Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Morning Edition

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - American rock climber Alex Honnold ascended the Taipei 101 skyscraper on Sunday without any ropes or protective equipment. Cheers erupted from a street-level crowd as he reached the top of the spire of the 508-meter (1,667-foot) tower about 90 minutes after he started. Wearing a red short-sleeve shirt, Honnold waved his arms back and forth over his head. "It was like what a view, it's incredible, what a beautiful day," he said afterward. "It was very windy, so I was like, don't fall off the spire. I was trying to balance nicely. But it was, what an incredible position, what a beautiful way to see Taipei." Honnold, known for his ropeless ascent up Yosemite National Park's El Capitan, climbed up one corner of Taipei 101 using small L-shaped outcroppings as footholds.

BANDUNG, Indonesia (AP) - Improved weather on Sunday helped rescuers on Indonesia's main island of Java recover more bodies as they dug through mud and debris in search of scores of missing in a landslide that killed more than two dozen villagers. The predawn landslide on the slopes of Mount Burangrang in West Java province on Saturday buried some 34 houses in Pasir Langu village. On Sunday, 72 people remained missing, many feared buried under tons of mud, rocks and uprooted trees. About 230 residents living near the site were evacuated to government shelters. A 250-member search team on Sunday collected victims' remains, including body parts, in 14 body bags, bringing the total recovered to 25, said Ade Dian Permana, who heads the local search and rescue office.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Voting was held Sunday in Myanmar in the final round of a three-stage general election, capping a nearly monthlong process that has already ensured the country's military rulers and their allies will command a parliamentary majority to form a new government. Critics say the polls were neither free nor fair, and were designed to legitimize the power of the military after it ousted the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. The army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, or USDP, had already won most of the seats contested in the first two rounds of voting.

BEIJING (AP) - The Chinese military's top general is being investigated for suspected serious violations of discipline and law the Defense Ministry said Saturday, Zhang Youxia, the senior of the two vice chairs of the powerful Central Military Commission, is the latest figure to fall in a long-running purge of military officials. Analysts believe the purges are designed both to reform the military and to ensure loyalty to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who also chairs the military commission. They are part of a broader anti-corruption drive that has punished more than 200,000 officials since Xi came to power in 2012. Another member of the commission, Liu Zhenli, has also been placed under investigation by China's ruling Communist Party, a Defense Ministry statement said.

REAM NAVAL BASE, Cambodia (AP) - The USS Cincinnati arrived at Cambodia's Ream Naval Base on Saturday, marking the first time a U.S. Navy warship has docked at the facility since its Chinese-funded renovation was completed early last year. The completion of a new pier and dry dock at Ream has fueled concerns in Washington that China - Cambodia's close ally and main provider of aid and investment - may have been granted exclusive access to the base. Controversy has persisted since 2019 over reports of a potential 30-year agreement for Chinese military use of the site on the Gulf of Thailand.

BANGKOK (AP) - A military airstrike this week on a village in Myanmar sheltering displaced people from the northern township of Bhamo, where a final round of the country's three-phase election is to be held this weekend, killed 21 people, an ethnic rebel group and local media said Friday. The strike on Hteelin village, west of Bhamo in the state of Kachin, took place on Thursday afternoon, also left 28 people wounded, according to Col. Naw Bu, the spokesperson of the ethnic Kachin Independence Army or KIA. Naw Bu said a jet fighter bombed a compound where mourners had gathered for prayers for the deceased, a camp for displaced persons, as well as a school and a village market.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - A Pakistani court on Saturday sentenced two human rights lawyers to 17 years in prison each over social media posts the authorities claimed were hostile to the state and its security institutions. Judge Afzal Majoka announced the verdict a day after Zainab Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha were arrested in Islamabad, according to court documents. The couple appeared briefly via video link but boycotted the hearing, prompting the court to conclude the trial and deliver the verdict. Family and friends denounced the ruling. The couple denied all the changes. The court verdict said Mazari had posted multiple tweets in recent years that "portrayed the agenda" of the outlawed Baloch separatist group and Pakistani Taliban.

TOKYO (AP) - Japanese panda fans gathered Sunday for the final public viewing at Tokyo's Ueno zoo before twins Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei return to China this week. Their departure on Tuesday will leave Japan with no pandas for the first time in half a century, and the chances of getting a replacement are poor, with Tokyo's relations with Beijing at their lowest point in years. China first sent pandas to Japan in 1972, a gift meant to mark the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two wary neighbors. The cuddly black-and-white bears immediately won Japanese hearts, and a dozen successors have become national celebrities.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - An avalanche killed nine members of a single family in northwestern Pakistan on Friday while a heavy snowstorm the day before in neighboring Afghanistan left 11 people dead, officials said. Winter storms also stranded thousands of tourists and blocked roads near Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. In Pakistan, workers for the country's emergency services struggled for hours before they pulled all nine bodies, including four women, from under the snow in the district of Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, according to Bilal Faizi, a spokesperson. Separately, the season's first heavy snowfall blocked multiple roads leading to Murree, a hill station about 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Islamabad.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) - A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest among guests at a wedding ceremony in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least seven people and wounding 25, police said. The attack took place at the home of Noor Alam Mehsud, a pro-government community leader in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said local police chief Adnan Khan. He said officers transported the victims to a hospital, where some of the wounded were listed in critical condition. The ceremony was underway, with guests dancing to the beat of drums, when the bomber struck. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.