Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Morning Edition

GALLE, Sri Lanka (AP) - A torpedo fired by a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, whose navy said Wednesday it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people. The Iranian vessel sunk in the Indian Ocean was the Islamic Republic's "prize ship," U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. It was one of the few instances of a submarine sinking a ship since World War II. The sinking of the IRIS Dena illustrates a U.S.-Israeli military operation against Iran that is stretching beyond its borders. U.S. President Donald Trump has said one of the key objectives of the war is to wipe out Iran's navy.

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. stock market is rebounding Wednesday from two days of punishing swings after oil prices stopped spiking and reports gave encouraging updates on the economy. The S&P 500 rose 0.8% in midday trading and is on track to claw back most of its loss since the war with Iran began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 301 points, or 0.6%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% higher. The strength followed a scary start to Wednesday, when South Korea's Kospi stock index plunged 12.1% for its worst day in history. Uncertainty about the war has sent prices in financial markets careening up and down hour by hour this week, with most taking their cues from what the price of oil is doing.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to mediate for a new ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan as border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan entered their sixth day on Wednesday. The conflict erupted last week with Afghanistan launching attacks on Thursday in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous weekend. Since then, Pakistan has carried out operations along the border and declared it was in an "open war" with Afghanistan, alarming the international community. The ongoing clashes ended an earlier ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey in October, when the two neighbors had again come close to a war. The truce, signed in Qatar at the time, was followed by six days of talks in Istanbul, which resulted in an agreement to extend the truce and hold a third round of negotiations in November.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he supported the strikes on Iran "with some regret" as they represented an extreme example of a rupturing world order. Carney spoke at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank, during the Australian leg of a trade-focused, three-nation visit that began in India. He will address the Australian Parliament on Thursday, then fly to Japan on Friday. "Geostrategically, hegemons are increasingly acting without constraint or respect for international norms or laws, while others bear the consequences. Now the extremes of this disruption are being played out in real time in the Middle East," Carney said.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Millions of Nepalis are set to vote in crucial parliamentary elections, the first since a violent youth-led uprising toppled the previous government and thrust forward a new generation's demands for sweeping change in the Himalayan nation. Authorities have tightened security nationwide ahead of the polls Thursday. In addition to regular forces, thousands of temporary police officers have been deployed, and army troops - generally confined to barracks - are patrolling streets and guarding polling stations. The government has declared a three-day public holiday to allow voters to travel to their homes. Schools and other public buildings have been converted into polling centers, where ballots will be cast by residents - from remote Himalayan villages to towns across the southern plains.

Climate change's rising seas may threaten tens of millions more people than scientists and government planners originally thought because of mistaken research assumptions on how high coastal waters already are, a new study said. Researchers studied hundreds of scientific studies and hazard assessments, calculating that about 90% of them underestimated baseline coastal water heights by an average of 1 foot (30 centimeters), according to Wednesday's study in the journal Nature. It's a far more frequent problem in the Global South, the Pacific and Southeast Asia, and less so in Europe and along Atlantic coasts. The cause is a mismatch between the way sea and land altitudes are measured, said study co-author Philip Minderhoud, a hydrogeology professor at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands.

BEIJING (AP) - China's ceremonial legislature is set to meet Thursday, where it will unveil the country's policy direction and economic goals for the coming years. The meeting is held in Beijing, where the National People's Congress and its advisory body gather. The National People's Congress will ratify new laws decided by China's Communist Party leadership. While the near-3,000-member body technically votes, the vote is always almost unanimous. Also meeting is the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body composed of elite members of Chinese society, from business people to athletes. They also include representatives from China's minority groups, but the body has little power on issues of public policy.

PARIS (AP) - Governments across the world scrambled to organize the return of their citizens from the Middle East on Wednesday and air traffic seemed to be picking up slightly as travel across the region remained heavily disrupted by the widening war in the region. The first flight repatriating French citizens stranded in the Middle East landed in Paris early Wednesday as French authorities booked about 100 seats onboard for vulnerable people on a priority list, said Eleonore Caroit, the minister responsible for French Nationals Abroad. Students also returned to Milan after being evacuated from Dubai by the Italian government. Valerio Schiavoi, a member of the World Students Connection program, said he was part of a group involved in United Nations diplomatic simulations in Dubai.

LONDON (AP) - A former Hong Kong police officer and a U.K. border official acted on behalf of the Chinese government as secret law enforcement or intelligence agents in Britain, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Bill Yuen, 65, and Peter Wai, 38, both dual Chinese and British nationals, are on trial on charges they violated the National Security Act by assisting a foreign spy service. "The defendants engaged in shadow policing operations on behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and thereby the People's Republic of China," prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said in London's Central Criminal Court. The two acted as if they were legitimate law enforcement to conduct surveillance and gather information about individuals Hong Kong deemed as "persons of interest," such as pro-democracy supporters, Atkinson said.

HONG KONG (AP) - China's factory activity shrank for a second month in February, though lower U.S. tariffs could bring about a small boost in the coming weeks. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index, or PMI, slipped to 49 from 49.3 in January, a four-month low, the National Bureau of Statistics reported Wednesday. The figure from its monthly survey of factory managers is measured on a scale of 0 to 100 and indicates contraction when it is below 50. December's manufacturing PMI reading of 50.1 broke China's eight consecutive months of contraction, but its recent return to negative territory signals more weakness in manufacturing especially under sluggish domestic consumption and demand.