Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's foreign minister said Sunday a new defense agreement his country signed with Saudi Arabia and Turkey was not directed against any country and remained open to other nations in the region. The landmark Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was signed on Friday by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the three countries seek to deepen security cooperation amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Sunday the agreement was "purely defensive in nature" and that other countries could join if they were willing to uphold its principles and resolve differences through peaceful means, adding the deal reflected a shared desire to strengthen strategic security cooperation.

BANGKOK (AP) - A schoolgirl died from critical wounds on Saturday after a student opened fire at a high school and his home outside Bangkok the day before, bringing the death toll from the attack to at least eight people. The 14-year-old opened fire at around 10 a.m. Friday at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of the Thai capital before apparently taking his own life. He also appeared to have killed his two grandparents at his family home earlier in the morning, officials said. The girl, 12, died after hospitalization, the Health Ministry said. The school had posted a message on Facebook Friday seeking blood donations for two students, including the girl, who was in seventh grade.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A defense agreement between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey is not aimed against Iran or any other country, Turkey's foreign minister said Saturday, describing the pact as an important step toward regional stability. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the agreement in the Saudi holy city of Mecca on Friday. It states that an attack on one would be considered an attack on all three. The "Mecca Joint Defense Agreement" brings together oil-rich Saudi Arabia and nuclear power Pakistan as well as Turkey, which has NATO's second-largest army and a rapidly growing defense industry.

TOKYO (AP) - Nagasaki marked on Sunday the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern city, as the mayor called nuclear weapons "absolute evil," denounced growing support for nuclear deterrence and called on the Japanese government to adhere to its three postwar non-nuclear principles. The anniversary coincided with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi 's government revising the country's defense policy to further bolster the military's offensive capability. Speculation has risen about whether Takaichi, who supports nuclear dissuasion, may allow nuclear weapons to be brought into the country, going against the third non-nuclear principle. Mayor Shiro Suzuki said that while some countries argue the possession of nuclear weapons helps deter potential attackers, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had demonstrated that humans can cross the line.

BANGKOK (AP) - Myanmar's military-backed government has rejected the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' renewed call for the unconditional release of detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and dismissed the need for the organization's special envoy on Myanmar, according to the foreign affairs ministry. President Min Aung Hlaing, the former army chief who had originally seized power in 2021 from Suu Kyi's civilian government, has been trying to win political legitimacy since the takeover and resume relations with ASEAN. ASEAN came up with a peace plan for the Southeast Asian country in April 2021 to end hostilities and initiate dialogue among contending parties, to be facilitated by the special envoy.

BEIJING (AP) - Typhoon Dolphin hit China's eastern coast on Sunday evening after forcing over 300,000 people to preemptively relocate and Shanghai's two airports to cancel more than 1,300 flights. The storm brought heavy rains to northern Taiwan the day before. In the Philippines, five people were rescued and seven remained missing after a landslide that hit three houses in the northern mountain resort city of Baguio on Sunday. The landslide was set off by days of heavy monsoon rains, which had been intensified by Dolphin, officials said. Dolphin hit the Chinese city of Taizhou in Zhejiang province and the northern parts of neighboring Fujian province, bringing strong winds, estimated at 151 kph (93 mph) when it made landfall, and massive waves to the city's coastline.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia sent airplanes and hundreds of firefighters on Sunday to fight a blaze in a popular national park, one of a growing number of wildfires the country is battling during an unusually dry season. The largest fire reported this week has burned about 176 hectares (435 acres) of Mount Bromo, located within the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java province, one of Indonesia's best-known tourist destinations. Authorities closed the park to visitors Saturday and Rudijanta Tjahja Nugraha, the park chief, said the shutdown would remain in effect until further notice. Hundreds of firefighters, disaster management personnel, police, soldiers, park rangers and volunteers have been mobilized to contain the blaze.

Police were responding to a shooting Friday at a high school in Thailand where deaths and injuries were reported. ____ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

SHANNAN, Tibet (AP) - More than a dozen men and women sit at wooden looms, sliding shuttles through rows of wool yarn before pulling each thread tight. They repeat it again and again as they weave Pulu, the traditional woolen fabric that has clothed people on the Tibetan plateau for centuries. They work at the Ethnic Huaji Handwoven Cooperative in Shannan, where artisans are trying to preserve one of Tibet's oldest weaving traditions while creating jobs for local residents. Founded in 2008 by Tibetan artisan Pasang, the cooperative employs more than 100 local residents, including some people with disabilities, while teaching younger Tibetans a craft that he feared was disappearing.

BANGKOK (AP) - At least seven people were shot dead on Friday by a 14-year-old student in Nonthaburi province, a northern suburb of the Thai capital Bangkok. The boy killed five members of the staff at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School and the two grandparents with whom he lived, the authorities said. Thailand has among the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia, though shootings involving indiscriminate killings are not common. Its deadliest recent mass killing of civilians took place in a village in the country's northeast in 2022, when a police sergeant who had lost his job used guns and knives to kill 37 people, including two dozen toddlers at a daycare center.