Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

BEIJING (AP) - Authorities were investigating a blaze at a shoe factory in southeastern China's Fujian province that killed 28 people, raising renewed concern over worker safety. The state-run Xinhua News Agency said Friday that a search had ended while an investigation was underway into the cause of the fire Thursday that gutted the Fujian Huiteng factory in Jinjiang, a manufacturing hub for sports shoes. According to product listings on online sales and import platforms, Fujian Huiteng makes shoes for both Chinese and foreign brands. Local media footage showed people trapped on the roof of the five-floor building, enveloped in thick black smoke, while the spray from fire truck hoses fell short of flames showing through windows on its upper floors.

BEIJING (AP) - A powerful typhoon was heading toward China's east coast Friday, the latest in a series of deadly storms that have already claimed 50 lives this week in two other parts of the country. Typhoon Bavi, with maximum sustained winds of 155 kph (96 mph), was first expected to pass north of Taiwan, bringing heavy rains to the island of 23 million people from Friday night into Saturday. Schools were closed Friday in Taipei, the island's capital, and fishing boats have been tied up close together in ports in northern Taiwan. Many flights to Japan, Hong Kong and other destinations have been canceled through Saturday, though some were still scheduled, Taiwan's Central News Agency said.

BANGKOK (AP) - Three former crew members of a Thai cargo ship struck in the Strait of Hormuz in March filed a lawsuit Friday against the vessel's operator over labor rights violations and unfair dismissal. The ship, the Mayuree Naree, was hit by a projectile north of Oman on March 11, killing three people. The remaining 20 crew members were rescued and returned to Thailand about a week later. Former crew members Panithi Tumkaew, Noppadon Wongsuvan and Surades Manpuen filed the lawsuit against Precious Shipping Co. as well as two affiliated companies and the ship's captain. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants endangered their lives by sailing through the strait despite the security risks, according to their lawyer Kunpat Singhathong.

GURDASPUR, India (AP) - As dusk settled over Gurdaspur's fields, villagers gathered in the courtyard of a Sikh temple to watch a movie that has been blocked by Indian officials. "Satluj" tells the true tale of a human rights activist who investigated thousands of disappearances and extrajudicial killings during a government crackdown on a separatist insurgency in India's Punjab state in the 1980s and early 1990s. At the screening in Gurdaspur, elderly survivors of the insurgency sat beside teenagers born years after it ended. When the screen flickered to life and "Satluj" movie began, the crowd fell silent. Originally titled "Punjab 95," the movie was stalled for three years after India's censor board demanded more than 120 cuts.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistani security forces backed by military helicopters have killed 75 insurgents in dayslong operations against an outlawed separatist group blamed for a wave of attacks on troops, police and civilians in restive Balochistan province, officials said Friday. The announcement came a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Balochistan's capital, Quetta, and told the families of 42 people killed in the attacks that their sacrifices were not in vain and those responsible would be brought to justice. This week's violence has raised concerns that separatist groups once considered relatively small are expanding their reach. According to the Balochistan government, the operations involving the army, the Frontier Corps and police began late Monday after dozens of fighters from the Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, attacked a police post near Mangi Dam, which supplies water to million of people in Quetta and surrounding areas.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan Navy search teams recovered additional debris from a cargo plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea earlier this week, with the recovered wreckage to be analyzed by investigators as the search for the aircraft's five missing crew members entered its third day Friday. The Pakistan Airports Authority said in a post on X that search-and-rescue operations by the Pakistan Navy and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency remained underway in deep waters, with aircraft and other assets deployed in a coordinated effort to locate the missing crew. The authority did not provide additional details, saying further updates would be shared later.

BEIJING (AP) - China successfully recaptured the first stage of a rocket after a launch on Friday in a breakthrough for the country's space program, state media said. The first stage of a Long March-10B rocket separated from the second stage after liftoff and returned to a platform in the sea, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It was the first time China recovered the first stage of a rocket. America's SpaceX has been doing so for several years to drive down launch costs by reusing the booster that helps lift the satellites or whatever the rocket is carrying into space.

BANGKOK (AP) - When China launched a ballistic missile into the South Pacific Ocean on Monday, it was a rare test of a nuclear-capable weapons system that drew international rebuke. Arriving two years after a similar missile launch in international waters in the Pacific, the test by the People's Liberation Army caught the attention of small island nations whose leaders have increasingly urged bigger countries to stop using the vast oceanic region for power struggles. But Beijing's message was largely for just one country, experts say: the United States. "The most important message is the PLA is becoming a powerful military with a very strong strategic nuclear capability," said Tong Zhao, a senior fellow with the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank.

HONG KONG (AP) - China on Friday said it is temporarily blocking the export of helium, a key element for chipmaking, as the Iran war's escalation adds to global supply disruptions. China's commerce ministry and its customs agency said in a brief statement that they are imposing a temporary export ban on helium, effective immediately, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China. They did not elaborate further on the reasons. Helium is crucial for semiconductor manufacturing, and is also used in the medical sector such as in the cooling of MRI machines.

HONG KONG (AP) - Hong Kong dog owners and their four-legged friends have gained new freedoms after the city relaxed a decades-old rule, allowing the pets to join them at eateries. Since 1994, only guide dogs and those performing statutory duties were allowed in restaurants under the city's food business regulation. But the policy change aimed at promoting a pet-friendly culture kicked in Thursday, covering over 900 approved restaurants in the measure's first phase. It is the city's latest step toward building an animal-friendly society. Hong Kong now allows pets on certain ferry routes and some metro trains serving rural areas, and public hospitals have started permitting pet visits for palliative care patients.