Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

ISLAMABAD (AP) - As fears of a wider regional conflict escalate following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that began in late February, Pakistan has emerged as an unexpected mediator, offering to help bring Washington and Tehran to the negotiating table. Islamabad isn't often called on to act as an intermediary in high-stakes diplomacy, but it's stepped into the role this time for a number of reasons, both because it has relatively good ties with both Washington and Tehran and because it has a lot at stake in seeing the war resolved. Pakistani government officials have said that their public peace effort follows weeks of quiet diplomacy, though they have provided few details.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Nepal's youngest prime minister took the oath of office Friday after his party won a landslide victory in elections earlier this month, and following a youth-led uprising that toppled the government in September. Balendra Shah was appointed prime minister by President Ram Chandra Paudel Friday after his Rastriya Swatantra Party won nearly two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, in the March 5 polls. Shah, the 35-year-old political outsider widely known as Balen, will lead a government tasked with navigating deep public frustration with Nepal's established parties, who were widely blamed by voters for corruption and chronic political instability.

BEIJING (AP) - China launched two investigations into U.S. trade practices on Friday, signaling its resolve to push back against President Donald Trump's tariffs ahead of his visit in May. The Commerce Ministry said the new probes are a response to two investigations announced by Trump earlier this month against multiple countries, including China. A ministry statement said the two Chinese investigations were launched to safeguard the interests of relevant Chinese industries and expressed "firm opposition" to the American probes. One will examine U.S. policies that restrict Chinese goods from entering the United States and that limit U.S. export of advanced technology products to China.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Farmers around the world are feeling the squeeze of the Iran war. Gas prices have shot up and fertilizer supplies are waning due to Tehran's near shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli bombing. The fertilizer shortage is putting the livelihood of farmers in developing countries - already troubled by rising temperatures and erratic weather systems - further at risk, and could lead to people everywhere paying more for food. The poorest farmers in the Northern Hemisphere rely on fertilizer imports from the Gulf, and the shortage comes just as planting season begins, said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program.

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) - Mongolia 's Prime Minister Zandanshatar Gombojav resigned Friday after rising tensions within the ruling Mongolian People's Party and a parliamentary boycott by the opposition. The parliament accepted Zandanshatar's resignation. The opposition Democratic Party earlier this month launched a boycott of parliamentary activity, citing concerns over the concentration of power within the ruling party. There have been months of corruption allegations against Justice Minister Enkhbayar Battumur, a close ally of Zandanshatar, who has not been accused. In a statement on social media, Zandanshatar, who had been prime minister since June, said the political infighting would end up harming the economy and lead to rising prices.

From soft peach to vivid pink and purple blooms, spring arrives in a burst of color across the Northern Hemisphere. In Washington, D.C. and Tokyo, streets and parks are awash in a sea of cherry blossoms. Across the plains of Greece's largest peach-producing region, orchards unfurl like a pink veil over the landscape, while in London parks burst into bloom. And each spring, a purple haze of blossoming jacaranda trees brightens Mexico City. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers. Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest. Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Dozens of people were buried in a Kabul cemetery on Thursday in the second mass funeral of victims killed in an airstrike that hit a drug rehabilitation center in the Afghan capital earlier this month. Bulldozers opened a large pit into which individual graves were dug for the 60 coffins. Afghan officials have said hundreds of people were killed when a Pakistani airstrike hit the 2,000-bed Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital on March 16. The U.N. humanitarian affairs office has said the total death toll is still under verification. Pakistan has denied targeting civilians, saying it struck an ammunition depot.

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held talks in North Korea's capital on Thursday and signed a friendship and cooperation treaty as the two Russian allies draw closer in the face of their confrontations with the U.S.-led West. Lukashenko, who was in Pyongyang on a two-day official visit, hailed the document as "fundamental," and said that relations between the two countries are "entering a new stage," according to his press service. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Friday that the leaders discussed boosting high-level cooperation and visits and exchanged their views on unspecified "international and regional issues of mutual concern."

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Balendra Shah, a structural engineer who rose to fame as a rap artist before becoming Kathmandu's mayor, is poised to become Nepal's next prime minister, after his party swept a parliamentary election earlier this month. Shah, widely known as Balen, leads the Rastriya Swatantra Party, or, RSP, which won about two-thirds of the 275 seats in the bicameral parliament's powerful lower House of Representatives. It is the first time in many years in Nepal that a single party has won such an overwhelming majority. Shah was chosen as the leader by the elected members from his party on Thursday.