Top Asia Pacific Breaking News; Latest Updates

NEW DELHI (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in India on Saturday ahead of a meeting next week with his counterparts from India, Australia, and Japan, members of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad. Rubio's first official trip to India comes as Washington seeks to stabilize relations with New Delhi after ties soured over President Donald Trump's tariff policies, which raised duties on several Indian exports. Much of Rubio's four-day visit, however, will focus on a multicity tour, along with a gala reception in New Delhi marking the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. "There's a lot to work on with India, they're a great ally and partner.

BEIJING (AP) - A gas explosion at a coal mine in China's northern Shanxi province killed at least 82 people, local officials said Saturday, in what was the country's deadliest mining accident in recent years. The official Xinhua News Agency said the accident at Changzhi city's Liushenyu coal mine happened on Friday evening. At a news conference late Saturday, local authorities said 82 were dead and that more than 120 people were hospitalized. Two were still missing. The death toll was a revised, lower number from earlier reports by state broadcaster CCTV that said 90 had died. The scene at the coal mine was "chaotic" in the immediate aftermath of the accident, they said, and figures provided at the time were initial and not definite.

A gas explosion at a coal mine in China's northern province of Shanxi, the country's main coal mining province, killed at least 82 people, local officials said Saturday. The cause of the explosion, which took place on Friday evening at the Liushenyu coal mine in the city of Changzhi, is under investigation. With a size larger than Greece and a population of around 34 million, the province's hundreds of thousands of miners dug 1.3 billion tons (1.17 billion metric tons) of coal last year - nearly a third of China's total. Mining disasters are common in China, where rapid industrialization came with intense resource exploitation, poor working conditions and a weak regulatory framework.

TOKYO (AP) - The first woman to conquer the world's second-highest peak, K2, three times has also summited all 14 of the world's tallest mountains. But Naoko Watanabe, 44, says climbing is less about piling up records than enjoying an adventure, being happy and experiencing new people, food and culture. She's planning to return in June to her favorite climb, Pakistan's Nanga Parbat, known as the "killer mountain," with a group of amateur trekkers. "I'm just an ordinary person who has happened to achieve records while climbing the Himalayas during my vacations," Watanabe told The Associated Press in a recent interview in Tokyo.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - The remains of four Italian divers who died deep inside an underwater cave earlier this month while diving in the Maldives were repatriated early Saturday, a Maldivian government spokesperson said. The four coffins arrived at Milan's Malpensa Airport in the middle of the day. The bodies were taken to a morgue and autopsies were due to begin on Monday, according to Italian news agency LaPresse. Five Italian divers went missing on May 14 while exploring the cave about 50 meters (160 feet) in Vaavu Atoll. The body of their Italian diving instructor was recovered outside the cave at the time and has already been returned home.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Two separate traffic accidents in Cambodia on Saturday killed at least 14 garment factory workers and injured 79 others, mostly women. The garment sector is Cambodia's main export earner, with low labor costs being its competitive advantage. Salaries, including overtime, generally amount to $200-300 a month. The first incident occurred in the province of Kampong Chhnang, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of the capital, Phnom Penh, when a heavy cargo truck crashed into an open-top truck transporting workers to their factory. Nine people were killed and 44 injured, according to a statement issued by the Labor Ministry.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taiwan hasn't been notified of any pause in a planned $14 billion U.S. arms sale to the self-governing island, a government official said Friday, after the acting U.S. Navy secretary told a Senate committee in Washington that some foreign military sales were being delayed to ensure the American military has enough munitions for the Iran war. Days after U.S. President Donald Trump raised doubts about continuing arms sales to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, acting U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao said Thursday that the sales would resume when the administration considers it appropriate.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia is overhauling its trade policies for key commodities in a sudden move that some experts liken to a hostile takeover of major industries in the resource-rich nation, with global implications. The new regulation announced to parliament Wednesday by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto mandates that a recently set up state-owned enterprise will handle the country's exports of coal, palm oil and iron alloys by September. Prabowo said one aim is to increase tax revenues. That would help restore dwindling government reserves that have been exhausted by the energy shocks from the war in Iran. Given Indonesia's role as a major commodities exporter, the new rules likely will ripple across international supply chains.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - A renowned Mount Everest guide who this week scaled the peak a record 32nd time urged authorities on Friday to limit climbers on the summit. The number of climbers making the ascent on the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak from the Nepalese side is higher this season because China has closed the route from Tibet. Everest can be scaled from either the southern side in Nepal or the northern side in China. On Wednesday, 274 climbers reached the summit, the highest number on a single day from the Nepal side. A total of 494 climbers have been issued permits by Nepal's mountaineering authorities and an equal number Sherpa guides are accompanying them.

GOTEMBA, Japan (AP) - With a burst of flame, followed by a thunderclap boom that broke the bucolic serenity of the training area in the foothills of Japan's Mount Fuji, the first rocket fired by the U.S. Marines from their mobile launcher screamed toward its target, the orange burn of its engine painting a streak across the blue sky. Another five rockets followed in rapid succession, before a second HIMARS truck drove out of its concealed position in a copse of evergreens, fired its salvo of six rockets, then retreated back to cover. The live-fire exercise this week at the U.S.