Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Morning Edition

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Separatists from Pakistan's Balochistan province claimed responsibility for nearly a dozen coordinated attacks across southern Pakistan early Saturday that targeted civilians, a high-security prison, police stations and paramilitary installations. Eleven civilians, 10 security personnel and 67 insurgents were killed, authorities said. Though Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban frequently target security forces in Balochistan and elsewhere in the country, coordinated attacks on this scale are rare. Authorities said at least 108 militants have been killed across Balochistan over the past 48 hours, including 67 on Saturday. Analysts said it was the deadliest single day for militants in decades.

TOKYO (AP) - A Pokemon card game event planned for Saturday at a controversial shrine to Japan's war dead has been canceled and the Pokemon Company apologized for posting an event notice on its website following a backlash from China, as tensions between the two sides escalated. The Yasukuni Shrine honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. Countries that were targets of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as showing a lack of remorse about Japan's wartime past. The event attracted a sharp response from Chinese state media, where editorials cited angry comments trending on social media.

PANAMA CITY (AP) - Panama's president moved to assure the public on Friday that critical ports at both ends of the Panama Canal will continue to operate without interruption - a day after the country's Supreme Court ruled that the concession held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong's CK Hutchison Holdings was unconstitutional. The court's decision late Thursday advances a U.S. aim to block any influence by China over the strategic waterway and immediately drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said that until the court's ruling is executed - a period of time he did not specify - Panama's Maritime Authority would work with Panama Ports Company, the CK Hutchison subsidiary, to ensure continuing operations at the port.

BEIJING (AP) - U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in the Chinese financial center of Shanghai on Friday in his bid to boost business opportunities for British firms in the world's second-largest economy, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled a possible opposition to any deal between Beijing and London. Starmer, the center-left Labour leader, has brought more than 50 business leaders on his trip to China, the first by a U.K. prime minister in eight years. Starmer suggested Trump's criticism was aimed more at Canada than Britain. He added that Washington was aware in advance of his trip and its objectives and pointed out that Trump has said he plans to visit China this spring.

CEBU, Philippines (AP) - A peace plan agreed on by Southeast Asian leaders five years ago has failed to end Myanmar's civil war but it could still serve as a basis for working with the new government that will emerge from recent elections there, Thailand's top diplomat said Friday. The nationwide violence that followed the Myanmar army's forcible seizure of power from Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in February 2021 has become one of the biggest challenges and sources of embarrassment for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The 2021 army takeover was met by widespread protests which were violently put down by the army, leading to armed resistance and brutal fighting all over the country.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's security forces have raided two militant hideouts in the country's southwest, killing 41 insurgents in separate gunbattles, the military said Friday. The first raid left 30 insurgents dead in Panjgur district in Balochistan province, according to a military statement. It said that 11 more militants were killed in a second operation in Harnai district in Balochistan. Both raids took place on Thursday, and no soldiers were killed. The military said that the killed militants were backed by neighboring India, but provided no evidence to support the accusation. It said that those killed were involved in multiple attacks on security forces and in bank robberies.

TOKYO (AP) - Japan and Britain agreed Saturday to accelerate cooperation on cybersecurity and the supply of critical minerals, as China's influence grows in the region. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his visit to Japan comes at a time "when geopolitical, economic and technological shocks are literally shaking the world." Starmer's overnight Tokyo visit comes on the heels of his trip to Beijing, where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to seek a long-term, stable "strategic partnership." Japan has faced growing tension from China since a comment by the country's leader Sanae Takaichi about a possible Japanese involvement in the case of Chinese military action against Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing claims as its own.

CEBU, Philippines (AP) - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations does not recognize the recently held elections in Myanmar, the first since the army seized power in 2021, the Philippine foreign secretary said Thursday. ASEAN's non-recognition of the elections in Myanmar, which a military-backed party claimed to have won, is a major blow to efforts by the country's military rulers to gain international recognition. The regional bloc, whose 11 members include Myanmar, has refused to recognize the military-ruled government since the army forcibly wrested power from Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in 2021. The powergrab has plunged the impoverished country in a deadly civil war.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - From her exile in India, Bangladesh's ousted leader Sheikh Hasina has slammed the country's upcoming election after her party was barred from the polls, remarks that could deepen tensions ahead of the pivotal vote next month. Hasina, who was sentenced to death for her crackdown on a student uprising in 2024 that killed hundreds of people and led to the toppling of her 15-year rule, warned in an email to The Associated Press last week that without inclusive and free and fair elections, Bangladesh will face prolonged instability. She also claimed that Bangladesh's interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus deliberately disenfranchised millions of her supporters by excluding her party - the former ruling Awami League - from the election.

BEIJING (AP) - The leaders of Britain and China called Thursday for a "strategic partnership" to deepen ties between their nations at a time of growing global turbulence as they sought to thaw relations after years of chill. Neither Prime Minister Keir Starmer nor President Xi Jinping publicly mentioned Donald Trump, but the U.S. president's challenge to the post-Cold War order was clearly on their minds. "In the current turbulent and ever-changing international situation ... China and the U.K. need to strengthen dialogue and cooperation to maintain world peace and stability," Xi told Starmer at the start of their meeting. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Xi had stressed, without mentioning the U.S.