Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

WASHINGTON (AP) - In 2011, President Barack Obama declared it was time for America to leave behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and "pivot" to Asia to counter the rise of China. Fifteen years later, the U.S. finds itself still at war in the Middle East and has pulled military assets from the Asia-Pacific as it aims to eliminate the threat posed by Iran's nuclear and missile programs. The demands of the Iran war also caused President Donald Trump to delay by several weeks his highly anticipated trip to China, deepening worries that the U.S. is once again getting distracted at the cost of its strategic interests in Asia, where Beijing seeks to unseat the U.S.

BANGKOK (AP) - China said Sunday it would resume some ties it had suspended with Taiwan such as direct flights and imports of Taiwanese aquaculture products following a visit by the Beijing-friendly opposition leader of the self-ruled island. The Taiwan Work Office under China's Communist Party issued a statement saying it would explore setting up a longstanding communication mechanism between the Communist Party and Taiwan's Kuomingtang Party. It said it will facilitate the import of Taiwan's aquaculture products that it had previously banned. Cheng Li-wun, the head of the Kuomingtang, and China's President Xi Jinping held a high-profile meeting Friday during which they called for peace, without offering specifics.

NEW DELHI (AP) - Asha Bhosle, one of India's most versatile Bollywood singers whose performances shaped the country's musical memory and modern cinema, has died. She was 92. The legendary singer across genres died Sunday of multiple organ failure at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai, Pratit Samdani, a physician at the hospital said. Her son, Anand Bhosle, told reporters that her last rites will be performed on Monday. Asha was admitted at the hospital on late Saturday with a chest infection and exhaustion, her granddaughter Zanai Bhosle said in a social media post. Asha's timeless voice resonated across a film-obsessed India for nearly eight decades, recorded on about 12,000 songs.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un voiced support for China's push to build a "multipolar world" and called for deeper ties between the traditional allies during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, state media said Saturday. During the meeting Friday, Kim said his government will fully support Chinese efforts to achieve territorial integrity based on its "one-China principle," a reference to Beijing's official position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, according to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. Kim also outlined North Korea's position on unspecified regional and international issues of "mutual concern" and said sustained development of ties between the two countries has become more crucial in the current geopolitical environment, KCNA said.

BEIJING (AP) - The messaging from China's Communist government may once have been dogmatic and rigid - not anymore. Having largely tamed the internet at home with tight censorship, Beijing is now tapping the power of social media and artificial intelligence to tell its story - and often to skewer the U.S. and its president. In a five-minute AI-generated animation modeled after classic martial arts movies, China's state media frames out an allegory for the war in Iran. A white eagle in regal attire representing the U.S. unleashes an evil laugh before his army attacks a group of Persian cats draped in black cloaks standing in for Iranians, who vow to fight after losing their leader and close off a crucial trading route.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - The father of Denmark's Australian-born Queen Mary, John Donaldson, has died in Tasmania, the royal house in Copenhagen said Sunday. He was 84. Donaldson died in Hobart, a royal statement said, without giving further details. It said that his health had been declining over the past few years, and that the queen last visited him at the end of March. John Dalgleish Donaldson, born in Scotland on Sept. 5, 1941, was a professor of applied mathematics. Mary became Denmark's queen in January 2024 after two decades as crown princess when her husband became the Scandinavian country's monarch.

BANGKOK (AP) - Min Aung Hlaing, who as Myanmar 's military commander had led the Southeast Asian nation with an iron fist since seizing power from Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government in 2021, was sworn in as an elected president on Friday. His inauguration came after a general election judged by U.N. experts and rights groups to be neither free nor fair, with Suu Kyi's popular National League for Democracy party among many not taking part. He faces the major challenge of ending the civil war that began when Suu Kyi's ouster from power met with armed resistance. The transition back to a nominally democratic government is widely seen as an effort to keep the army in power behind a facade of civilian rule.

TIYAN, Guam (AP) - A typhoon in Micronesia is expected to gain strength this weekend and move northwest toward Guam, prompting the U.S. Coast Guard to issue warnings about flooding and high winds. Typhoon Sinlaku could reach the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane when it passes near or just south of Guam early next week, AccuWeather International Meteorologist Tyler Roys said. "This storm is a serious threat to the island of Guam," Roys said Saturday in a statement. "Sinlaku will produce destructive winds and flooding rainfall, likely leading to power outages and structural damage." The Coast Guard is warning people in the U.S.

GWACHEON, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's justice minister has pledged to expand access to judicial remedies for victims of state-led abuses, including foreign adoptees whose adoptions were marred by widespread fraud under previous military governments. Using unusually strong language for a senior South Korean official, Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho said the country's past adoptions amounted to "forced child trafficking" and that the government will largely refrain from appealing rulings in cases brought by victims seeking compensation for government wrongdoing. Jung spoke Thursday in a roundtable interview with selected journalists. Hundreds of Korean adoptees in the West have already requested that their cases be investigated by a fact-finding commission reviewing past human rights violations.

LUCKNOW, India (AP) - An overcrowded tourist boat capsized in the Yamuna river in northern India on Friday, leaving at least 10 people dead, officials said. The accident occurred near the temple town of Vrindavan, a major Hindu pilgrimage site in Uttar Pradesh state. Officials said the privately operated boat, which had a capacity of about 15 passengers, was carrying around 25 people when it overturned midstream. Preliminary findings indicated strong winds caused the vessel to sway before it struck a pontoon bridge and capsized. Senior administrative officer Chandraprakash Singh said 15 people were rescued, four of them in critical condition.