries. The trilateral meeting, held in a southwestern Chinese province north of the contested border, came two days after Thailand and Cambodia signed a fresh ceasefire agreement to end weeks of fighting that killed more than 100 people and forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands on both sides of the border. “We haven’t resolved everything, but I think we are making progress in the right direction and we have to keep up the momentum,” Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow told reporters after the meeting in Yunnan province.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Families of victims of the recent Sydney massacre that targeted a Jewish festival released an open letter on Monday calling for more federal action to investigate a rise in antisemitism and the security failures behind Australia’s worst mass shooting in three decades. Two gunmen are accused of shooting 15 people dead and wounding another 40 in an attack on a Hannukah festival on Bondi Beach on Dec. 14. In an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, 17 families of the dead and wounded called for a federal inquiry known as a royal commission to investigate a rise in antisemitism in Australia since the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023 and consequent security agency failures.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – It is a soulful folk song, filled with feeling and history: A love-stricken young man tells God about his hopes and dreams of happiness. Generations of Uyghurs, the Turkic ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang region, have played it at parties and weddings. But today, if they download it, play it or share it online, they risk ending up in prison. “Besh pede,” a popular Uyghur folk ballad, is among dozens of Uyghur-language songs that have been deemed “problematic” by Xinjiang authorities, according to a recording of a meeting held by police and other local officials in the historic city of Kashgar last October.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Indonesian rescuers recovered the body of a female victim believed to be a member of the family of a Spanish soccer coach and his three children who went missing after a tour boat sank three days ago. The rescue team discovered the body just after dawn Monday, floating near the northern waters of Serai island, about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) from the site of the sinking. A local resident first spotted the body, said Fathur Rahman, the Maumere Search and Rescue Office chief. He said the body was transported to a hospital in Labuan Bajo, a gateway town to eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, for identification.

MANADO, Indonesia (AP) – A fire at an Indonesian retirement home killed 16 residents on Sunday evening, police said. The fire in the single-story house in Manado in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi Province started while the residents were asleep, police said Monday. Several people living near the nursing home saw smoke billowing around 8 p.m. Neighbors reportedly helped rescue several occupants. “The team on the ground has confirmed that the death toll currently is 16,” North Sulawesi police spokesperson Alamsyah Hasibuan said. “Fifteen of them were burned to death, while one victim’s body remains intact.” Firefighters with six trucks needed more than two hours to extinguish the blaze after nearby residents reported the fire to emergency services, officials said.

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) – Police in Pakistan detained a teenage girl who was radicalized and recruited online by an outlawed separatist group to carry out a “major suicide attack,” authorities said Monday. No criminal charges will be filed and she will be placed under state protection as “a victim rather than a suspect,” Sindh provincial Home Minister Ziaul Hassan said at a news conference. The girl was detained during a routine police check on buses as she traveled to Karachi, the Sindh province capital, from southwestern Balochistan province to meet a handler, Hassan said. The girl was targeted online by the Baloch Liberation Army, which was designated as a terrorist group by the United States earlier year.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Voters went to the polls Sunday for the initial phase of Myanmar’s first general election in five years, held under the supervision of its military government while a civil war rages throughout much of the country. Final results won’t be known until after two more rounds of voting are completed later in January. It’s widely expected that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who has governed Myanmar since an army takeover in 2021, will then assume the presidency. The military government has presented the vote as a return to democracy, but its bid for legitimacy is marred by the absence of formerly popular opposition parties and reports that soldiers used threats to force voters’ participation.