Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Morning Edition

BEIJING (AP) - Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday. Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1%, growing to about 70,000 over five years. China will reduce its total tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from 84% to about 15%, he told reporters.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations. Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster. The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, An independent counsel has requested the death sentence over that charge, and the Seoul Central District Court will decide on that in a ruling on Feb.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Myanmar insisted Friday that its deadly military campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority was a legitimate counter-terrorism operation and did not amount to genocide, as it defended itself at the top United Nations court against an allegation of breaching the genocide convention. Myanmar launched the campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. Security forces were accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of homes as more than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh. "Myanmar was not obliged to remain idle and allow terrorists to have free reign of northern Rakhine state," the country's representative Ko Ko Hlaing told black-robed judges at the International Court of Justice.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children in Australia since the country banned use of the platforms by those under 16, officials said. "We stared down everybody who said it couldn't be done, some of the most powerful and rich companies in the world and their supporters," communications minister Anika Wells told reporters on Friday. "Now Australian parents can be confident that their kids can have their childhoods back." The figures, reported to Australia's government by 10 social media platforms, were the first to show the scale of the landmark ban since it was enacted in December over fears about the effects of harmful online environments on young people.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taiwan's premier on Friday hailed a new trade deal with the United States as the "best tariff deal" enjoyed by countries with trade surpluses with Washington, as meanwhile a Chinese official in Beijing condemned the accord. The agreement cuts U.S. tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15% in exchange for $250 billion in new investments in the U.S. tech industry. It is comparable to deals with the European Union and Japan worked out after President Donald Trump proposed sweeping tariffs for many U.S. trading partners. "For the time being, we obtained the best tariff deal enjoyed by the countries with trade surplus with the U.S.," said Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean authorities have summoned a civilian to investigate if the person sent drones toward North Korea, police said Friday, days after North Korea threatened responses to what it called drone flights from South Korea. North Korea's military said on Saturday that it used electronic warfare assets to bring down a South Korean drone earlier this month and another last September. It said it found the drones had video data on sites in North Korea and warned that South Korea "will pay a dear price." South Korea dismissed the accusation but launched an investigation team to find if civilians launched the drones discovered in North Korea.

BANGKOK (AP) - Thailand's construction industry is under intense scrutiny following a series of high-profile deadly accidents. These include a crane falling onto a moving passenger train this past week and the collapse of an office tower a year ago that killed nearly 100 workers. Public concern is particularly high in Bangkok due to the frequent and sometimes fatal construction accidents on major road projects. In the latest case, a construction crane collapsed on Thursday, killing two people, just a day after the train tragedy in which 32 people died. Public outrage has centered on Italian-Thai Development, the contractor responsible for both sites where the past week's accidents occurred.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A fire on Friday in one of Seoul's last-remaining shanty towns burned makeshift houses and forced about 260 residents to flee, but no casualties were reported. The fire was completely contained more than eight hours after it broke out in Guryong village in southern Seoul, the National Fire Agency said in a statement. The agency said that 258 residents were evacuated to safe places and that there were no causalities. The fire agency said it will launch forensic and other examinations to find what caused the blaze and to determine the extent of damage to property.

HONG KONG (AP) - The United States and Taiwan reached a trade deal Thursday that cuts tariffs on Taiwanese goods in exchange for $250 billion in new investments in the U.S. tech industry. The deal is the latest President Donald Trump has struck - such as those with the European Union and Japan - since he unveiled a sweeping tariff plan last April to address trade imbalances. Trump also has a one-year trade truce with China to stabilize ties with the world's second largest economy. Trump initially set the tariff at 32% on Taiwanese goods but later changed it to 20%.

BANGKOK (AP) - A construction crane collapsed onto an elevated road near Bangkok, killing two people on Thursday, a day after another crane fell onto a moving passenger train in northeastern Thailand and killed 32 people. The twin tragedies led Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to announce late Thursday that he would terminate the contracts of the contractors involved. The work on an extension of the Rama 2 Road expressway - a major artery leading from Bangkok - has become notorious for construction accidents, some of them fatal. The crane collapsed Thursday morning in Samut Sakhon province, trapping two vehicles in the wreckage.