Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump said U.S. negotiators will head to Pakistan on Monday for another round of talks with Iran, raising hopes of extending a fragile ceasefire set to expire by Wednesday, even as Washington and Tehran remain in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran did not immediately confirm the talks but its chief negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, said in an interview aired on state television late Saturday that "there will be no retreat in the field of diplomacy," while acknowledging a wide gap remained between the sides. The White House said Vice President JD Vance, who led the first round of historic face-to-face talks over 21 hours last weekend, would lead the U.S.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The door that once led to a family room now faces nothing but the void. Most of the floor is gone, as are the walls and roof. This used to be Syed Murtaza Sadar's home in Kabul, on top of the barber shop and public bath that was his family's business. Those, too, are nearly all gone, reduced to bricks and rubble. Sadar and his family were forced to tear down most of the building themselves. "This was our house and now I am destroying it with my own hands," the 25-year-old said, taking a brief break from pulling down a brick wall.

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) - An airplane search crew spotted an overturned ship matching the description of a cargo vessel that went missing with six people on board near the U.S. territory of Saipan, though authorities were not able to confirm whether it was the one that was lost, the Coast Guard said Saturday. The HC-130 Hercules crew saw the vessel early in the day about 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) northeast of the Mariana's last known position, the Coast Guard said. It was 34 nautical miles (63 kilometers) northeast of Pagan, a small island north of Saipan in the western Pacific Ocean.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea launched multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea on Sunday, its neighbors said, days after the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog warned that North Korea was making "very serious" advances in efforts to build nuclear weapons. The missiles fired from the North's Sinpo area flew about 140 kilometers (87 miles) each in a direction toward the country's eastern waters, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It said South Korea maintains a readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea and is closely exchanging information with the U.S. and Japan. In an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, senior South Korean officials expressed concerns about North Korea's repeated ballistic missile tests and urged it to stop them immediately.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Australia and Japan signed contracts on Saturday to deliver the first three of a 10 billion Australian dollar ($6.5 billion) fleet of Japanese-designed warships, with the first due for delivery in three years. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build the first three Mogami-class frigates in Japan. Australia plans to build another eight in a shipyard in Western Australia state. Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles attended a signing ceremony aboard the Mogami-class frigate JS Kumano, which is part of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, docked off the Australian city of Melbourne. The Kumano had taken part in the recent Exercise Kakadu, biennial multinational maritime drills hosted by Australia.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Australia's most decorated living veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, walked free on bail from a Sydney prison on Friday, 10 days after he was charged with war crimes in the killings of five people while serving in Afghanistan. Judge Greg Grogin granted Roberts-Smith bail in a Sydney court around five hours earlier, ruling the former Special Air Service Regiment corporal had established exceptional circumstances to justify his release from custody. Prosecutors had opposed bail and argued there was a risk that Roberts-Smith would flee Australia or interfere with witnesses and evidence. Roberts-Smith, 47, was arrested on April 7 and charged with five counts of war crime murder involving the deaths of five Afghans in Uruzgan province in 2009 and 2012.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - The Iran war's global energy shock is causing some nations in Asia and Africa to boost nuclear power generation and spurring atomic energy plans in non-nuclear countries on both continents. Asia, where most of the Middle Eastern oil and natural gas was headed, was hit first and hardest by disruptions to shipping routes carrying those fuels - swiftly followed by Africa. The U.S. and Europe are also feeling the pinch as the conflict drives up energy costs. African and Asian nations with nuclear plants are increasing their output as they scramble for short-term energy supplies, while non-nuclear countries are accelerating long-term nuclear plans to safeguard against future fossil fuel shocks.

BEIJING (AP) - A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China's technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21-kilometer (13-mile) race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, according to a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race kicked off. That was faster than the human world record holder, Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward from last year's inaugural race, during which the winning robot finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.

RAVE, India (AP) - Decorated bamboo poles were raised by members of the Agri-Koli community as part of a centuries-old, annual tradition honoring the goddess Raiba Devi in the village of Rave near Mumbai, India, on Friday. ____ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka has sent home 238 Iranian sailors, including 32 who survived a U.S torpedo attack that sank their ship in the Indian Ocean, officials said Friday. A U.S. submarine sank the IRIS Dena on March 4 while the ship was returning home after taking part in a naval exercise on invitation from India. The Sri Lankan navy recovered 87 bodies and 32 were hospitalized. A second Iranian ship was brought to a southern Sri Lankan port after its crew reported technical problems. Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Franklin Joseph said Friday that everyone except for a few crew members from the second ship had been repatriated earlier this week.