Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

WASHINGTON (AP) - Taiwan needs to purchase American weapons to ensure its self-defense in the face of a growing threat from Beijing, the island's top diplomat in the U.S. said, adding that he has seen no change in Washington's policy toward the self-governing island that China claims as its own. A $14-billion arms sale package to Taiwan is still in limbo after President Donald Trump returned from Beijing in May and said he had discussed the proposal "in great detail" with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, heightening anxieties in Taiwan and raising concerns among lawmakers on the Capitol Hill. "We need those arms for defensive purposes," Alexander Yui Tah-ray, who heads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S., told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday in Washington.

LONDON (AP) - A former U.K. border official and a retired Hong Kong police officer were given prison sentences on Thursday for spying on dissidents and critics of Beijing in Britain. Border Force officer Peter Wai and Bill Yuen, a former superintendent in the Hong Kong Police, posed as police or intelligence officers to conduct surveillance and gather information about Hong Kong dissidents and pro-democracy supporters, prosecutors said. Their targets included former Hong Kong lawmaker Nathan Law and activists they referred to as "cockroaches," as well as British politicians critical of China, according to the prosecutors. A jury found the two Chinese-British nationals guilty last month of breaching the National Security Act by assisting a foreign intelligence service.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - The Iran war 's shock to global fuel prices has reinforced Europe's stance that it must forge alternative trade and energy routes to the Strait of Hormuz. Here is a look at what the European Union is contemplating to bolster its energy security and minimize the impact of future conflicts as it turns to Gulf states and India. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has expressed renewed interest in what is known as the India-Middle-East-Europe Economic Corridor. She told G7 leaders at this week's summit that "alternative export routes have been created that are more resilient and offer choices" while "other routes will be built - for example, a typical one is IMEC." IMEC is seen as potentially offering the EU greater economic resilience, supply-chain diversification and energy security to bolster the bloc's strategic autonomy at a time when Russia shows few signs of curbing its belligerence and the U.S.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Qantas Airways plans to launch the world's longest direct flight next year, a service of up to 22 hours nonstop between London and Sydney. The Sydney-based airline on Thursday unveiled the first of its specially-modified Airbus A350-1000 jets that will regularly make the 17,015-kilometer (10,573-mile) journey from October next year. The flights between cities on opposite sides of the world are expected to take between 19 and 22 hours. The current longest regularly scheduled direct flight is Singapore Airlines' route between its city-state base and New York City. The distance of 15,349 kilometers (9,537 miles) is flown in under 19 hours.

MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hailed Russia's ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as he hosted a summit intended to strengthen economic and political ties with the bloc. The leaders who took part in the meeting in Kazan agreed to further expand "strategic partnership" between Russia and ASEAN nations that include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam. "It is a strategic partnership that serves as an essential stabilizing factor in the Asia-Pacific amidst geopolitical turbulence, contributing to the formation of a balanced security architecture and equitable mutually beneficial cooperation," Putin said at the summit, which marked the 35th anniversary of Russia-ASEAN relations.

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday sought to show there was no daylight between him and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, effusively describing Modi as his loyal friend even as their relationship is tested by trade tensions, oil sanctions and, most recently, a U.S. military strike that killed three Indian mariners. The leaders' meeting came just a week after three Indian sailors were killed in a strike on a tanker in the Gulf of Oman in the midst of a U.S. blockade targeting oil shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Indian Foreign Ministry has formally protested the incident.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Attempts by China to exert pressure on other countries to limit Taiwan's access to international events has become "the new normal," the island's foreign minister said Wednesday. Lin Chia-Lung was speaking after Taiwanese delegates were detained in Kenya and denied access to an ocean conference, reportedly due to Chinese pressure on the organizers, according to Taiwan's Foreign Ministry. China regards Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, as a breakaway province and has not renounced the use of force to annex it. In recent months, Beijing has ramped up a campaign of pressuring other countries to limit the access of Taiwanese officials or delegates to various events.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A leadership standoff in the Philippine Senate ended Wednesday with the removal of an ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte as leader of the chamber, which will soon start the impeachment trial of his daughter, incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte. With 13 of 24 senators backing him, Sherwin Gatchalian, an ally of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was elected Senate president. His rival, Alan Peter Cayetano, a key supporter of Duterte, conceded defeat. Both had claimed leadership of the Senate in the last two weeks based on contrasting legal interpretations of the quorum that led to their elections.

SURAT, India (AP) - For dozens of workers at a textile manufacturer on the edge of Surat, the blazing temperatures and high humidity on a recent afternoon were amplified by steam, radiating heat and chemical smells that emerged from the heavy machines that dominate nearly every inch of the low-ceilinged factory floor. The machines, called stenters, roared like engines, boilers hissed and drum washers released clouds of steam. The sound was relentless, the air heavy. Soni Pande, a 27-year-old worker and single mother, said fans and coolers that spray mist help, but are overpowered on the hottest days. "The heat does make us weak.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Police in Vietnam rescued more than 400 cats in a major bust of a cat meat crime ring last week in Ho Chi Minh City, and at least 40 of them have been reunited with their owners. However, following the dayslong police operation, several of the cats died because of the harsh conditions they were found in, animal welfare groups said. They didn't elaborate or provide an exact number on the cats who didn't make it. Since the operation, veterinarians and volunteers have flocked to care for the cats at a temporary rescue center set up at a facility run by the Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Police Division.