Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Morning Edition

BEIJING (AP) - While much of the world's attention is on the Iran war, that hasn't stopped China from moving ahead with national priorities with global repercussions. Not that China doesn't care about the war and its impact on energy supplies and geopolitics. But for the world's second largest economy, its growing rivalry with the United States revolves around a different battle: the development of the cutting-edge technologies shaping the 21st century. That message came through in a five-year plan formally endorsed Thursday by the National People's Congress at the end of its annual meeting, the nation's biggest political event of the year.

BEIJING (AP) - China adopted a sweeping law Thursday to promote what it calls "ethnic unity," a measure that critics say would further erode the rights of some minority groups as authorities cement a push toward assimilation. The law, approved by the country's ceremonial legislature, is designed to foster "a stronger sense of community among all ethnic groups in the Chinese nation," said Lou Qinjian, a delegate to the National People's Congress who introduced the proposal to the whole body. The proposed law lays out the need to promote ethnic unity by all government bodies and private enterprises, including local governments and state-affiliated groups like the All-China Women's Federation.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean lawmakers on Thursday passed a law to implement a pledge of $350 billion in U.S. investments Seoul made last year to avoid the Trump administration's highest tariffs. Government officials had urged lawmakers to quickly pass the contested bill, submitted in November, as uncertainty mounts for the country's trade-dependent economy, already rattled by President Donald Trump's protectionist swing and now fearing the fallout from his war on Iran. The bill's passage came hours after the Trump administration increased pressure on trade partners by opening a new investigation into manufacturing in foreign countries, including China and U.S.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - A political party created just four years ago and led by an ex-rapper has swept Nepal's parliamentary poll, results published by the electoral commission on Thursday showed. The election - the country's first since last year's youth-led revolt - was won by the Rastriya Swatantra Party, or RSP, of rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah. The RSP won 125 directly elected seats plus a further 57 as part of the proportional representation votes, giving it a total 182 seats in the 275-member House of Representative, the powerful lower chamber of parliament. The Nepali Congress party came second, with 38 seats.

NEW YORK (AP) - With no clear end in sight, the war with Iran is sending oil prices back to $100 per barrel, and stocks are sinking worldwide on Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% and is returning to sharp swings following a couple days of relative calm. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 506 points, or 1.1%, as of 1:12 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% lower. The center of action was again the oil market, where the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 8.2% to $99.46 after briefly touching $101.59.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia hopes to shut down all of the country's notorious online scam centers by the end of next month, the head of the Southeast Asian nation's effort to combat the cybercrime said Wednesday. Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, in charge of the Commission for Combating Online Scams, told The Associated Press in an interview that the government since July had targeted 250 locations believed to be carrying out the lucrative criminal activity, and has shut down about 80%, or 200, of them. He said police would carry out suppression activities after April in an attempt to keep the scam centers from reemerging.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department will permanently close the U.S. consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, which has been America's closest diplomatic mission to the Afghan border and was a primary operations and logistics point before, during and after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The department notified Congress this week of its intent to close the consulate and said it would save $7.5 million per year, while not adversely affecting its ability to advance U.S. national interests in Pakistan, according to a copy of the notification obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. The move has been under consideration for more than a year since the Trump administration began downsizing nearly all federal agencies and is not related to the Iran war, which has sparked protests in various Pakistani cities, including Karachi and Peshawar, where the U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his teenage daughter fired pistols during an inspection of a light munitions factory, state media photos showed Thursday, as he pushes to modernize conventional forces after years of focus on nuclear weapons. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Kim visited a factory producing pistols and other light arms a day earlier and reviewed a new pistol that recently entered production. After testing the weapon at a shooting range, Kim rated it "excellent," the agency said. The agency did not mention the presence of Kim's daughter in its text report but its photos showed her firing a pistol along with senior military officials.

TOKYO (AP) - Japan marked the 15th anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster on its northeastern coast Wednesday as the government pushes for more use of atomic energy. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, ravaged parts of the region, caused more than 22,000 deaths and forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes, most of them due to tsunami damage. Some 160,000 people fled their homes in Fukushima because of the radiation spewed from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. About 26,000 of them haven't returned because they resettled elsewhere, their hometowns remain off-limits or they have lingering concerns about radiation.

GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) - The Iranian women's soccer team left Australia without seven squad members after tearful protests of their departure outside Sydney Airport and frantic final efforts inside the terminal by Australian officials, who sought to ensure the women understood they were being offered asylum. As the team's flight time drew nearer and they passed through security late Tuesday, each woman was taken aside to meet alone with officials who explained through interpreters that they could choose not to return to Iran. Before the team traveled to the airport, seven women had accepted humanitarian visas allowing them to remain permanently in Australia and were ushered to a safe location by Australian police officers.