Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Renowned British-Nepali climber Nirmal Purja and nine other climbers swept away by an avalanche in Pakistan are confirmed to have died, and search teams are trying to recover their bodies, Purja's expedition company said Saturday. "The world has lost one of mountaineering's greatest climbers," the company, Elite Exped, said in a statement. It stressed that it mourned all the lives lost, adding: "No words can ease the pain of this unimaginable loss." The 10-member expedition was swept away by an avalanche Thursday on Pakistan's Broad Peak. Rescuers found four bodies and recovered three of them Friday in harsh weather that hampered flights by search and rescue helicopters.

TOKYO (AP) - Authorities ended a massive dayslong search-and-rescue operation Saturday at a collapsed shopping mall in southwest Japan following a powerful earthquake that killed 34 people earlier this week. The magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Kumamoto Prefecture on Japan's southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday. The Aeon Mall, in the town of Kashima, was one of the hardest-hit sites, after an explosion that followed the quake caused the walls and a floor to collapse. The explosion, which the company said it believes was due to a gas leak, occurred after about 3,000 shoppers had been evacuated to a parking lot following the quake, but some employees remained inside.

BEIJING (AP) - China conducted military drills near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Saturday as territorial tensions with the Philippines intensify. The joint naval and air drills near the shoal, which is known as Huangyan Island in China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines, tested the army's ability to coordinate air and sea operations and provide rapid reinforcements, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The drills came after Beijing criticized Manila's attempts to extend its seabed rights in the South China Sea, a vital global trade route with rich undersea deposits of gas and oil that China claims almost in its entirety.

YATSUSHIRO, Japan (AP) - Thousands of survivors of a powerful earthquake in southwestern Japan spent Friday in crowded shelters or sleeping in cars as they faced shortages of water and fuel and punishing summer temperatures that stoked fears of heat-related illness. The death toll rose to 34, the Kumamoto prefectural government said, as rescuers raced to find those still missing after the quake triggered a mall explosion, toppled a factory chimney and flattened homes. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi stressed that authorities must secure water supplies by doing "whatever it takes" and called for close coordination with the military and other relevant agencies.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's military on Friday rejected as "baseless" a recent U.N. report that said Pakistani cross-border military operations killed nearly 500 civilians and wounded over 1,000 in neighboring Afghanistan between October and June. At a televised news conference, military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistan had targeted only hideouts and infrastructure used by the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, during that period, and said those killed in the strikes were militants. He said the operations were carried out in self-defense to protect the lives of people in Pakistan. Chaudhry questioned recently released reports by the U.N.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - A Sri Lankan court on Friday sentenced a former police chief and a former top Defense Ministry official to death after finding them guilty of criminal negligence that allowed Islamic State-inspired bomb attacks on Easter Sunday in 2019, which killed more than 260 people. A death penalty in Sri Lanka typically means life in prison because the country has had a moratorium on executions since 1976. Current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake supports maintaining the moratorium. Former Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara and former Defense Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando were convicted and sentenced Friday by the three-member High Court bench.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesian authorities said Friday they have arrested a Malaysia Airlines pilot accused of smuggling of more than 26 kilograms (57 pounds) of ecstasy and a package of methamphetamine shortly after he landed in Jakarta 's international airport. The 39-year-old Malaysian national, identified only by his initial, MS, was also allegedly on duty while under the influence of narcotics, said Eko Hadi Santoso, director of narcotics crimes at the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency. The case was uncovered late Tuesday when customs officers inspecting baggage at the international arrival's terminal of Soekarno-Hatta Airport noticed a suspicious suitcase during an X-ray screening.

PERTH, Australia (AP) - An Australian jury convicted the British social media celebrity and rapper Yung Filly on Friday of assaulting a fan following a music performance two years ago, but did not find him guilty of allegations that he raped and choked her. The 30-year-old entertainer, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, wept after the verdicts were delivered in the District Court of Western Australia state in Perth. He had pleaded not guilty to six charges of rape, three charges of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of choking in a Perth hotel room in September 2024.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - A methane gas explosion at a coal mine in southwestern Pakistan killed 34 miners, authorities said on Friday, despite an overnight rescue attempt. Rescuers recovered 32 bodies from the mine on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, and were working to retrieve the remaining two, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said in a statement. Mine inspector Ghani Baloch said authorities initially believed 42 people had been inside the mine when the explosion occurred Thursday. Balochistan's Minister for Mines and Minerals Shoaib Nosherwani expressed condolences to the victims' families and announced compensation of 500,000 Pakistani rupees (about $1,800) for the family of each victim.

BANGKOK (AP) - The head of Myanmar's military-backed government on Friday marked his government's first 100 days in office with a speech defending his record and outlining a five-year road map for his administration, which faces ongoing conflict and international criticism. President Min Aung Hlaing, the former army chief who had originally seized power in 2021 from a civilian government, was sworn in as president in April following an election that critics said was designed to entrench the military's grip on power. Addressing more than 900 lawmakers, officials and military representatives at Parliament in the capital, Naypyitaw, he said his government had laid "important foundations" since taking office by pursuing two priorities - restoring peace and stability and promoting national development.