Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

ANGELES, Philippines (AP) - Rescuers pulled out three people Monday from an immense pile of rubble that was all that remained of a nine-story hotel which collapsed while under construction in a northern Philippine city, bringing the death toll to four with 17 others still missing, officials said. Two of the men were dead, while emergency personnel struggled in the early morning hours to revive one in an ambulance near the pile of concrete slabs, twisted iron bars and aluminum scaffoldings that was all that remained of the building in Angeles City of Pampanga Province. They eventually gave up and drove away.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - An Australian spy agency boss told an inquiry on Monday he had pivoted resources away from counterterrorism to espionage and foreign interference investigations a few years before two gunmen massacred 15 people at a Sydney Hanukkah celebration. Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation's main domestic spy agency known as ASIO, was testifying at a government inquiry into the spread of antisemitism in Australia ahead of the attack at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14. ASIO reduced Australia's National Terrorism Threat Level from "probable" to "possible" - the second-safest level on a five-tier scale - in November 2022, after the Islamic State group in the Middle East had been defeated and was no longer recruiting fighters.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - When landlocked Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan started fighting late last year and their border crossings closed, Afghans turned to their western neighbor, Iran, for an alternate to Pakistan's major shipping hub of Karachi. They rerouted shipments through Iran's port of Bandar Abbas, but not for long. The port lies on the Strait of Hormuz, where war has stranded hundreds of ships and thousands of their crew. Meanwhile, thousands of Afghanistan-bound containers were stuck in Pakistan. For Afghan businesses and aid groups, losing both trade routes has been devastating. The United Nations' World Food Program, whose Afghan operations include life-saving nutritional supplements for malnourished mothers and children and fortified high-energy biscuits for schoolchildren, has seen transportation costs skyrocket and supplies choked off.

NEW DELHI (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to India marks an effort by Washington and New Delhi to steady strained relations as the two countries seek to reinforce strategic and economic ties despite recent trade tensions. In meetings Sunday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Rubio stressed cooperation on trade, energy, defense and maritime security. Rubio said the countries remained strategically aligned and expressed optimism about a broader trade deal. Rubio's four-day trip also includes talks with members from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, the Indo-Pacific alliance more commonly known as the Quad.

BANGKOK (AP) - Rescuers are racing against time to reach seven people who have been trapped in a cave in central Laos since last week. A group of villagers in Xaisomboun province went into the cave to look for gold on May 19, but heavy rain triggered flash flooding that blocked the exit, according to Laos and Thai rescue teams involved in the operation. Bounkham Luanglath, who leads the Laos' Rescue Volunteer for People, told The Associated Press on Monday that one of the people from the group escaped before the exit was blocked and alerted authorities. The status of the seven people who are trapped remains unknown.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha was granted a royal pardon on Monday from a 27-year prison sentence for treason, a month after an appeals court affirmed his conviction and punishment. Hun Sen, the Senate president acting as head of state in the absence of King Norodom Sihamoni, issued the pardon freeing Kem Sokha from house arrest. Sihamoni is in China on an extended stay for medical treatment. Prime Minister Hun Manet, in a statement posted on the Telegram social media platform, described the pardon as a step in strengthening national unity. Kem Sokha made no immediate public comment.

BEIJING (AP) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic deepened ties with China on Monday during a trip to Beijing as he faced pressure at home from anti-government protests in his Balkan country, including a major rally that prompted clashes over the weekend. After a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the two leaders witnessed the signing of more than 20 cooperation agreements, covering areas such as politics, trade, technology and education, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. During their talks, Xi told Vucic that their countries should strengthen exchanges and cooperation to push their comprehensive strategic partnership to new heights. "China supports Serbia in persisting on a development path that suits its own national conditions, and is willing to strengthen exchanges of governance experience with Serbia," CCTV quoted Xi as saying.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - A speeding minibus rammed into a bus parked along a motorway in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing 17 people and injuring five others, police and rescue officials said. The crash occurred near Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when the minibus slammed into the parked bus, according to Shah Fahad, director-general of Rescue 1122 emergency services. He said preliminary findings suggested driver negligence caused the accident. The bus was carrying passengers to the scenic Swat Valley. Rescue workers and police shifted the dead and injured to a hospital, Fahad said. Road accidents are common in Pakistan because of poor infrastructure, reckless driving and weak enforcement of traffic safety regulations.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - A truck carrying iron rods and extra passengers overturned on a major highway early Monday in central Bangladesh, leaving at least 15 people dead and 10 others injured, police said. The crash happened after the driver lost control around 5 a.m. at Soratoil area in Tangail district, 83 kilometers (52 miles) northwest of the nation's capital, Dhaka, said local police chief Fuad Hossain. Hossain said the truck was carrying hitchhiking passengers and travelling from Dhaka to the northern region as vacationers began traveling ahead of the Islamic festival Eid al-Adha on Thursday. The truck overturned and killed them at the scene, he said.

NEW DELHI (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Sunday as the two countries look to steady ties that have fallen to their lowest point in over two decades. Rubio's first official visit to the South Asian country came amid an economic and diplomatic downturn between the United States and India, largely strained by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies, which raised duties on several Indian exports. Rubio is set to meet in New Delhi on Tuesday his counterparts from India, Australia and Japan, members of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad.