Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

BANGKOK (AP) - Rescue workers in Laos said Saturday they have safely evacuated four villagers trapped in a flooded cave for 10 days, the day after another one was successfully extracted. Two men remain missing. Lao and Thai rescue groups posted about the successful operation on social media, along with photos of the men lying on stretchers, wearing oxygen masks and being wrapped in foil blankets. The villagers had reportedly entered the cave last week to look for valuable minerals before being trapped by flash flooding that blocked their way out. One other villager escaped in time and alerted the authorities to the seven left behind.

SINGAPORE (AP) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assured Pacific allies on Saturday that Washington remained committed to the region, but toned down previous comments calling China a threat. Speaking to a group of world leaders, diplomats and top security officials at the Shangri-La defense conference in Singapore, Hegseth said that the region "has profound implications for U.S. security and prosperity" and that Washington's priority was to "achieve a lasting and favorable balance of power in the Pacific." It was his second time addressing the forum, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Last year, he raised the ire of Beijing by warning of rapidly developing threats from China, particularly its aggressive stance toward Taiwan.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A truck carrying Afghan refugees returning from neighboring Pakistan overturned on a highway in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 22 people and injuring about 36 others, most of them women and children, officials said. The accident occurred in Laghman province on the main highway linking Kabul, the Afghan capital, with Nangarhar province, said Abdul Malik Niazai, the spokesperson for the provincial governor. He said among the dead were 10 children and five women, and the injured were taken to hospitals in Nangarhar. The provincial director of public health. Aminullah Sharif, said 22 people were killed and about 36 injured.

BANGKOK (AP) - The leader of Myanmar's military-backed government embarked Saturday on an official visit to India, one of the country's key regional partners, for high-level meetings aimed at strengthening bilateral ties. It is the first time Min Aung Hlaing has traveled to the neighboring country since he was sworn into office as president in April following an election that critics say was orchestrated to maintain the military's tight grip on power. His last visit to India was in 2019 as military chief. India has maintained ties with Myanmar's military-backed administrations despite Western sanctions imposed after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and launched a crackdown on opponents that evolved into a nationwide armed conflict and humanitarian crisis.

HONG KONG (AP) - A prominent Hong Kong journalist began serving a five-day prison sentence Friday after losing an appeal against his conviction for obstructing a police officer in a case that sparked concerns about the city's declining press freedom. Hong Kong was once a bastion of media freedom in Asia, but news outlets have been forced to close, some journalists have been arrested and those still working are operating in a narrower space since authorities began cracking down on activist voices following the mass pro-democracy protests in 2019. Ronson Chan, a former chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was arrested in September 2022 on his way to a reporting assignment.

SIDOARJO, Indonesia (AP) - Residents in the East Java province of Indonesia scattered flowers, paid their respects and prayed at the edge of a mud lake on Friday, the 20th anniversary of the eruption of the Lusi mud volcano that inundated villages and killed at least 14 people. The eruption on May 29, 2006, was likely triggered by commercial gas drilling by a local exploration company, according to scientific research, contradicting an Indonesian government minister at the time who insisted it was a natural disaster. Residents gathered to remember those killed, and the homes and neighborhoods they once lived in before boiling mud slowly swallowed them up in the Porong subdistrict in Sidoarjo.

HONG KONG (AP) - Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after spending nearly seven months in space, setting a record for the longest on-orbit stay by a Chinese crew. The craft carrying Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang of the Shenzhou 21 crew touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia region in the evening. Their return came as China prepares for its first lunar landing by 2030. The crew had completed various tasks, from processing and transmitting experimental data to transferring remaining supplies, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the China Manned Space Agency as saying.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hold a commemorative summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia in June, the Philippines' top diplomat said Friday. Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro said in a post on X that she and her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, spoke on the phone about ASEAN's summit to be held in the Russian city of Kazan. The Russian Embassy in Manila said that ahead of the June 17 to 18 meeting, Lavrov and Lazaro discussed "the prospects of expanding Russia's strategic partnership" with ASEAN. Aside from the Philippines, ASEAN members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam.

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese court on Friday sentenced a former abbot of China's famous Shaolin Temple to 24 years in prison after he was found guilty of offences including misappropriation of funds and bribery, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Shi Yongxin, whose original name is Liu Yingcheng, was also fined 3.5 million yuan (about $516,000) by the court in central Henan province after a trial. The court found that Shi used his positions, including as the temple abbot, to illegally embezzle over 131 million yuan ($19 million) alone or in conspiracy with others, between 2003 and 2025, CCTV reported. The court also discovered that Shi misappropriated funds amounting to over 151 million yuan (about $22 million) for personal use for more than three months without repayment between 2012 and 2022, among other findings, the report added.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A Philippine anti-graft court ordered the arrest of a prominent senator on Friday over allegations he pocketed a kickback of millions of dollars in a flood-control project, in the latest crisis to entangle the Senate. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada surrendered and posted bail before the Sandiganbayan court, allowing him to remain free while the case proceeds. The court barred Estrada from leaving the country while facing the first of two corruption-related charges in relation to the flood control project anomalies. Another warrant for his arrest for the second charge, which is non-bailable, is expected to be issued by the court soon, top anti-graft prosecutor Jesus Crispin Remulla told The Associated Press.