Top Asia Pacific Breaking News Stories

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – A man accused of killing 15 people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach conducted firearms training in an area of New South Wales state outside of Sydney with his father, according to Australian police documents released on Monday. The documents, made public following Naveed Akram’s video court appearance from a Sydney hospital where he has been treated for an abdominal injury, said the two men recorded footage justifying the meticulously planned attack. Officers wounded Akram at the scene of the Dec. 14 shooting and killed his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram. The state government confirmed Naveed Akram was transferred Monday from a hospital to a prison.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – Thailand and Cambodia will resume talks later this week to work toward a more durable ceasefire along their border, Thailand’s foreign minister said Monday, stressing that progress depends on detailed bilateral negotiations rather than public declarations that internationalize the dispute. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by U.S. President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said Monday after an Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While Cambodia has publicy said it is ready for an unconditional ceasefire, Bangkok never received any direct proposal and Thailand believed such statements were aimed at increasing international pressure rather than resolving the issue, Sihasak said following the meeting that was arranged to seek ways to end the crisis.

TOKYO (AP) – Japan’s space agency said its H3 rocket carrying a navigation satellite failed to put the payload into a planned orbit, a setback for the country’s new flagship rocket and its space launch program. Monday’s failure is the second for Japan’s new flagship rocket after its botched 2023 debut flight and six successful flights. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the H3 rocket carrying the Michibiki 5 satellite took off from the Tanegashima Space Center on a southwestern Japanese island Monday as part of Japan’s plans to have a more precise location positioning system of its own. The rocket’s second-stage engine burn unexpectedly had a premature cutoff and a subsequent separation of the satellite from the rocket could not be confirmed, Masashi Okada, a JAXA executive and launch director, told a news conference.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – A passenger bus crash killed at least 16 people on Indonesia’s main island of Java just after midnight Monday, officials said. The bus carrying 34 people lost control on a toll road and struck a concrete barrier before rolling onto its side, said Budiono, a search and rescue agency chief who goes by single name like many Indonesians. The inter-province bus was traveling from the capital Jakarta to the country’s ancient royal city of Yogyakarta when it overturned while entering a curved exit ramp at the Krapyak toll way in Central Java’s Semarang city, he said. “The forceful impact threw several passengers and left them trapped against the bus body,” Budiono said.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkish intelligence agents have captured a senior member of the Islamic State group in an area along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, allegedly thwarting planned suicide attacks in Turkey and elsewhere, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported Monday. Anadolu Agency said the suspect was identified as Mehmet Goren and a member of the group’s Afghanistan-based Islamic State-Khorasan branch. He was caught in a covert operation and transferred to Turkey. It was not clear when the operation took place or whether Afghan and Pakistani authorities were involved. The report said the Turkish citizen allegedly rose within the organization’s ranks and was given the task of carrying out suicide bombings in Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Europe.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – A Malaysian court Monday rejected former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s bid to serve the remainder of his graft sentence under house arrest. The High Court ruled that a rare royal order issued by the nation’s former king was not valid as it wasn’t made in accordance with constitutional requirements. Najib’s lawyer told the court they plan to appeal the verdict. The 72-year-old former prime minister will serve the remainder of his term in prison, scheduled to end in August 2028 after the Pardons Board cut the 12-year sentence by half last year. Najib is serving time after being convicted in a trial linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB state fund that toppled his government in 2018.

NEW DELHI (AP) – India and New Zealand announced Monday they have reached a free trade deal, seeking to deepen economic ties and shore up growth at a time of mounting global trade uncertainties. The move comes as New Delhi accelerates efforts to diversify export destinations as part of a broader strategy to offset the impact of steep U.S. import tariffs. A formal signing of the agreement between India and New Zealand is expected in the first quarter of next year after legal scrubbing of the negotiated text, India’s chief negotiator Petal Dhillon told reporters. The India-New Zealand trade agreement, negotiated over nine months, aims to lower tariffs, ease regulatory barriers and expand cooperation across goods, services and investments.

HONG KONG (AP) – A former Hong Kong reporter at the Wall Street Journal began testifying Monday against the newspaper she accuses of terminating her due to her union activities in a trial – a closely watched case that has raised concerns about press freedom in the city. Former WSJ reporter Selina Cheng, also chairperson of the trade union Hong Kong Journalists Association, launched a private prosecution against her ex-employer, Dow Jones Publishing Co. (Asia) Inc., the parent company of the Journal, after losing her job in July 2024. At that time, Cheng said she believed that the termination was linked to her refusal to comply with her former supervisor’s request to withdraw from the election for the union role, instead of the news outlet’s restructuring, as she was told.

ISLAMABAD (AP) – Saudi Arabia has awarded its highest national honor to Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, during his visit to Riyadh, Pakistan’s military said Monday, underscoring deepening ties between the two countries, including cooperation on counterterrorism. Munir received the King Abdulaziz Medal of the Excellent Class on Sunday, months after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a defense pact with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif highlighting the longstanding strategic relationship between the two countries. In September, Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed under the countries’ new defense pact.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – The suspect in a deadly knife and grenade attack that left three dead and 11 wounded in Taiwan’s capital meticulously planned the assault for more than a year, police said Monday. The attacker, identified as 27-year-old Chang Wen, indiscriminately stabbed passers-by and launched smoke grenades on Friday at a Taipei metro station and on the street before running into a department store. He fell to his death from the fifth floor of the store while being pursued by police. The assaults shocked Taiwan, where violent crime is rare, prompting authorities to step up security at crowded spots and large events.