Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

BANGKOK (AP) - When China launched a ballistic missile into the South Pacific Ocean on Monday, it was a rare test of a nuclear-capable weapons system that drew international rebuke. Arriving two years after a similar missile launch in international waters in the Pacific, the test by the People's Liberation Army caught the attention of small island nations whose leaders have increasingly urged bigger countries to stop using the vast oceanic region for power struggles. But Beijing's message was largely for just one country, experts say: the United States. "The most important message is the PLA is becoming a powerful military with a very strong strategic nuclear capability," said Tong Zhao, a senior fellow with the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a seven-year prison sentence for former President Yoon Suk Yeol in the first case to reach the country's highest court from his several criminal trials related to his brief imposition of martial law in 2024. The court upheld an April ruling by the Seoul High Court that found Yoon guilty of infringing on Cabinet members' right to deliberate before he declared martial law, falsifying the official proclamation to cover up the lapse before later destroying the document, and deploying presidential security forces to illegally resist law enforcement efforts to arrest him weeks after his impeachment.

BEIJING (AP) - Authorities in southern China said Thursday that 39 people died in flooding after a tropical storm dumped heavy rainfall, as the country's east coast and Taiwan prepared for a typhoon expected to make landfall in the coming days. Most of the deaths were in Hengzhou, where the partial collapse of a reservoir dam sent torrents of water into the city and claimed 26 lives, said Ding Wei, the vice mayor of Nanning city, which has jurisdiction over the area. Nine people remained missing in the broader Guangxi region. Tropical Storm Maysak brought record rainfall to Guangxi starting Saturday, breaching reservoirs and stranding people for days in homes and other buildings.

BEIJING (AP) - A fire broke out at a shoe factory in the eastern Chinese province of Fujian on Thursday, killing 28 people, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Chinese President Xi Jinping demanded "an all-out search and rescue effort," urging a swift investigation of the incident and "strictly hold those responsible accountable." The blaze started at a factory in Huiteng shoe company in the city of Jinjiang, the city's fire department said in a statement. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. There were 237 factory workers and two visitors in the building when the fire broke out.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to continue operations against militants during a visit Thursday to southwestern Balochistan province, where he condoled with the families of 42 people, mostly security personnel, killed in multiple insurgent attacks this week. Authorities have responded to the back-to-back attacks by launching operations since Monday, killing at least 54 insurgents, according to the military and local officials. The escalating violence prompted Sharif to travel to Quetta, the provincial capital, where members of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army killed at least 42 people in separate attacks since Monday. The violence has raised concerns that separatist groups once considered relatively small are expanding their reach.

HONG KONG (AP) - China's passenger car exports surged 80% in June from a year earlier, mainly due to strong demand for electric vehicles, though domestic sales fell 26%. In the first half of this year, Chinese passenger vehicle exports jumped 72% to more than 4.4 million, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Sales inside China were still larger, at nearly 8.3 million for January-June and around 1.5 million passenger cars in the month of June. China exported about 905,000 passenger cars last month, up from 809,000 in May. China's domestic car market has been under pressure as the overcrowded market is plagued by fierce price wars.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Australia will begin to sell uranium to India for peaceful purposes after the two countries' leaders signed an administrative deal Thursday, enacting an agreement on exports of the material that was held up for years over concerns about weapons use. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the joint announcement after a meeting in Melbourne. The leaders didn't immediately supply details of how much uranium would be sold, or when. Exports of Australian uranium to India stalled after an agreement to do so in 2014, because of concern that the material could be used to make weapons.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Authorities in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh used loudspeakers and a network of volunteers and community leaders to relocate people from risky areas to safety Thursday after landslides killed at least 13 refugees in the past few days. At least five children died Wednesday when a landslide caused by monsoon rains swept through an Islamic school at a camp in Cox's Bazar, where more than 1 million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar live. A teacher at the Islamic school described the scene from the landslide as chaotic, saying girls at the school were preparing for lessons when part of the building collapsed.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan naval search and rescue teams battled rough seas on Thursday as the search for five crew members who went missing after their cargo plane crashed into the Arabian Sea entered its second day, officials said. Wreckage from the aircraft was recovered on Wednesday, with no sign of the missing crew members. The aircraft, operated by private carrier K2 Airways, reported a malfunction in its navigation system before losing radio and radar contact late Tuesday, according to the Pakistan Airports Authority. Ships and aircraft have continued to comb waters nearly 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Karachi, where the plane disappeared from radar while approaching Pakistan's largest city from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

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.