Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

BENGALURU, India (AP) - The late arrival of India's monsoon season and below-average rainfall have caused problems ranging from planting delays for farmers to water restrictions for construction sites in its largest business hub, Mumbai. Water shortages have been reported around the country due to the late start of the rainy season, which typically begins in June but has grown erratic in recent years. Climate experts said the El Nino, a warming of the Pacific that affects weather around the globe, combined with an already heating planet, will likely result in weak, scattered rainfall across the country. While monsoon rains reached Mumbai earlier this week, about two weeks later than normal, water restrictions are in place to bolster the city's dwindling reservoirs.

TOKYO (AP) - Heavy downpours triggered flooding in parts of western Japan on Friday as two approaching tropical storms added to a seasonal rain front already stuck above the country. Storm Mekkhala was off the western coast of Japan's southern remote island of Amami as of late afternoon Friday as it headed northeast, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Another storm, Higos, was traveling nearby and the two storms are expected to reach the Tokyo region Saturday while dumping heavy rain, the JMA said. Earlier Friday, a man was injured as he fell into a waterway in Nara, according to Japan's NHK public television.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - As the U.S. and Iran exchanged escalating strikes on June 11, a plane carrying Qatari mediators was stranded on the tarmac in Tehran. They had been engaged in intensive talks through the night, attempting to halt what appeared to be a spiral back into all-out war, a diplomat briefed on the talks said. The scene on the runway encapsulated the tumultuous diplomatic process, led by Pakistan and Qatar, that led to last week's deal to end a war that destabilized the Middle East and damaged the world economy. It was one of several moments in which social media threats or actual hostilities threatened to reignite the war.

TAIPEI (AP) - A small aircraft crashed into Beijing's tallest building on Friday, according to a witness account and media reports, triggering evacuations and drawing a large police and ambulance presence in the city's business district. Photos show what appeared to be a hole in the glass facade on one side of the CITIC Tower, also known as China Zun. A person working in the building told The Associated Press an aircraft crashed into the skyscraper, and a fire alarm was triggered. The person spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Incidents such as crashes are considered sensitive by Chinese authorities.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Thick clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city Friday as authorities burned more than 50 tons of heroin, opium, ketamine, methamphetamine, marijuana and crystal meth - some $600 million of confiscated illegal drugs destroyed nationwide. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has a long history of drug production linked to political and economic insecurity caused by decades of armed conflict. It has been a major source of illegal drugs destined for East and Southeast Asia, despite repeated efforts to crack down, and has long been one of the world's largest producers of heroin and methamphetamine.

SURAT, India (AP) - Before dawn breaks over the Indian industrial hub of Surat, textile worker Sibaram Pradhan is already awake, sitting on the floor in a cramped room he shares with as many as nine other men. Sweat beads on his forehead even at 6 a.m. as sweltering heat and humidity make days and nights hot across India this summer. Like numerous others from his home state of Odisha in eastern India, Pradhan works in a power loom factory that produces polyester cloth in Surat, among the largest hubs for synthetic fabrics in the world. The 35-year-old is among the millions of workers in South Asia who endure appalling living conditions combined with hot, humid, poorly ventilated and incredibly loud factory floors as climate-driven extreme heat is only becoming worse across the region.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The wife of ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday after a court convicted her of accepting luxury gifts from businesspeople and others seeking political and business favors. The ruling by the Seoul Central District Court came months after an appeals court sentenced the ex-first lady, Kim Keon Hee, to four years in prison in a separate case over charges that she accepted gifts from the Unification Church and profited from a stock price manipulation scheme. "Given the nature of the position, a president's spouse must exercise the highest degree of self-restraint and vigilance," said Judge Jo Soon-pyo.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - The Australian government plans to strengthen laws that ban children younger than 16 from social media platforms, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. Observers said on Friday the government was responding to evidence that the ban on young children holding accounts on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube had failed since it came into force on Dec. 10 last year. Australia was the first country in the world to pass legislation keeping youth off social media, but others have since followed. Albanese told Parliament on Thursday this government was considering options to strengthen the ban. "We're working on that as a priority because this is something that other generations didn't have to deal with, which is why it's complex," Albanese told Parliament.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the treason conviction and 14-year prison sentence of two journalists who posted photographs on Facebook last year related to border clashes with Thailand, prompting new accusations from rights groups that Prime Minister Hun Manet 's government is influencing the courts to quash press freedoms. The high court issued its decision after a short hearing, ruling that the convictions of Phorn Sopheap of Battambang Post TV Online and Pheap Pheara of TSP 68 TV Online were firmly grounded in Cambodian law, said Kang Pothe Vireak, one of the defense team.

BEIJING (AP) - China on Thursday defended its recent patrols in waters east of Taiwan, one day after Britain, France and Germany expressed alarm about what they described as "novel Chinese activity." While the three European countries said the activity, which they did not specifically identify, endangered regional stability, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said China's law-enforcement and patrol activities were aimed at maintaining regional stability and maritime order. China deployed coast guard ships in response to an announcement by Japan and the Philippines that they would discuss their maritime boundaries in waters that Beijing views as its own. "These are necessary actions in response to Japan's and the Philippines' manipulation of maritime delimitation issues and infringement upon China's maritime rights and interests," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a daily briefing.