Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the Trump administration is poised to help end the "senseless war" in Ukraine but acknowledged there is no quick path to a deal, saying diplomacy will require sustained effort and new ideas. Rubio, who held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in the Philippine capital, alluded to how U.S.-mediated talks have stalled. He called them "unsuccessful or at least unfruitful" in the past but insisted that President Donald Trump was committed to the work "if conditions and factors have changed to make that possible." "That's been the challenge - an end that both sides can accept," Rubio told reporters.

NEW DELHI (AP) - Thousands of young protesters were camped on the streets of India's capital New Delhi on Thursday, defying new restrictions in the latest show of strength for a movement that has become one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. India's "Cockroach" protests began more than a month ago over alleged leaks in some of the country's most competitive entrance exams for medical colleges and government jobs. The movement has since expanded beyond exam grievances, drawing professionals and families while channeling broader frustration. Thursday's demonstrations at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in New Delhi, followed overnight clashes in which police used tear gas and batons to disperse crowds, the second such confrontation this week.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Suspected militants ambushed a vehicle carrying a district judge in restive southwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing him and his security guard before fleeing the scene, police said, as Pakistan's powerful army chief vowed to "dismantle terrorist infrastructure wherever it poses a threat to the country and its people." The attack occurred in Mastung, a district in Balochistan province where separatist insurgents have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months. Security forces responding to multiple recent attacks have killed over 100 alleged insurgents from Baloch groups in various areas in Balochistan in recent weeks.

MUMBAI, India (AP) - The blue police van dominates the frame. A young woman, Rhiya Ahir, stands in front of it in a rain-soaked hoodie, one hand pressed against the metal. Behind the windshield sit police officers. Inside the van are young protesters detained after demonstrations in India's financial capital Mumbai on Wednesday. India's "Cockroach" protests began more than a month ago over alleged leaks in some of the country's most competitive entrance exams for medical schools and government jobs. Since then, the movement has grown beyond exam complaints, drawing professionals and families and reflecting broader public frustration. The confrontation lasted about 40 minutes.

BEIRUT (AP) - Kozo Okamoto, the Japanese militant who took part in a deadly attack on Tel Aviv's airport more than five decades ago, died Thursday in Beirut, the Palestinian group that had been protecting him said. He was 78. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a faction that is the second-largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that Okamoto had been ill for a long time. Okamoto, who made rare public appearances since he settled in Lebanon after being released from Israel, was known within the PFLP as Ahmad al-Yabani, or Ahmad the Japanese. The PFLP said in its statement that Okamoto's journey was "marked by immense sacrifices spanning for decades on the battlefields of struggle in support of the Palestinian cause." The Palestinian group added that Okamoto "never compromised nor faltered but remained steadfast to his principles." Okamoto had served 12 years in an Israeli lockup for a May 30, 1972 attack on the international airport outside Tel Aviv that was thought to be carried out by members of the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group in a joint operation with the PFLP.

Beijing (AP) - Teams searching the rubble of last week's landslide in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing found three additional bodies in recent days, bringing the death toll to 11 with 50 people still missing, Chinese authorities said Thursday. The search continues but there have been no recent signs of life after many efforts to detect additional survivors from Friday's collapse in Pengshui County at the edge of the city, the county government said in a statement. Responders found eight bodies soon after the collapse, which buried more than 10 residential buildings, and 10 people were injured. The rescue work has been "exceptionally challenging" due to the massive volume of collapsed material that includes many large boulders.

GUWAHATI, India (AP) - Authorities recovered the bodies of the remaining 13 workers trapped inside a collapsed hydropower tunnel in India, taking the death toll to 25 as authorities ended the rescue operations on Thursday. Multiple agencies had made sustained and coordinated rescue efforts in the four days since a gas explosion ripped through the tunnel. Following the recovery of all the missing employees, teams carried out a final inspection of the tunnel, the state government of Sikkim said in a statement. The blast occurred Monday at the 500-megawatt Teesta Hydroelectric Project about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the state capital Gangtok in the Himalayan state.

NEW DELHI (AP) - The food arrives almost as steadily as the protesters. Every few minutes, delivery riders on motorbikes pull up outside the protest site with bags of burgers, snacks and bottled water. Volunteers collect the food, stack it along other donated supplies and distribute it to demonstrators. Supporters across India are helping sustain the country's "Cockroach" movement by ordering meals through online food delivery apps for protesters camped in the capital. The steady stream of food has become a visible sign of the growing support for a youth movement that has emerged as one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in years.

NEW DELHI (AP) - A prominent Kashmiri human rights activist and a renowned journalist have been released on bail after years of imprisonment on allegations of financing terrorism in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir. Rights activist Khurram Parvez and independent journalist Irfan Mehraj were arrested in 2021 and 2023 respectively, under India's terror laws. Despite their release from a New Delhi jail late Wednesday, both remain under tight court-imposed restrictions as the country's federal counterterror agency seeks to reverse the ruling. The Indian government has increasingly cracked down against rights activists, journalists and dissidents in Kashmir under stringent anti-terror laws, particularly after August 2019, when India scrapped the region's special status.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan on Thursday rejected Amnesty International's call for an investigation into a March airstrike on a drug rehabilitation center in the Afghan capital that the rights group said could amount to a war crime, dismissing the allegations as unsupported and describing the operation as a lawful act of self-defense. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told a news briefing in Islamabad that Pakistan "completely rejects the allegations" made by Amnesty International, calling it "unfortunate" that such serious claims had been made "without any credible evidence." His remarks came a day after Amnesty International said it had found no evidence to support Pakistan's claim that Kabul's Omid drug rehabilitation center was being used for military purposes or to store weapons and ammunition when it was struck on March 16.