Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - An offshore magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the southern Philippines early Monday, damaging buildings and a key access bridge in a large southern city and setting off a 1-meter (3-foot) tsunami that washed ashore on nearby coasts. At least four people were killed and more than 200 others injured, officials said. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged people to immediately go to higher ground in Philippine areas vulnerable to a tsunami, and Indonesian and Malaysian authorities also issued warnings to their nearby coastal areas. The strongest quake to strike the Philippines this year was centered at sea about 13 kilometers (8 miles) southwest of General Santos, a city of more than 700,000 people that is a hub for tuna processing and other commerce in the southern Mindanao region of the archipelago nation.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Pyongyang on Monday for a rare state visit that experts say is likely meant to reassert China's unique influence over North Korea in return for providing economic and political benefits. During a two-day trip, his first visit to North Korea in seven years, Xi is to meet leader Kim Jong Un. It will be their first summit since September, when they met in Beijing after viewing a military parade alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and other foreign leaders. China's official Xinhua news agency reported that Xi had arrived in Pyongyang, after earlier reporting that Xi's entourage includes his wife Peng Liyuan and top officials including Foreign Minister Wang Yi and top Communist Party official Cai Qi.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - China's Xi Jinping is traveling to North Korea for the first time in nearly seven years in a trip that offers North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a stage to showcase an increasingly assertive foreign policy anchored by closer ties with his country's former Cold War allies. China, the North's economic pipeline, is expected to reassert its influence over a traditionally allied government that has grown closer to Russia in recent times. The meeting between the two leaders is their first since Kim traveled to Beijing for a World War II event in September 2025. Here is a look at what they may be seeking from their upcoming meeting: After years of prioritizing Russia - dispatching thousands of troops and munitions to support Moscow's invasion of Ukraine - North Korea's leader is now seeking stronger ties with China to break further out of isolation, embracing the idea of a "new Cold War" and projecting Pyongyang as part of a united front against Washington.

HONG KONG (AP) - The Hong Kong government on Monday proposed legislation that would allow the city's leader to designate certain criminal acts as national security offenses, stepping up its efforts to stamp out challenges to its rules in the city where critics say freedoms have been eroding. After massive democracy protests rocked the Asian financial hub in 2019, Beijing imposed a national security law that has been used to arrest many leading activists. The city's government in 2024 enacted another security law, targeting other crimes such as espionage and disclosing state secrets. Critics said the two security laws have stifled the city's Western-style civil liberties that Beijing had promised to maintain when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called a U.S. push for the denuclearization of North Korea an "anachronistic dream," saying Sunday the North will steadily expand its nuclear arsenal in the face of U.S.-led threats. The statement came a day before Chinese President Xi Jinping visits North Korea for talks with Kim Jong Un, in his first visit to the country in seven years. "The U.S. assertion to backbite the status of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state has no legally binding force and no one will be bound by the U.S.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Israel said Monday that Iran had launched missiles targeting it, hours after Israel launched airstrikes targeting central and western Iran in response to missile fire from Tehran. The exchange of strikes threatened to drag the wider Middle East back into a regional war. Sirens sounded in central Israel, and the government urged the public to seek shelter. Explosions could be heard in central Israel as Israeli air defenses sought to intercept the incoming Iranian fire. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the attack. Monday marked the 100th day of the Iran war, launched Feb. 28 when Israel and the United States killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian leaders.

NEW DELHI (AP) - Hundreds of supporters of the Cockroach Janata Party, an online joke that has drawn millions of followers across India, gathered for the first time in the capital on Saturday for its biggest real-world test yet. The protest near Parliament in New Delhi marked the movement's first step into street politics after weeks of dominating social media feeds and news headlines, attracting widespread support among young Indians. The immediate trigger for Saturday's protest was the reported irregularity in a recent exam that quickly became a broader outlet for frustration over India's education system and limited job opportunities. "Time to turn this tiny joke into a revolution," the official CJP account on X posted Friday.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - The top court in Pakistan-administered Kashmir ruled Sunday that 12 legislative seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees living in Pakistan are constitutionally protected and cannot be abolished without a constitutional amendment. Hours after the ruling, police said a violent mob attacked a hospital, killing four officers deployed at the facility. The ruling strengthened the regional government's position in a dispute that has fueled weeks of protests ahead of next month's assembly elections. The Supreme Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir issued the opinion in response to a presidential reference seeking guidance on constitutional questions surrounding the refugee seats and the upcoming vote for the 45-member Legislative Assembly.

HONG KONG (AP) - Chinese-made humanoid robots are making waves with their ability to do backflips, direct traffic, and even make coffee as the companies developing them seek ways to expand and dominate the market. Robot makers in China say they have thousands of orders from both the government and private businesses for humanoids that can do such things as sort parcels at postal centers, as the country finds ways to cope with an aging population and rising labor costs. However, some experts believe demand for humanoids lags the capacity to build them. China and the United States dominate research for what Morgan Stanley estimates is a $5 trillion humanoid robots market.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - A spearfisher was killed on Saturday in Australia's third fatal shark attack in four weeks, police said. The 35-year-old man was spearfishing with family off Michaelmas Island near the port city of Albany in Western Australia state when he was attacked before noon, a police statement said. The man was brought by boat to Albany where paramedics were waiting but he could not be revived, police said. Authorities suspect a 4.5-meter (15-foot) white shark was responsible. The spate of three fatalities is extraordinary in a nation that has averaged around three shark deaths a year in recent decades.