Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

BERLIN (AP) - They called themselves the "German driving school for experts," but prosecutors say the true purpose of their Telegram chats was to brag about the women they raped and share tips about how to drug them. In posts that sometimes included photos and videos of their attacks on unconscious victims, they referred to women as "cars," sedatives as "fuel" and rape as "driving," according to court documents. They called their victims "dead pigs." Investigators have been poring through several years' worth of posts in roughly two dozen group chats on the popular messaging app that authorities believe served an online predator network of mainly Chinese men targeting mostly Chinese women in Germany.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - A landslide caused by monsoon rains killed at least five children as it swept through an Islamic school at a camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district, a fire official said. More than 1 million refugees live in the camp. Dollar Tripura, local chief of the Fire Service and Civil Defense, said the landslide hit as children were attending classes. Tripura said they rescued another five injured children but suspected that more could be buried. The rescue operation continued Wednesday evening. Three days earlier, landslides killed at least eight people at Rohingya camps in the area.

It is crucial for Western nations to engage with Afghanistan to prevent the country from sliding back into instability that could have repercussions far beyond its borders, two top United Nations officials said. "The lesson of (the) recent past is that ignoring Afghanistan is not a good thing to do," the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Barham Salih, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday alongside the head of the United Nations Development Program, Alexander De Croo, during a joint visit to the country. Although many challenges and difficulties remain, "it's wiser to engage, to support and promote the right type of policies to making sure that Afghanistan remains safe and secure," Salih said, speaking via video link.

BEIJING (AP) - China allocated millions of dollars in additional relief funding for disaster-hit areas Wednesday after severe storms destroyed homes and displaced thousands of people and a landslide killed 21 forestry workers. The central government allocated 50 million yuan ($7.4 million) to restore roads, schools and other facilities in central China's Hubei province and another 20 million yuan to help rebuild homes and resettle residents there, state media said. Eleven people died and hundreds were injured Monday night in violent thunderstorms and rare tornadoes. The government also allocated 30 million yuan ($4.4 million) to Gansu province, where the landslide buried the forestry workers.

BEIJING (AP) - A landslide buried and killed 21 forestry workers walking through a remote valley in the mountains of northwestern China, state media reported Wednesday after rescue operations ended. Twelve others survived, seven with minor injuries, state broadcaster CCTV said. The team was heading out to clear and maintain forest land when the landslide struck shortly before 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Footage on CCTV showed a swath of denuded mountainside that ended in the valley. The exposed earth contrasted sharply with the green, heavily forested slopes that angled up steeply on both sides under mostly clear skies. The landslide was about 40 meters (130 feet) wide and covered roughly 5,400 square meters (58,000 square feet), Longnan city natural resources official Yang Yaoxian said at a news conference.

NEW DELHI (AP) - Rescue teams in the southern Indian state of Kerala raced to find five people still missing a day after heavy monsoon rains caused a deadly landslide, officials said. The landslide killed at least three people working near a tunnel construction site in Wayanad district, a hill region known for its lush forests and rolling green landscapes. Seven workers were also injured and are undergoing treatment in a hospital. Authorities divided the area into zones as rescue crews, including disaster response teams and sniffer dogs, searched the region for missing despite heavy rain hampering operations, Devamanohar, a local police official, told reporters.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Insurgents killed 18 police officers who had been abducted earlier this week and 11 soldiers in a separate attack in restive southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, the military said. It was the latest escalation of violence in a region where insurgents have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians. The latest attacks bring the death toll since Monday to 42 people, most of them soldiers and police officers, military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said. At a televised news conference, he said security forces had also killed 54 insurgents in multiple operations during the same period. According to Chaudhry, insurgents have carried out three major attacks across the province since Monday.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Civilian and navy searchers off Pakistan's coast Wednesday located and recovered wreckage of a cargo plane that disappeared while approaching the southern port of Karachi while the search continues for five missing crew members, officials said. The aircraft operated by the private carrier K2 Airways had departed from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and reported a navigational system problem before losing contact with air traffic control late Tuesday. The Pakistani navy and civilian teams in planes and ships found the plane debris after about 12 hours of searching in the Arabian Sea, Pakistan's Airports Authority said in a post on X.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto sealed a major defense deal on Tuesday, allowing Jakarta to acquire the Indian BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles. The agreement, part of over a dozen, was reached during Modi's three-day visit to Indonesia, the first stop of his overseas visit to Indo-Pacific nations. The deal, reached a day after China test-launched a long-range ballistic missile, is expected to boost India's defense exports and strategic cooperation between Jakarta and New Delhi. Speaking alongside Modi after their talks at the Merdeka Palace, Indonesia's main presidential office, Prabowo hailed Modi's visit as a "historic milestone" in bilateral ties, saying the two countries agreed to deepen cooperation across defense, security, trade, energy, health, education and cultural exchanges.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, who is being tried by an impeachment court on charges that include threatening the president, said Tuesday that she expected to be "bloodied but unbowed" by the public trial. Duterte, who has declared her aim to succeed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in mid-2028, was impeached by the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Marcos' allies, in May. The 48-year-old lawyer and politician has dismissed the charges against her as political persecution. Her televised trial by the 24-member Senate, which acts as an impeachment court, started Monday. On Tuesday it took up the first of four main charges, which accused Duterte of threatening in an online news conference in November 2024 to have Marcos, his wife and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez killed by an unidentified person if she herself were killed as their disputes escalated.