Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

NEW DELHI (AP) - Supporters of India's viral Cockroach Janta Party banged steel plates with spoons in a protest Saturday to demand the resignation of the education minister over allegations of examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks. The protest near Parliament in New Delhi by hundreds of students and young supporters of the nascent movement added to the pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government while also seeking wider support among Indians. Authorities deployed heavy security and police used cameras and drones to monitor the protest. Some carried placards and others banged plates, their noise cutting through the crowd protesting and demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Russia has freed 24 Filipinos who have been detained for months without charges in a Siberian city, after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. raised concern for them in a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Philippine officials said Saturday. The 24 were scheduled to arrive in Manila in two flights early Sunday, with the first batch to be welcomed by Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro, who accompanied Marcos in his talks with Putin on Wednesday in the Russian city of Kazan, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said. Marcos, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, led leaders of the 11-nation bloc in commemorating the 35th anniversary of ASEAN's diplomatic relations with Russia.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia's Supreme Court on Friday upheld the incitement conviction of a prominent opposition politician while suspending the remainder of his sentence, keeping him out of prison but unable to practice politics for years and renewing questions about the government's efforts to quash criticism. The decision against Rong Chhun, a top adviser to the Nation Power Party, was met with anger by some 300 supporters from around the country who had gathered outside the Supreme Court complex in Phnom Penh. "Even though he is not in prison, I'm saddened that his freedom has been restricted and he has become a sub-citizen, meaning he has no right to vote or participate in politics," said Nek Ratha, a 55-year-old from the capital.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Police charged a third suspect on Friday with an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue that was allegedly directed by Iran. The 20-year-old man was one of three masked offenders who broke into the Adass Israel Synagogue, doused the interior with flammable liquid then set it alight in the early hours of Dec. 6, 2024, a police statement alleged. The fire caused extensive damage to the synagogue and a worshipper sustained minor injuries. The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which brings together federal and state police with a spy agency, charged the man, who has not been named, with offenses including arson.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Two roadside bombs in restive northwestern Pakistan killed at least seven people on Saturday, authorities said. The first targeted a vehicle, while the second went off as rescuers responded to the blast in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, senior police official Yasir Afridi said, adding both were controlled remotely. Afridi said five people were killed in the first blast and two in the second. Three people were also wounded, he said. A search operation to find those responsible is underway. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, who have been blamed for similar attacks in the past.

TOKYO (AP) - A fire broke out at an elementary school in downtown Tokyo Friday, but all of about 300 students and teachers were evacuated or rescued, officials said. They said several people were injured while fleeing, mostly from inhaling smoke, and that the exact number of injured is being finalized. The Tokyo Fire Department said the fire at the Takinogawa No. 3 Elementary School broke out near a music room on the top floor of the four-story building late morning Friday. Firefighters rescued one teacher and three schoolchildren out of the building with non-life-threatening injuries, the department said. All others inside the building when the fire broke out had evacuated to a nearby park on their own and no one was left behind, officials said.

BEIJING (AP) - Dragon boat races, lion dances and other festivities marked the Dragon Boat Festival on Friday across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The more than 2,000-year-old holiday is best known for its sporting events, but its origins are rooted in ancient beliefs about health, protection and harmony with nature. "The fact that this holiday has been preserved for thousands of years shows how much we value our traditional customs," said Meng Dongmei, a retired resident of Beijing's Tongzhou district. Meng said her family observes the holiday through a variety of traditional customs. They prepare zongzi, the sticky rice dumplings associated with the festival, and children wear five-colored bracelets believed to ward off evil.

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) - Authorities in Indonesia 's tourist island of Bali foiled an attempt last week to illegally trade 21 protected green sea turtles, police said on Friday. Bali police seized the live animals during a raid on the island's Pegametan coast on June 10, after local residents reported suspected illegal turtle trading activity in the area, according to Nanang Pri Hasmojo, head of law enforcement at the force. Police arrested a 67-year-old man identified only by his initials as KS, who is suspected of storing the protected animals before they were distributed for sale. During initial questioning, police say the suspect told investigators the turtles had been sent by an associate from waters near Madura, an island in East Java province.

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.