Top Asia Pacific Breaking News; Latest Updates

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Australia and Vanuatu signed a long-awaited bilateral security and economic treaty Monday that prevents China creating a military base on the South Pacific island nation. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed the so-called Nakamal Agreement with his Vanuatu counterpart, Jotham Napat, in the Australian capital nine months after the Vanuatuan government rejected an earlier draft. Vanuatu had feared the deal would limit its ability to attract infrastructure investment. "Our agreement reflects and confirms Australia's role as Vanuatu's largest and most comprehensive economic, security and development partner, a responsibility that we take seriously," Albanese told reporters. Natap said the pact "reaffirms our shared commitment to continuing and strengthening the comprehensive partnership between our two countries, founded on mutual respect, trust and our common vision for a peaceful, stable and prosperous Pacific." Under the agreement, Vanuatu will not allow any foreign military base or infrastructure in its territory and will keep its critical infrastructure free from militarization, foreign interference or unauthorized access, a government statement said.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Pakistani forces' ground operations and strikes killed at least 36 civilians in Afghanistan overnight and wounded more than 160 others, Afghan officials said Monday, as tensions between the neighbors escalated. One Afghan official said the attacks would be met with retaliation. Pakistan said the operations were launched in response to militant attacks across Pakistan. Security forces carried out a ground operation along the border late Sunday, followed by strikes against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said. Afghanistan condemned the strikes in Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces as a "cowardly act of aggression" and an "act of brutality." Hayatullah Mohajer Farahi, the deputy minister for publications at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said Afghanistan would respond "in due time." Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan's Taliban government, said Pakistani forces targeted a home in Paktia's Chamkani district, killing an older man and a child, while other family members were wounded.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - China imposed new export controls Monday on 40 Japanese entities it says are contributing to the country's "remilitarization," as tensions with Tokyo rise. Relations between Beijing and Tokyo have been increasingly tense since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year implied Japan could intervene if China used military force against Taiwan, an island democracy China claims as its own. Meanwhile, Japan has accelerated its military expansion, especially by adding offensive capabilities, which Beijing has condemned. China's Commerce Ministry on Monday placed 20 Japanese entities, including multiple divisions of Mitsubishi Corporation, on a control list, which prohibits Chinese and foreign exporters from selling to them dual-use items made in China.

HONG KONG (AP) - A roughly 40-hour sea journey on a dinghy with a dying phone. Detention in South Korea. That's just part of what Chinese dissident Dong Guangping endured to escape his native country. He arrived late last week in Canada, a destination he had eyed for more than a decade. Dong had been locked up in China several times, including for his activities commemorating the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and past efforts to flee. "It's like living in a cage. Very suffocating," he said in an online video interview with The Associated Press from Toronto, referring to the lack of freedom of expression in China.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysia has extended for another year its contract with marine robotics company Ocean Infinity for a deep-sea search in the southern Indian Ocean for wreckage of a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared 12 years ago. The Cabinet on Friday approved the extension of a "no-find, no-fee" agreement with Ocean Infinity until June 30 next year, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Monday. "This decision is a manifestation of the government's continuous and unwavering commitment to provide a closure for the next of kin of the passengers aboard flight MH370," he said in a statement. The extension enables Ocean Infinity to complete the remaining 7,428.54-square-kilometer (2,868-square-mile) search area, after temporarily redeploying its primary search assets to fulfill other commercial contracts, he said.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean tech giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix said Monday they will invest a combined 800 trillion won ($518 billion) in building a new computer chipmaking hub in the country's southwest region, capitalizing on surging artificial intelligence -driven demand. President Lee Jae Myung joined the companies' chairs Monday in announcing the plan, which dovetails with the government's efforts to expand investment beyond the greater Seoul metropolitan area, the country's economic center and heart of its semiconductor sector. The southwest has been a particular focus, as it lacks major industrial hubs and has historically trailed in economic development.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Australia plans to double potential fines for social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, who fail to prevent Australian children from holding accounts as critics argue the world-first ban on under-16s was failing. Communications Minister Anika Wells on Monday blamed the platforms' resistance to the age restrictions for the need to toughen the laws that came into force on Dec. 10. "We can all agree we would like the scheme to work better than it is currently, but that is on Big Tech taking the Mickey," Wells told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., using an Australian slang term for deceiving, teasing or mocking.

BANGKOK (AP) - The Australian police said Monday that a Thai airline employee was arrested and charged for allegedly importing more than 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of heroin into Melbourne. The 26-year-old woman was on duty on board an international flight when she arrived at the Melbourne Airport on Thursday. She was arrested after raising suspicions during a baggage screening, the Australian Federal Police said in a statement on its website. It said an X-ray and further examinations found white powder concealed in the linings of her 12 tote bags, and the initial test reportedly returned a positive result for heroin.

BANGKOK (AP) - Vietnam is increasingly using broadly written laws to arrest activists, dissidents and others that authorities consider a threat to the Communist Party's rule, according to a new analysis released Monday by a human rights group. The 88 Project, which focuses on rights issues in Vietnam, documented 56 such arrests in 2025, the third consecutive year of increases and double the number in 2022. The report includes only arrests where the defendant could be identified by name and the case tracked, and the actual numbers are believed to be much higher, said Ben Swanton, co-director of the group.

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.