Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Australia's most decorated living veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, walked free on bail from a Sydney prison on Friday, 10 days after he was charged with war crimes in the killings of five people while serving in Afghanistan. Judge Greg Grogin granted Roberts-Smith bail in a Sydney court around five hours earlier, ruling the former Special Air Service Regiment corporal had established exceptional circumstances to justify his release from custody. Prosecutors had opposed bail and argued there was a risk that Roberts-Smith would flee Australia or interfere with witnesses and evidence. Roberts-Smith, 47, was arrested on April 7 and charged with five counts of war crime murder involving the deaths of five Afghans in Uruzgan province in 2009 and 2012.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - The Iran war's global energy shock is causing some nations in Asia and Africa to boost nuclear power generation and spurring atomic energy plans in non-nuclear countries on both continents. Asia, where most of the Middle Eastern oil and natural gas was headed, was hit first and hardest by disruptions to shipping routes carrying those fuels - swiftly followed by Africa. The U.S. and Europe are also feeling the pinch as the conflict drives up energy costs. African and Asian nations with nuclear plants are increasing their output as they scramble for short-term energy supplies, while non-nuclear countries are accelerating long-term nuclear plans to safeguard against future fossil fuel shocks.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka has sent home 238 Iranian sailors, including 32 who survived a U.S torpedo attack that sank their ship in the Indian Ocean, officials said Friday. A U.S. submarine sank the IRIS Dena on March 4 while the ship was returning home after taking part in a naval exercise on invitation from India. The Sri Lankan navy recovered 87 bodies and 32 were hospitalized. A second Iranian ship was brought to a southern Sri Lankan port after its crew reported technical problems. Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Franklin Joseph said Friday that everyone except for a few crew members from the second ship had been repatriated earlier this week.

NEW DELHI (AP) - A bill to reserve a third of seats for women lawmakers failed to pass in the lower house of India's Parliament on Friday, along with a separate, linked proposal to expand the national legislature by redrawing voting boundaries. The measure was seen as one of the most significant changes to India's political system since independence from British colonial rule in 1947, but fell short after two days of debate involving both government and opposition lawmakers. It sought to mandate implementation of 33% representation for women in Parliament and state legislatures, a move aimed at increasing female participation in a system where women remain underrepresented.

BANGKOK (AP) - Myanmar's former President Win Myint was freed Friday as part of a broad prisoner amnesty by newly inaugurated President Min Aung Hlaing to mark the traditional New Year, state-run media reported. The pardon order applied to more than 4,500 prisoners, but it was not immediately clear how many people imprisoned for opposing military rule were included and there was no sign that 80-year-old former leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be freed. Win Myint is Suu Kyi's longtime loyalist and was elected as president in 2018. He served as president while Suu Kyi led the government as state counsellor because the military-drafted constitution barred her from holding the presidency.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - When a major stroke paralyzed South Korean pianist Lee Hun's right side in 2012, he first worried about whether he would ever walk again. Playing the piano wasn't even a consideration. He returned to the piano only after a mentor told him about a large number of piano pieces for the left hand alone. After exhaustive practice he made a comeback, playing recitals as South Korea's only known professional left-hand-only pianist. He is now preparing for a new challenge: his first joint performance with an orchestra at an international music festival next month. "I'm so, so nervous I could die," Lee, 54, said with a smile during a recent interview with The Associated Press at his Seoul home.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The South Korean internet erupted in celebration as a 2-year-old wolf that escaped from a zoo in South Korea was captured safely Friday after a nine-day search that kept the nation on edge and made it a national celebrity. The male wolf, named Neukgu, burrowed out of his enclosure at the O-World zoo in Daejeon on April 8, prompting a search that gripped the nation and raised fears about his safety. Animal rights activists questioned whether the wolf could survive outside the zoo and also worried it might be killed during capture, something that happened to a puma that escaped from the same zoo in 2018.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysian coast guard said Friday they foiled an attempt by 25 undocumented Myanmar migrants to enter the country illegally. Maritime authorities deployed a patrol boat after receiving information about a fiberglass boat speeding toward a small town in northern Penang state early Friday, said Penang's maritime chief Muhammad Suffi Mohamad Ramli. "The patrol boat gave chase, but the vessel escaped after dropping off all 25 individuals" along the coastline, he said in a statement. The migrants, aged between 12 and 42, are believed to have intended to continue their journey inland using a lorry suspected to be waiting nearby, he said.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces killed 10 suspected Muslim militants Friday in the deadliest clash so far this year in the south where troops have been fighting remaining rebels waging a considerably weakened separatist insurgency, officials said. Decades of secessionist violence in the south, homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation, considerably eased in 2014 after the largest armed group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which had thousands of armed guerrillas, signed a Muslim autonomy deal with the government. A number of smaller armed groups which refused to get involved in the peace talks, however, continued to wage sporadic guerrilla attacks for a separate Muslim state.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A helicopter flying between palm oil plantations on Borneo Island crashed, killing the eight people on board, Indonesian officials said Friday. The Airbus H130 owned by PT Matthew Air Nusantara lost contact Thursday, five minutes after it took off from Melawi district in West Kalimantan province. It was on its way to another palm oil plantation in Kubu Raya district. Searchers later located the wreckage and recovered the bodies of the two crew members and six passengers in the dense forests in Sekadau district, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency and the Transportation Ministry. One of those killed was Malaysian.