Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Morning Edition

BEIJING (AP) - China's President Xi Jinping on Saturday said political loyalty in the military must be ensured and called for resolutely pushing forward the fight against corruption as a military purge widened. "There must be no one in the military who harbors disloyalty to the (ruling Communist) Party," Xi said in remarks published by the official Xinhua News Agency. Xi was speaking at a plenary meeting of the delegation of China's People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force as China holds its annual "two sessions" meetings of its top legislature and its top political advisory body. An anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi shows no sign of letting up after more than a decade.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka transferred more than 200 sailors from an Iranian naval vessel to shore Friday after it sought assistance while anchored outside the country's waters, as tensions mounted in the Indian Ocean following the sinking of an Iranian warship by a U.S. submarine. Sri Lankan navy spokesperson Cmdr. Buddhika Sampath said 204 sailors of the IRIS Bushehr were brought to Welisara Naval Base near the capital, Colombo. They underwent border control procedures and medical tests, but none were found to have health issues. About 15 others have been left aboard the ship with Sri Lankan naval personnel for assistance because they had reported a fault with the ship.

HONG KONG (AP) - A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking $2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its "illegal" takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Company, a unit of Hong Kong's CK Hutchison Holdings, said in a Friday statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. Panama's government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, a crucial waterway for maritime trade, after the country's Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing the Panama Ports Company to run the pair of ports was unconstitutional.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Preliminary and partial results released Saturday showed a new political party led by an ex-rapper is in front in Nepal's parliamentary election, the country's first since last year's youth-led revolt. The Rastriya Swatantra, or National Independent, party, had already won 60 of 165 directly elected seats and was leading in 61 other constituencies in the results published by Nepal's Election Commission. Its prime ministerial candidate is rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, who won the 2022 Kathmandu mayoral race and emerged as a leading figure in the 2025 uprising that ousted former Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli. The 35-year-old highlighted health and education for poor Nepalis as a key focus of his campaign, which rode a wave of public anger toward traditional political parties.

TOKYO (AP) - A second Japanese national has been detained in Iran, Japan's Foreign Ministry said Friday and demanded the early release of both people. The ministry confirmed the second person had been detained before the Feb. 28 military strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel. The ministry said the detainee is safe and in good health but gave no other details such as the timing of the detention or whether it is related to the detention of a Japanese journalist reported last month. Japanese officials had confirmed the first person's detention though they refused to give the detainee's identity.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistani and Afghan forces launched multiple strikes at each other in cross-border clashes on Friday, and each side claimed to have killed dozens more enemy troops in what has been the deadliest fighting yet between the two neighbors - a conflict that Islamabad has declared to be an "open war." Repeated appeals from the international community for restraint have had no effect as the fighting, now in its ninth day, continued unabated. Also on Friday, a suicide car bomber struck a security post in the district of North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan. One civilian was killed and 18 were wounded, several of them seriously, a local doctor, Mohammad Asif, said.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Hundreds of minority Shiites rallied Friday in Pakistan's capital and elsewhere in the country to denounce the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli strikes, as the U.S. Embassy In Islamabad issued a security alert warning Americans of possible violence. Amid heavy police presence, about 300 protesters staged a sit-in in Islamabad, holding posters of Khamenei and chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." Islamabad police had parked shipping containers on roads leading to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad to prevent any potential escalation. Pakistani authorities said the protesters had agreed not to march toward the embassy in Islamabad, located about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the sit-in.

HONG KONG (AP) - Hong Kong pro-democracy ex-publisher Jimmy Lai will not appeal the national security conviction for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month, his legal team said Friday. Lai, an outspoken critic of China's ruling Communist Party who founded the now-defunct Apple Daily, was found guilty in December of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiring with others to publish seditious articles. His Hong Kong legal team told The Associated Press via a text message about the decision, which ends a yearslong legal battle. The lawyers would not comment on the reason for not appealing.

TOKYO (AP) - Japan and Canada signed a strategic agreement Friday aimed at strengthening cooperation in defense, economic and energy security as military strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel fueled concern about international oil supplies. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Canadian counterpart Mark Carney shared the importance of energy security at a time of "geopolitical uncertainty," according to a statement by the Japanese Foreign Ministry. During the talks in Tokyo, the two leaders agreed to work together to diversify energy resources and expand trade and investment to support energy supply chains, according to the road map released by the ministry.

NEW YORK (AP) - A Pakistani business owner who tried to hire hit men to kill a U.S. politician was convicted Friday in a trial that showcased allegations of Iran-backed plotting on American soil. As the Iran war unfolded in the Mideast, Asif Merchant acknowledged in a U.S. court that he sought to put an assassination in motion during the 2024 presidential campaign - a plot that was quickly disrupted by American investigators before it had a chance to proceed. A jury in Brooklyn convicted Merchant on terrorism and murder for hire charges. He faces up to life in prison. The verdict after only a couple hours of deliberations followed a weeklong trial that included remarkable testimony from Merchant himself.