Top Asian Pacific Breaking News: Latest Updates

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised tests of a nuclear-capable cruise missile and other weapons aboard a new 5,000-ton destroyer, the Kang Kon, repaired after being damaged in a failed launch ceremony last year, state media said Sunday, in the latest military display marking Kim's push to build a nuclear-armed navy. The official Korean Central News Agency said Friday's event included test-firings of a strategic cruise missile and of the Kang Kon's main gun and automatic cannons, as well as trials of its electronic warfare systems and assessments of its target-detection and information-processing capabilities.

BEIJING (AP) - Heavy rains have left five people dead in northern China while a tropical storm toppled trees and submerged cars in the nation's south, state media reported Sunday. Two villagers died in a mountain flash flood Saturday evening in the eastern part of China's Inner Mongolia region, the official Xinhua News Agency said. One drowned while herding cattle and the other fell into water while driving a cattle herd away, the report said. Three other people died the same day in neighboring Liaoning province's Fushun city, about 390 kilometers (240 miles) to the southeast, Xinhua said. It did not provide details on how they died.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A pastor of a prominent underground church who was detained in China in October has been released, less than two months after U.S. President Donald Trump brought up his case when meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, his family and rights advocates said Saturday. Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri arrived in Los Angeles and "is finally reunited with his family," Frances Hui of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation wrote on X. He and 17 other leaders of the underground Zion Church were detained in October in one of China's largest crackdowns on a single church in decades, raising worries over an escalation in the government's curtailing of religious freedom.

BEIJING (AP) - China's military promoted two officers to the rank of general in what may be a precursor to a reorganization at the top following the removal of several of its leaders in a long-running anti-corruption drive. The shake-up is believed to be part of an effort to reform the military and ensure its loyalty to China's ruling Communist Party and the nation's leader, Xi Jinping. It comes as Xi seeks to accelerate the modernization of the armed forces to stake out and defend China's interests in the Pacific, including Taiwan and other territorial claims. Xi, who is also head of the military, presented orders promoting Zhang Shuguang and air force commander Wang Gang to generals at a ceremony Friday.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - A speeding, overcrowded passenger bus plunged from a highway into a rocky ravine in southwestern Pakistan early Friday, killing 40 people and injuring eight others in one of the deadliest road accidents in recent years, officials said. The bus went out of control and fell into the ravine in Dana Sar, a remote area near the border of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the Balochistan government, said. He said the bus was carrying not only its own passengers but also those from another bus that had broken down, leaving the vehicle overcrowded.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Lam Wing-kee, a former Hong Kong bookseller who became a symbol of resistance to Beijing's crackdown on speech freedom after he was seized by Chinese authorities in late 2015, has died in Taiwan, the island's official Central News Agency reported, citing an unnamed source. The news agency didn't give a cause of death but said the 70-year-old Lam had a cancer relapse last year and was admitted to MacKay Memorial Hospital in Taipei on Tuesday. He fell into a coma on Wednesday and died Thursday evening, according to the report. Lam, who was the manager of Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong, moved to Taipei in 2019 over fears of legal troubles and reopened the bookstore under the same name in the Taiwanese capital in 2020.

CHALAKUDY, India (AP) - The life-size robotic elephants in Prasanth Prakashan's backyard workshop have ears that flap, tails that swish and trunks that squirt water. But that's about all they have in common with their real-life counterparts revered across India as manifestations of the divine. The animatrons, crafted from fiberglass, iron and rubber, are intended to take the place of live elephants in Hindu temples. The change pleases animal welfare activists but upsets those who passionately believe real elephants are inextricable from the temple rituals and festivals where they are bestowed superstar status. The animal welfare group PETA and other nonprofits have donated about 40 robotic elephants, costing about $6,000 each, to Indian temples to replace live elephants.

CHALAKUDY, India (AP) - In India's southern state of Kerala, robotic elephants are replacing live ones at some temple festivals. Rising concerns about elephant abuse and dangerous incidents led to the change. ____ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday condemned senators who blocked changes to a world-first social media ban for children, saying tech giants would use the delay to destroy incriminating documents that could be used as evidence against them. The government this week introduced to Parliament amendments aimed at increasing powers of the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia's online safety watchdog, to enforce the ban on Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube that has been in place since December. The amendments would have given Inman Grant power to demand documents as well as information from platforms about their efforts to exclude young children.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Like plenty of local boys before him, Neil has come home to the stretch of Australian coast where he was born. Unlike most of them, he trails fame, fans and property damage in his wake. He is also a 1,000 kg (2,200 pound) elephant seal. In June, the bellowing and blubbery 5-year-old mammal hauled himself onto land for his twice-yearly tour of beachside towns in southern Tasmania state after months of feeding at sea. That's posing problems now that he weighs as much as a small car and has a social media following more than double Tasmania's human population.