Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese authorities on Saturday said a small plane that crashed into a building in Beijing the day before had killed the pilot and injured 13 others. The authorities of the Chaoyang district, a vibrant business area, said a two-seat light sport aircraft collided with a high-rise building near the East Third Ring Road at 5:55 p.m. on Friday and caused the casualties. The short statement on WeChat did not identify the building or the pilot, who the authorities said was the only person on the craft. The global flight-tracking service provider Flightradar24 on Friday said the plane crashed into the CITIC Tower, also known as China Zun, which rises more than 1,700 feet (528 meters), just east of a major ring road in a cluster of skyscrapers.

TOKYO (AP) - Two major storm systems pounded Japan on Saturday, causing landslides and floods and leaving one dead and several injured, media and officials said. The storms, Mekkhala and Higos, have dumped heavy rain and damaged roads as Japan experiences its annual rainy season. A man in his 70s died and three others were injured after a house collapsed in a landslide in Yamaguchi prefecture on Friday, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported. Footage from Kyoto showed the Kamo River swollen with churning, muddy water. A flooding alert was issued in parts of Kyoto, Osaka and other areas in western Japan.

HONG KONG (AP) - A Chinese political dissident who had fled to South Korea last month in a dinghy has arrived in Canada, his friend said on social media on Saturday. Dong Guangping was aboard a 3.3-meter (10.8-foot) inflatable boat in the waters off a western South Korean island in May when he was detained by South Korea's coast guard for allegedly violating the country's immigration law. It was his fourth known attempt to flee China. Appearing at a court hearing in South Korea, he told reporters that he hopes to go to Canada to reunite with his wife and daughters, who have already been resettled there, according to South Korean media.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck parts of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan on Saturday, sending panicked residents across Pakistan rushing out of their homes, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The epicenter was in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 6.1. Tremors were felt in Islamabad, as well as in the eastern province of Punjab and the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan. It was also felt in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Emergency services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said district administrations were placed on alert.

BENGALURU, India (AP) - The late arrival of India's monsoon season and below-average rainfall have caused problems ranging from planting delays for farmers to water restrictions for construction sites in its largest business hub, Mumbai. Water shortages have been reported around the country due to the late start of the rainy season, which typically begins in June but has grown erratic in recent years. Climate experts said the El Nino, a warming of the Pacific that affects weather around the globe, combined with an already heating planet, will likely result in weak, scattered rainfall across the country. While monsoon rains reached Mumbai earlier this week, about two weeks later than normal, water restrictions are in place to bolster the city's dwindling reservoirs.

TOKYO (AP) - Heavy downpours triggered flooding in parts of western Japan on Friday as two approaching tropical storms added to a seasonal rain front already stuck above the country. Storm Mekkhala was off the western coast of Japan's southern remote island of Amami as of late afternoon Friday as it headed northeast, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Another storm, Higos, was traveling nearby and the two storms are expected to reach the Tokyo region Saturday while dumping heavy rain, the JMA said. Earlier Friday, a man was injured as he fell into a waterway in Nara, according to Japan's NHK public television.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - As the U.S. and Iran exchanged escalating strikes on June 11, a plane carrying Qatari mediators was stranded on the tarmac in Tehran. They had been engaged in intensive talks through the night, attempting to halt what appeared to be a spiral back into all-out war, a diplomat briefed on the talks said. The scene on the runway encapsulated the tumultuous diplomatic process, led by Pakistan and Qatar, that led to last week's deal to end a war that destabilized the Middle East and damaged the world economy. It was one of several moments in which social media threats or actual hostilities threatened to reignite the war.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Thick clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city Friday as authorities burned more than 50 tons of heroin, opium, ketamine, methamphetamine, marijuana and crystal meth - some $600 million of confiscated illegal drugs destroyed nationwide. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has a long history of drug production linked to political and economic insecurity caused by decades of armed conflict. It has been a major source of illegal drugs destined for East and Southeast Asia, despite repeated efforts to crack down, and has long been one of the world's largest producers of heroin and methamphetamine.

SURAT, India (AP) - Before dawn breaks over the Indian industrial hub of Surat, textile worker Sibaram Pradhan is already awake, sitting on the floor in a cramped room he shares with as many as nine other men. Sweat beads on his forehead even at 6 a.m. as sweltering heat and humidity make days and nights hot across India this summer. Like numerous others from his home state of Odisha in eastern India, Pradhan works in a power loom factory that produces polyester cloth in Surat, among the largest hubs for synthetic fabrics in the world. The 35-year-old is among the millions of workers in South Asia who endure appalling living conditions combined with hot, humid, poorly ventilated and incredibly loud factory floors as climate-driven extreme heat is only becoming worse across the region.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The wife of ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday after a court convicted her of accepting luxury gifts from businesspeople and others seeking political and business favors. The ruling by the Seoul Central District Court came months after an appeals court sentenced the ex-first lady, Kim Keon Hee, to four years in prison in a separate case over charges that she accepted gifts from the Unification Church and profited from a stock price manipulation scheme. "Given the nature of the position, a president's spouse must exercise the highest degree of self-restraint and vigilance," said Judge Jo Soon-pyo.