Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine Senate convened as an impeachment court Monday for the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte over criminal charges, in a time of deep divisions that erupted into an exchange of gunfire last week in the chamber. The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach Duterte last Monday over alleged unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and a public threat to have the president assassinated if she herself were killed due to their political disputes. The vice president, who has announced her plan to seek the presidency in 2028, has denied the charges but has refused to answer the allegations in detail.

HONG KONG (AP) - A Hong Kong court started hearing final arguments Monday in the national security trial of two organizers of the large vigils remembering the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Hong Kong for decades was the only place in China where a large-scale public commemoration of the crackdown was held. The vigils were banned in 2020, and the two former organizers were charged in 2021 with inciting subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law that has virtually stifled the city's pro-democracy movement. Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan, two former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, have pleaded not guilty.

BEIJING (AP) - A 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck south China's Guangxi region early Monday, killing two people, toppling buildings and triggering the evacuations of thousands, state media reported. Four others were injured, while more than 7,000 residents were evacuated from Liuzhou city. The search for several missing residents wrapped up around midday Monday, after the last trapped person, a 91-year-old man, was found alive in good condition, authorities said. Images aired by state broadcaster CCTV showed excavators clearing debris. At least 13 buildings collapsed, while landslides triggered by the quake blocked roads to the area, according to CCTV. Train services around Liuzhou were canceled or delayed.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - After three years as a prisoner in Beijing, Cheng Lei is busy rebuilding her life. She's written a memoir and a play, tried her hand at stand-up comedy and is pursuing her career as a journalist. She has shone a rare spotlight on the harsh conditions within the secretive Chinese prison system. She has also shared a personal story of resilience about how meaning can be found in suffering. "I think when your life gets shattered and you lose so many things that used to define you, you do have a kind of freedom to reorganize your atoms and create a new you," Cheng told The Associated Press during rehearsals for a play about her incarceration, "1154 Days." "For me, it's a fuller appreciation of life and much more adventurousness and also a serene sort of quiet fearlessness," she added.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Gunmen in two separate attacks Monday shot and killed two police officers assigned to protect polio vaccination teams in northwest Pakistan before fleeing, officials said. The attacks occurred in two areas of Bajaur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Zafar Khan said, as Pakistan launched a new campaign across the country to vaccinate 19 million children against polio in an effort to eradicate the crippling disease. The attacks happened when the officers were returning home after protecting polio teams, Khan said. Health workers and police officers assigned to protect them are frequently targeted by militants who falsely claim the vaccination drives are part of a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

WASHINGTON (AP) - China has agreed to ramp up trade for U.S. agricultural products such as beef and poultry, buying at an annualized rate of $17 billion per year for 2026 and at that level for 2027 and 2028, the White House announced Sunday, two days after President Donald Trump returned from a high-stakes summit in Beijing where he sought to ease the impact on American farmers from the trade war he launched last year. China would restore market access for U.S. beef and resume imports of poultry from U.S. states determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be free of the bird flu, the White House said.

KOOVAGAM, India (AP) - Under stage lights, hundreds of transgender women adjusted their sarees, tucked flowers into their hair, and waited to be called onstage. One by one, they waved to cheering crowds and struck poses at one of India's largest gatherings for the transgender community. Held each year in Koovagam village in southern India's Tamil Nadu, the annual Koovagam festival brings faith and beauty together. By day, transgender women gather at a temple to honor a Hindu deity through rituals rooted in mythology and grief. By night, they celebrate glamour, identity, and joy as they take part in a vibrant beauty pageant.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taiwan's president on Sunday stressed that arms purchases from the United States are "the most important deterrent" of regional conflict and instability, after President Donald Trump called into question continued U.S. support of Taiwan following his visit to China. U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and security cooperation between the two sides are not only governed by law but also a catalyst for regional peace and stability, President Lai Ching-te said in a statement. "We thank President Trump for his continued support for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait since his first term, including the continuous increase in the scale and amount of arms sales to Taiwan," he said.

MALE, Maldives (AP) - Three Finnish divers arrived in the Maldives Sunday to draw up a fresh plan in the search for the bodies of four Italian divers believed to be deep inside an underwater cave. The initial search was suspended after a local military diver died during a perilous mission to try to reach them. The group of five Italian divers is believed to have died while exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 meters (160 feet) in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy's Foreign Ministry. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 meters (98 feet).

CANNES, France (AP) - Sprawling action movies with aliens do not generally compete for the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or. But Na Hong-jin's "Hope" is not your average science fiction. Few movies were more anticipated in Cannes. It's been 10 years since Na's last film, the well-regarded 2016 thriller "The Wailing." While some of Na's fellow Korean genre masters, like Bong Joon Ho, have found global renown, for many cinephiles, Na is overdue for the kind of global introduction a Cannes premiere provides. But that doesn't mean that Na, a few hours before debuting "Hope," was feeling at ease. "I'm really nervous," the writer-director said in an interview alongside the Cannes beach.