Top Asia Pacific Breaking News

BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand and Cambodia were engaged in combat along their border on Friday, even as the two countries held talks to try to put an end to armed clashes that erupted in early December, breaking a ceasefire that had been reached five months earlier. Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said that Thailand deployed F-16 fighter jets to drop around 40 bombs on a village in the northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the ministry said that houses and infrastructure were destroyed. Thailand’s military confirmed the attack, saying that a joint army-air force operation was essential to protect Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, which borders Banteay Meanchey and where the two nations have overlapping territorial claims.

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) – Imprisoned former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was sentenced to 15 years and a hefty 13.5 billion ringgit ($3.3 billion) in fines and assets after being convicted Friday in his biggest corruption trial tied to the multibillion-dollar looting of the 1MDB state investment fund. The nation’s High Court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than $700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah sentenced Najib to 15 years in prison for each charge of abuse of power, and five years for each of the money laundering charges.

BEIJING (AP) – Beijing imposed sanctions on Friday against 20 U.S. defense-related companies and 10 executives, a week after Washington annoucned large-scale arms sales to Taiwan. The sanctions entail freezing the companies’ assets in China and banning individuals and organizations from dealing with them, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. The companies include Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, L3Harris Maritime Services and Boeing in St. Louis, while defense firm Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey is one of the executives sanctioned, who can no longer do business in China and are barred from entering the country. Their assets in the East Asian country have also been frozen.

TOKYO (AP) – A man was arrested after stabbing eight people and injuring seven others with what was believed to be bleach at a tire factory in central Japan on Friday, officials said. There was no immediate explanation of his motive. Eight people were taken to hospitals after being stabbed by the man with a knife at a factory of the tiremaker Yokohama Rubber Co. in the city of Mishima, in the Shizuoka prefecture, west of Tokyo, according to the Fujisan Nanto Fire Department. The fire department told The Associated Press that five of the people who were stabbed were in serious condition but other details were not available.

TOKYO (AP) – Japan’s Cabinet on Friday approved a record defense budget plan exceeding 9 trillion yen ($58 billion) for the coming year, aiming to fortify its strike-back capability and coastal defense with cruise missiles and unmanned arsenals as tensions rise in the region. The draft budget for fiscal 2026, beginning April, is up 9.4% from 2025 and marks the fourth year of Japan’s ongoing five-year program to double annual arms spending to 2% of gross domestic product. “It is the minimum needed as Japan faces the severest and most complex security environment in the postwar era,” Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said, stressing his country’s determination to pursue military buildup and protect its people.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s government said it plans to end its waning foreign adoptions of Korean children, while United Nations investigators voiced “serious concern” over what they described as Seoul’s failure to ensure truth-finding and reparations for widespread human rights violations tied to decades of mass overseas adoptions. The announcement Friday came hours after the United Nations human rights office released South Korea’s response to investigators urging Seoul to spell out concrete plans to address the grievances of adoptees sent abroad with falsified records or abused by foreign parents. The issue had rarely been discussed at the U.N.

BANGKOK (AP) – Myanmar will hold the first phase of a general election on Sunday, its first vote in five years and an exercise that critics say will neither restore the country’s fragile democracy undone by a 2021 army takeover, nor end a devastating civil war triggered by the nation’s harsh military rule. The military has framed the polls as a return to multi-party democracy, likely seeking to add a facade of legitimacy to its rule, which began after the army four years ago ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover triggered widespread popular opposition that has grown into a civil war.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – An independent counsel on Friday demanded a 10-year prison term for South Korea’s ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol in the first of seven criminal cases related to his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law in 2024 and other allegations stemming from his time in office. The first of Yoon’s trials to wrap up covers charges, including defiance of authorities’ attempts to investigate and detain him. Yoon’s lawyers called the 10-year term request “excessive” and accused independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such a harsh punishment. The court is expected to render a verdict as early as next month.

ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistan summoned Britain’s deputy high commissioner on Friday after a viral video showed a woman at a rally in a northern English city saying the Pakistani army chief would die in a possible attack. The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Matt Cannell to demand an investigation into a woman who discussed the possible killing of Pakistan’s chief of defense staff, Asim Munir, in a car bombing, officials and local media said. The woman was rallying in Bradford, England, in support of Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan, ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022, has been in prison for two years on a corruption conviction.

NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans Thursday for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an antisemitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harms way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec.