Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

BEIJING (AP) - Typhoon Bavi weakened Sunday to a tropical storm hours after making landfall in eastern China's Zhejiang province, but was still bringing days of strong winds and heavy rain to parts of China. Its intensity continued to weaken as it moved northwestward across eastern China into the province of Anhui as of Sunday afternoon, according to China's national weather center. Strong winds and heavy rain are expected to impact many eastern and northeastern Chinese cities on Sunday and Monday, China's National Meteorological Center said, adding that heavy to torrential rain was recorded Sunday afternoon in provinces including Anhui. In Zhejiang province, more than 2.2 million people were evacuated due to Bavi, according to state media.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The United States, the United Kingdom and a dozen other Western and Asian countries reasserted on Sunday that China's expansive claims in the South China Sea are illegal based on a 2016 arbitration ruling. A joint statement issued by the 14 nations said they rejected "destabilizing" actions in the disputed waters that threaten regional stability. The 27-nation European Union released a separate statement, reaffirming the ruling as a "landmark decision in the peaceful settlement of disputes." The statements commemorated a July 12, 2016, arbitration ruling by a tribunal established in The Hague under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, saying the landmark decision is "is final and legally binding." China reiterated Sunday that the ruling was "null and void and has no binding force" and Beijing "neither accepts nor recognizes it." China refused to join the arbitration initiated by the Philippines in 2013 after a tense standoff in the contested waters a year earlier that ended with Beijing effectively seizing a disputed shoal.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnamese police detained Sunday the captain of a speedboat that capsized off southern Vietnam, killing 15 Indian tourists. The speedboat was carrying 32 Indian tourists and four Vietnamese crew members when it overturned less than half a kilometer (0.30 mile) from shore Saturday afternoon, shortly after leaving Hon May Rut Ngoai island near Phu Quoc, Vietnam's largest island, authorities said. The captain, Nguyen Hong Hai, 57, is under investigation for alleged violations of waterway transport safety regulations, state media reported. Sixteen survivors of Saturday's speedboat accident have been discharged from the hospital and are returning to India, the Indian Embassy in Hanoi said on social media Sunday.

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) - Typhoon Bavi made landfall in China's eastern province of Zhejiang late on Saturday night and was expected to gradually weaken, according to China's national weather center. Bavi previously brought strong winds and rain to Japan's southern islands and Taiwan. It was the second typhoon to impact China in just over a week's time. The first, Maysak, made landfall in southern China on July 3. Chinese authorities have evacuated more than 1.7 million people as of Saturday and issued high alerts while eastern China braced for Bavi, which had maximum sustained winds of 144 kph (89 mph) near its center.

TOKYO (AP) - Japan's experimental reusable rocket took off and safely landed in a first test flight Saturday as the country seeks to achieve the technology key to cut launch costs and compete in the global space market dominated by SpaceX. The RV-X rocket lifted off, hovered and moved horizontally before landing during its less than one-minute flight at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Noshiro Testing Center in northeastern Japan, which was livestreamed by the NVS, a group of space fans. The rocket flew as planned, rising 11 meters (36 feet) and moving horizontally 16 meters (52 feet) while keeping its upright position before landing, Takashi Ito, JAXA's reusable rocket project manager, said in an online briefing from the test center.

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) - The Pakistan navy's search teams recovered additional debris from a cargo plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea earlier this week, and investigators will analyze the wreckage 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.

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.