Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Bangladesh is conducting emergency measles-rubella vaccinations while trying to contain an ongoing outbreak that has killed more than 100 children in less than a month. The government in partnership with the World Health Organization, the U.N. children's agency and the Gavi vaccine alliance began working to vaccinate children age 6 months to 5 years old in 18 high-risk districts Sunday and will expand nationwide in phases from next month, a joint statement said. A UNICEF official said the agency was deeply concerned about the sharp rise in cases, which was putting the youngest and most vulnerable children at serious risk.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday peace talks held in China between Afghanistan and Pakistan to halt cross-border fighting between the two neighbors have been constructive. The talks began last week in the western Chinese city of Urumqi following an invitation by China, in an effort to stop the conflict that began between the two countries in February, leaving hundreds dead. Pakistan, which declared it was in "open war" with its neighbor, has also carried out airstrikes inside Afghanistan, including in the capital Kabul. The United Nations' office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in Afghanistan posted on X Tuesday that the conflict had displaced 94,000 people overall, while 100,000 people in two Afghan districts near the border have been completely cut off by the fighting since February.

TOKYO (AP) - Japan's top government spokesperson said Tuesday a Japanese national who had been detained in Iran since January has been released on bail. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters in Tokyo that the release was confirmed Monday and that Japan is demanding a full release from Iranian authorities. He said the Japanese ambassador to Iran, Tamaki Tsukada, met the person released and confirmed that he was in good health without providing further details. The person is believed to be a journalist at Japan's NHK public television. Another Japanese national, who was detained in Iran last June, was released and returned to Japan in March.

O'SMACH, Cambodia (AP) - I have often used the word industrial-scale in my own writing to describe the scam compounds that dot the region. But the weight of that phrase truly sunk in at the O'Smach Resort complex that we visited Tuesday. Thailand's military, which conducted a tour for the media, said that the whole area encompasses around 197 acres (80 hectares), equivalent to 150 American football fields. It wasn't my first time at a scam center, but its scale dwarfed anything I had seen before. From my base in Southeast Asia, I have followed this issue for the past few years, watching its scale only grow larger and larger.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnam unanimously elected Communist Party General Secretary To Lam as president for a five-year term, consolidating his control over both the party and the state. The move departs from Vietnam's tradition of shared leadership, in which the jobs have typically been held by different people, and echoes power structures in China under Xi Jinping and neighboring Laos. It has been widely expected since Lam's reelection as Communist Party head in January, when observers noted that his consolidation of party authority positioned him to assume the presidency as well. Former central bank governor Le Minh Hung was elected as the country's prime minister for the next five years.

BEIJING (AP) - Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun arrived in China on Tuesday at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, in what she's calling a "journey for peace" as Beijing pushes for the self-ruled island to come under its control. The visit is the first by a Taiwanese opposition leader in a decade and comes ahead of a meeting in Beijing between Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump scheduled to take place in May. Meanwhile, Taiwan's opposition-controlled parliament has stalled attempts by its government to pass a $40 billion special defense budget, expected to fund arms deals with the United States and the development of Taiwan's indigenous defense industry.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Australia's most decorated living veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, faces war crime charges on allegations that he killed five unarmed Afghans while serving in Afghanistan from 2009 and 2012, police and media reported on Tuesday. Police have not confirmed the name of the 47-year-old former soldier who was arrested Tuesday. But he has been widely reported in the media to be Roberts-Smith, a former Special Air Service Regiment corporal who was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan. Police charged him Tuesday with five counts of war crime murder. He will remain in custody overnight and make his first court appearance on Wednesday, a police statement said.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan authorities said Tuesday that extreme weather has left 22 people dead and 32 injured over the last 24 hours, including more than a dozen who were killed when torrential rainfall caused the roofs of houses to collapse overnight in eastern Afghanistan. Storms and heavy rainfall that have caused landslides, flooding and lightning strikes across the country over the past two weeks have left more than 130 people dead and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes, authorities have said. The latest casualty figures from the Afghanistan National Disaster Authority come on top of dozens of deaths caused by heavy snowfall and floods earlier this year in Afghanistan, an impoverished country that is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events.

WASHINGTON (AP) - China is stepping up its diplomacy on the Iran war, putting forward a five-point proposal with Pakistan, rallying support from Gulf countries and opposing a United Nations proposal to use any force necessary to open the Strait of Hormuz. It is China's latest push for a more prominent role in global affairs, though it may prove to be more rhetorical than substantive, with the U.S. appearing uninterested in Beijing's efforts. "The war with Iran is the priority of all countries in and outside the region," said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank.

DATONG, China (AP) - Yang Haiming didn't stop working when he retired from the coal mines at age 60. Instead, he jumped into a new industry. Yang is part of a generation of workers that powered China's growth by digging coal from underground mines in Datong, a city known as China's coal capital in the northern province of Shanxi. Now, as China prioritizes renewable energy over coal, Yang is ahead of the change his fellow workers are being forced to confront. He now runs a restaurant that sells lamb skewers to tourists visiting the Yungang Grottoes, a historically significant 6th century site featuring Buddhist carvings in caves that draws millions of visitors a year.