Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - A boat returning from an island trip in southern Vietnam capsized on Saturday, killing 15 Indian tourists less than half a kilometer (0.30 mile) from shore, as passengers shouted for help, officials and a witness said. The speedboat was carrying 32 Indian tourists and four crew members when it overturned Saturday afternoon shortly after leaving Hon May Rut Ngoai Island, which is near Phu Quoc, Vietnam's largest island, authorities were quoted as saying. "The boat had not even gone half a kilometer when it just tipped over," Ashish Kumar, an Indian who witnessed the accident, told The Associated Press over the phone.

BEIJING (AP) - Authorities were investigating a blaze at a shoe factory in southeastern China's Fujian province that killed 28 people, raising renewed concern over worker safety. The state-run Xinhua News Agency said Friday that a search had ended while an investigation was underway into the cause of the fire Thursday that gutted the Fujian Huiteng factory in Jinjiang, a manufacturing hub for sports shoes. According to product listings on online sales and import platforms, Fujian Huiteng makes shoes for both Chinese and foreign brands. Local media footage showed people trapped on the roof of the five-floor building, enveloped in thick black smoke, while the spray from fire truck hoses fell short of flames showing through windows on its upper floors.

BEIJING (AP) - Typhoon Bavi made landfall in China's eastern province of Zhejiang late on Saturday night and was expected to gradually weaken, according to China's national weather center. Bavi previously brought strong winds and rain to Japan's southern islands and Taiwan. It was the second typhoon to impact China in just over a week's time. The first, Maysak, made landfall in southern China on July 3. Chinese authorities have evacuated more than 1.7 million people as of Saturday and issued high alerts while eastern China braced for Bavi, which had maximum sustained winds of 144 kph (89 mph) near its center.

TOKYO (AP) - Japan's experimental reusable rocket took off and safely landed in a first test flight Saturday as the country seeks to achieve the technology key to cut launch costs and compete in the global space market dominated by SpaceX. The RV-X rocket lifted off, hovered and moved horizontally before landing during its less than one-minute flight at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Noshiro Testing Center in northeastern Japan, which was livestreamed by the NVS, a group of space fans. The rocket flew as planned, rising 11 meters (36 feet) and moving horizontally 16 meters (52 feet) while keeping its upright position before landing, Takashi Ito, JAXA's reusable rocket project manager, said in an online briefing from the test center.

BANGKOK (AP) - Three former crew members of a Thai cargo ship struck in the Strait of Hormuz in March filed a lawsuit Friday against the vessel's operator over labor rights violations and unfair dismissal. The ship, the Mayuree Naree, was hit by a projectile north of Oman on March 11, killing three people. The remaining 20 crew members were rescued and returned to Thailand about a week later. Former crew members Panithi Tumkaew, Noppadon Wongsuvan and Surades Manpuen filed the lawsuit against Precious Shipping Co. as well as two affiliated companies and the ship's captain. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants endangered their lives by sailing through the strait despite the security risks, according to their lawyer Kunpat Singhathong.

GURDASPUR, India (AP) - As dusk settled over Gurdaspur's fields, villagers gathered in the courtyard of a Sikh temple to watch a movie that has been blocked by Indian officials. "Satluj" tells the true tale of a human rights activist who investigated thousands of disappearances and extrajudicial killings during a government crackdown on a separatist insurgency in India's Punjab state in the 1980s and early 1990s. At the screening in Gurdaspur, elderly survivors of the insurgency sat beside teenagers born years after it ended. When the screen flickered to life and "Satluj" movie began, the crowd fell silent. Originally titled "Punjab 95," the movie was stalled for three years after India's censor board demanded more than 120 cuts.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - The Pakistan navy's search teams recovered additional debris from a cargo plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea earlier this week, and investigators will analyze the wreckage as the search for the aircraft's five missing crew members entered its third day Friday. The Pakistan Airports Authority said in a post on X that search-and-rescue operations by the Pakistan navy and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency remained underway in deep waters, with aircraft and other assets deployed in a coordinated effort to locate the missing crew. The authority did not provide additional details, saying further updates would be shared later.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistani security forces backed by military helicopters have killed 75 insurgents in dayslong operations against an outlawed separatist group blamed for a wave of attacks on troops, police and civilians in restive Balochistan province, officials said Friday. The announcement came a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Balochistan's capital, Quetta, and told the families of 42 people killed in the attacks that their sacrifices were not in vain and those responsible would be brought to justice. This week's violence has raised concerns that separatist groups once considered relatively small are expanding their reach. According to the Balochistan government, the operations involving the army, the Frontier Corps and police began late Monday after dozens of fighters from the Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, attacked a police post near Mangi Dam, which supplies water to million of people in Quetta and surrounding areas.

BEIJING (AP) - China successfully recaptured the first stage of a rocket after a launch on Friday in a breakthrough for the country's space program, state media said. The first stage of a Long March-10B rocket separated from the second stage after liftoff and returned to a platform in the sea, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It was the first time China recovered the first stage of a rocket. America's SpaceX has been doing so for several years to drive down launch costs by reusing the booster that helps lift the satellites or whatever the rocket is carrying into space.

NEW YORK (AP) - A former Afghan general who also served in his nation's National Assembly was extradited to the U.S. on Friday to face drug charges, authorities said. Abdul Zahir Qadeer, 52, of Afghanistan, appeared in Manhattan federal court and was ordered detained until trial, federal prosecutors said in a release. Qadeer was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 15 before his extradition to face charges that he conspired to import heroin and methamphetamine, along with related firearms offenses. Authorities said he previously served as a general in Afghanistan's Border Force and as first deputy speaker of Afghanistan's House of the People.