Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

PANAMA CITY (AP) - The U.S. State Department accused China of violating Panama's sovereignty over a port dispute in the Central American nation, triggering another fierce back-and-forth on Wednesday as the Chinese government called the Trump administration hypocritical. The most recent spat was triggered in early April when Rubio accused China of "bullying" by detaining or holding up dozens of Panama-flagged ships - though for a short period of time - after the Central American country seized control of two critical ports on the canal earlier this year from a subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company. China denied the allegations.

BANGKOK (AP) - Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is set to be released from a Bangkok prison next month after a Justice Ministry panel decision to grant him parole, the Corrections Department announced on Wednesday. The decision to release him from Klong Prem Central Prison on May 11 comes as the 76-year-old Thaksin completes the legally required minimum of two-thirds of his one-year sentence. His freedom will mark the end of a tangled legal saga that began after Thaksin returned to Thailand from more than a decade of self-imposed exile in 2023. He was sentenced the same year to eight years in prison for abuse of power.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A trial opened in a military court on Wednesday for four Indonesian service members accused of carrying out an acid attack on a prominent human rights activist, in a case that has reignited concerns about military impunity. Three Indonesian navy marines and one air force officer, all assigned to the intelligence agency of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, or TNI, are charged with serious premeditated assault in the March attack on Andrie Yunus, a human rights lawyer and senior activist with the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, known as KontraS, who suffered severe injuries.

CHIANG SAEN, Thailand (AP) - A lone finger-length fish was a disappointing start to 75-year-old Sukjai Yana's day. He recast his net from the bow of his long-tail fishing boat, slowly drifting towards the confluence of the Mekong and Kok rivers in northern Thailand. Thailand is bearing the brunt as toxic runoff from rare earth mines in upstream Myanmar and Laos seep into the Mekong Basin, threatening millions who rely on its waters for farms and fisheries. These heavy metal toxins imperil Southeast Asia's globally important, multi-billion-dollar produce industry, backbone of its developing economies. "The Mekong and Kok Rivers are both a source of food and income, which gives life to the people," said Sayan Khamnueng of the Living Rivers Association.

BEIRUT (AP) - A group of Australian women and children who left a camp in Syria that houses people with alleged ties to Islamic State group militants are stuck in the country because Australian authorities have refused to allow their return, Syrian officials said Wednesday. Thirteen women and children from four families last week left Roj camp, a remote facility near the border with Iraq that houses relatives of suspected militants, on Friday and headed to Syria's capital. An official at the camp at the time said that the families were expected to remain in Damascus for around 72 hours and then be sent to Australia.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia is urging social media companies and digital platforms to report the number of accounts that have been suspended as part of the implementation of government regulations restricting access for children under 16, authorities said Wednesday. "We will continue to insist that compliance alone is not enough; we must also report the figures to the public in the interest of transparency," said Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid. Indonesia began implementing a new government regulationat the end of March banning children younger than 16 from accessing digital platforms that could expose them to pornography, cyberbullying, online scams and addiction.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's military targeted and destroyed several Afghan Taliban posts in a remote southwestern region on Wednesday in what officials described as a response to "unprovoked aggression," signaling rising tensions between the neighbors. Two security officials said Pakistan also struck hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban near the town of Chaman, in southwestern Balochistan province. A day earlier, a mortar shell fired by the Afghan Taliban hit a house there, killing one civilian and wounding two others. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said Pakistani forces had thwarted "malicious intentions" of militants through timely action, adding that they were giving a "befitting response" to aggression.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A South Korean appeals court on Wednesday sentenced ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and bypassing a legitimate Cabinet meeting before his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024. The conviction for obstruction of justice and other charges comes on top of a life sentence he has already received on rebellion charges stemming from his baffling authoritarian push, which triggered the most serious crisis for the country's democracy in decades. Judge Yoon Sung-sik of the Seoul High Court said the conservative former president sidestepped a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting before declaring martial law, falsified documents to conceal the lapse, and deployed security officials "like a private army" to resist law enforcement efforts to arrest him in the weeks following his impeachment.

CHIANG SAEN, Thailand (AP) - Perched on the bow of his long-tail fishing boat, 75-year-old Sukjai Yana untangled a handful of small fish from his net, disappointed by his catch and fretting over whether he can sell them. Some days Yana earns nothing: demand for fish is falling due to worries over contamination of the Mekong River and its tributaries by toxic runoff from rare earth mines upstream that is threatening millions who rely on those waters for farms and fisheries. Chiang Saen, a fishing hub in northern Thailand, has been Yana's family's home for decades. "I don't know where else I'd go," he said.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A Philippine congressional committee ruled Wednesday that there was "probable cause" to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte after looking into criminal allegations against her, including unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The Philippines, a bastion of democracy in Asia, has been plagued for decades by allegations of governance anomalies and political turbulence, including a raging political conflict between Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The unanimous decision of the 53-member justice committee of the House of Representatives is the latest setback for the vice president, who has denied any wrongdoing.