Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Morning Edition

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The U.S. and South Korean militaries said on Wednesday they will conduct their annual springtime exercises next month to bolster their countries' combined defense capabilities against a backdrop of a deepening diplomatic freeze with nuclear-armed North Korea. The Freedom Shield drills is set for March 9-19, according to the announcement. North Korea has long described the allies ' joint exercises as invasion rehearsals and used them as a pretext to dial up its own military demonstrations and weapons testing activity. The allies say the drills are defensive in nature. The announcement came as North Korea is holding a major political conference where authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un is expected to outline his key domestic, foreign policy and military goals for the next five years.

TOKYO (AP) - Japan's government said Wednesday that a Japanese national has been detained in Tehran since January and demanded the Iranian authorities release them swiftly. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki, asked about foreign media reports on the case, confirmed only that the Japanese citizen was taken into custody on Jan. 20 but gave no further details, citing privacy issues. Ozaki said the government is in contact with the detainee and their family members, while providing necessary support. Foreign Ministry officials said the detainee is believed to be in good health, although Japanese officials have not been granted a meeting in person.

JERUSALEM (AP) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off a two-day visit to Israel on Wednesday aimed at focusing on strengthening security, economic and technological cooperation between the two countries. The Indian leader stepped out of the plane beaming and descended the staircase to a big hug from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife, Sara Netanyahu. The warm greeting underscored how much closer Israel-India relations have grown under Modi, whose embrace of Israel has marked a shift in India's foreign policy. India has historically supported the Palestinians, and did not establish full diplomatic ties with Israel until 1992.

BEIJING (AP) - There are many things that China and Germany do not see eye-to-eye on - notably Russia's war in Ukraine - but the leaders of the world's second and third largest economies nonetheless pledged Wednesday to work to deepen ties in an era of global turbulence. Both countries have been buffeted by the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, who lauded his import tariffs in a State of the Union address delivered just hours before German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met separately with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing. "The more turbulent and complex the world becomes, the more China and Germany should strengthen strategic communication and enhance strategic mutual trust," Xi said at the government's Diaoyutai state guesthouse, a leafy and sprawling property dotted with grand buildings.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - A prominent Cambodian opposition politician who was convicted of inciting social disorder was granted early release from prison on Wednesday after receiving a royal pardon. Sun Chanthy, the former leader of the Nation Power Party, was arrested in May 2024 on his return from a trip to Japan, where he met with hundreds of Cambodian overseas workers. He was charged in connection with remarks he had posted on Facebook that were critical of the government. The Justice Ministry said he had dishonestly suggested that only members of the ruling Cambodian People's Party would receive cards entitling them to social welfare handouts.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Andrei Lankov, a prominent Russian scholar on North Korea who teaches at a Seoul university, said he was expelled from Latvia after being detained during a lecture in the country's capital. In a text message Wednesday, Lankov said Latvian police did not provide a reason for his detention late Tuesday in Riga, where he was delivering a lecture on North Korea. He was later turned over to immigration authorities and taken to the border with Estonia, according to the professor and his school. "They basically expelled me from the country, and it was all," Lankov said, without elaborating further.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A United States military plane hit a concrete barrier while attempting to take off from a road during contingency training in the Philippines, injuring all five American personnel aboard, Philippine officials said Wednesday. The pilot and two other American personnel were brought to a hospital for treatment after Tuesday afternoon's incident in a concrete bypass road in Laoac town in the northern Pangasinan province. Two other injured personnel were treated at the site and the U.S. Air Force transport plane was damaged, police said in a report. U.S. military officials did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for more details about the incident, including the condition of the injured personnel.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia freed and deported an American man Tuesday after he spent 11 years in prison for the premeditated murder of his then-girlfriend's mother on the tourist island of Bali, but he's still on the hook for federal charges back home. Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, the mother of Heather Mack, during a luxury vacation in what became known as the Bali " suitcase murder." The couple was trying to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund, prosecutors have said. Schaefer was deported back to the United States from Bali International Airport on Tuesday evening after serving his sentence and receiving a number of remissions for good behavior, said Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Bali Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration, in a statement.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Police in Sri Lanka arrested the country's former intelligence chief in connection with suicide bomb attacks in 2019 that killed nearly 270 people and were believed to be inspired by the Islamic State group, a spokesman said. Suresh Salley, a retired army major general, was arrested Wednesday by the country's Criminal Investigation Department, police spokesman Fredrick Wootler said. Two Islamist groups carried out six nearly simultaneous suicide bomb attacks on April, 21, 2019, which targeted churches and leading tourist hotels on Easter Sunday. Videos recorded by the attackers showed them pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's security forces killed 34 militants in multiple raids across the country, the military said on Wednesday, as a separate ambush blamed on the Pakistani Taliban killed four police officers near the Afghan border. Pakistan's military, in a statement, said 26 militants, including at least one Afghan, were killed in four separate operations in North Waziristan, Lakki Marwat, Bannu and Mir Ali districts in restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in recent days, near the Afghan border. The military accused some of the killed militants of trying to sneak into Pakistan when they were spotted and killed. Meanwhile, eight members of an outlawed Baloch militant group were also killed in a separate operation in insurgency-hit southwestern Balochistan province, the statement said.