Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

NEW DELHI (AP) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist party on Monday wrested control of the state of West Bengal, an opposition stronghold, in a key election. The Election Commission of India released partial results showing the Bharatiya Janata Party won at least 124 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly, and was leading in 83 others. Final results are expected Monday evening. It would be a significant breakthrough for Modi's party, which had tried for years to dislodge the All India Trinamool Congress government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The BJP has never governed West Bengal, a politically influential state, where Banerjee - one of Modi's most prominent critics - has held power since 2011.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A North Korean women's soccer team is scheduled to play at a regional tournament in South Korea later this month, in a rare sports exchange between the war-divided rivals. The South's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said in a statement Monday that the Pyongyang-based Naegohyang Women's FC is expected to face Suwon FC Women on May 20 in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Women's Champions League in Suwon, south of Seoul. The Korea Football Association, South Korea's soccer body, said the AFC notified it that the North Korean team submitted a list of players and staff set to come to Suwon.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - He had met his 6-year-old son only once. A few days together in a life otherwise spent apart. For 15 years, Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun worked in Saudi Arabia, sending money home to his family in one of the poorest areas of Bangladesh. This year, he had planned to return, build a larger house with his savings and spend time with the child he barely knew. Then, on March 8, a missile struck his workers' camp. He suffered severe burns and later died. He was among more than two dozen foreign workers killed across the Mideast after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran in February.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - A wide-ranging Australian inquiry examining antisemitism in the country after a massacre at a Hanukkah celebration heard Monday from Australian Jews who said escalating hatred has left them fearful and vulnerable. Fifteen people were killed when two gunmen opened fire at the celebration on Bondi Beach in December. Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram are accused of carrying out the massacre with guns they owned legally, in a country with tight controls on firearms. The attack, which followed a wave of separate antisemitic crimes in Australia, was inspired by the Islamic State group, authorities said.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan accused Pakistan Monday of carrying out cross-border attacks into its territory, hitting civilian areas and leaving at least three people dead and 14 others wounded, as tension between the two neighbors remained high despite recent peace talks. Afghan deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat posted on X that Pakistani attacks had destroyed two schools, two mosques and a health center in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar. There was no immediate comment from Pakistan on the allegation. Islamabad has repeatedly rejected previous accusations of striking civilian areas in Afghanistan. Pakistan and Afghanistan had been embroiled in months of deadly fighting that killed hundreds of people since late February, when Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - The prime ministers of Japan and Australia agreed to deepen cooperation in a wide range of areas including energy security, defense and critical minerals as the Iran war threatens global supply chains. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met her Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese at Australia's Parliament House on Monday during Takaichi's first visit to the country as national leader. Takaichi said they held strategic discussions on China, Southeast Asia, Pacific Island countries, nuclear issues and abductions by North Korea. "The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz had been inflicting enormous impact on the Indo-Pacific. We affirmed that Japan and Australia will closely communicate with each other in responding with a sense of urgency," Takaichi told reporters through an interpreter.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Nearly 200,000 people in 124 villages in the northeastern Philippines were affected and over 5,400 fled massive plumes of ash that billowed from Mayon volcano over the weekend due to the collapse of lava deposits from its slopes, officials said Monday. There was no explosive eruption from Mayon, which has been erupting mildly on and off since January, but huge deposits of lava on its southwestern slope suddenly cascaded down in a pyroclastic flow - an avalanche of hot rocks, ash and gas - before nightfall on Saturday, said Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - A new study suggests that a tiny, icy world beyond Pluto harbors a thin, delicate atmosphere that may have been created by volcanic eruptions or a comet strike. Just 300 miles (500 kilometers) or so across, this mini Pluto is thought to be the solar system's smallest object yet with a clearly detected global atmosphere bound by gravity, said lead researcher Ko Arimatsu of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. "This is an amazing development, but it sorely needs independent verification. The implications are profound if verified," said Southwest Research Institute's Alan Stern, the lead scientist behind NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond.

PARIS (AP) - Activists worldwide held May Day rallies and street protests on Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war. May 1 is a public holiday in many countries to mark International Workers' Day, or Labor Day, when workers' unions traditionally rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues. Demonstrations were held across Asia - from South Korea to Australia and Indonesia - to many European capitals. In the United States, activists opposing President Donald Trump's policies also held marches and boycotts.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - An angry crowd rioted outside an Australian Outback hospital where a man accused of killing a 5-year-old girl was treated for a vigilante beating. The suspect, Jefferson Lewis, allegedly abducted the girl at an Indigenous community near Alice Springs in the central Australia at the weekend. The body of the girl, who is now known as Kumanjayi Little Baby because of an Indigenous ban on naming the dead, was found on Thursday. Lewis had been beaten unconscious by a mob before police arrested him at an Indigenous community later Thursday, police said. He was taken to Alice Springs Hospital, where hundreds of people late Thursday demanded he face so-called payback under customary law, which can involve spearing or beating.