Top Asian News 3:03 a.m. GMT

India claims its strikes inside Pakistan territory last week killed over 100 militants

ISLAMABAD (AP) — India’s military strikes into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan earlier this week killed more than 100 militants including prominent leaders, the head of India’s military operations claimed Sunday. Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai, the director general of military operations, said India’s armed forces struck nine militant infrastructure and training facilities, including sites of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group that India blames for carrying out major militant strikes in India and the disputed region of Kashmir. “We achieved total surprise,” Ghai said at a news conference in New Delhi, adding Pakistan’s response was “erratic and rattled.” The two countries agreed to a truce a day earlier after talks to defuse their most serious military confrontation in decades.

Unease lingers in Kashmir despite ceasefire between India and Pakistan

NEELUM VALLEY, Pakistan (AP) — Joy over an India-Pakistan ceasefire was short-lived in Kashmir. Tens of thousands fled the Indian-controlled part of the disputed region last week amid heavy shelling and drone attacks by Pakistan. Yet despite a ceasefire announced Saturday, only a handful of families returned to their homes Sunday. “We will go back only after complete calm prevails,” said Basharat Ahmed, who lives in Poonch district. “It doesn’t take much time for the two countries to start fighting on the border.” The ceasefire was intended to halt the hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbors and defuse their worst military confrontation for decades.

Detained ex-President Duterte is among the candidates in Philippines midterms

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Even though he is detained in The Hague, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is among the candidates vying for some 18,000 national and local seats in Monday’s midterm elections that analysts say will decide if he and his family continue to hold political power. Duterte has been in custody of the International Criminal Court since March, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity over a brutal war on illegal drugs that has left thousands of suspects dead during his presidency 2016-2022. It hasn’t stopped him from running for mayor of his southern Davao city stronghold. Under Philippine law, candidates facing criminal charges, including those in detention, can run for office unless they have been convicted and have exhausted all appeals.

US touts ‘substantial progress’ in tariff talks with China, but details are still scarce

GENEVA (AP) — The lead U.S. negotiator in trade talks with China cheered “a great deal of productivity” in resolving differences between the world’s two leading economic powers, after officials wrapped two days of bargaining in Switzerland following President Donald Trump imposing steep tariffs and Beijing retaliating. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday there was “substantial progress” in the weekend sessions but offered scant information on exactly what negotiations entailed. He said more details would come at a briefing Monday. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer suggested that an agreement had been reached but provided no details. He and Bessent briefly addressed reporters once talks had wrapped at the stately villa that serves as the residence of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, but did not take questions.

Bangladesh’s former ruling party slams government decision to ban all its activities

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s former ruling party accused Sunday the interim government of “stoking division” and trampling on “democratic norms” by banning all of its activities. The government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted following a deadly mass uprising, announced late Saturday the Awami League party can no longer be active online and elsewhere in the South Asian country under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The law affairs adviser, Asif Nazrul, said the ban would remain until a special tribunal completes a trial of the party and its leaders over the deaths of hundreds of students and other protesters during an anti-government uprising in July and August last year.

Passenger bus skids off a cliff in Sri Lanka, killing 21 people and injuring 35

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A passenger bus skidded off a cliff in Sri Lanka’s tea-growing hill country on Sunday, killing 21 people and injuring 35 others, a police spokesman said. The accident occurred in the early hours of Sunday near the town of Kotmale, about 140 kilometers (86 miles) east of Colombo, the capital, in a mountainous area of central Sri Lanka, police said. Police spokesman Buddhika Manathunga said 21 people died and another 35 were being treated in hospitals. Local television showed the bus lying overturned at the bottom of a precipice while workers and others helped remove injured people from the rubble.

Bomb targeting a vehicle carrying police killed 2 officers in northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying police officers in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least two officers and injuring three others, police said. The attack happened near a roadside open market in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a local police chief, Masood Khan, said. He said the dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, who often target security forces and civilians. TTP is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021.

AP PHOTOS: Pakistan and India agree to a truce ending the worst military confrontation in decades

Pakistan and India have agreed to a ceasefire to end the worst military confrontation between them in decades. They accused the other of violating the deal hours later. Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have soared since an attack at a popular tourist site in India-controlled Kashmir left 26 civilians dead, mostly Hindu Indian tourists, on April 22. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for backing the assault, an accusation Islamabad rejects. The first word of the truce came from U.S. President Donald Trump, who posted on his Truth Social platform that India and Pakistan had agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire ____ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan step back from brink of war. Here’s a timeline of how it happened

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A gun massacre of tourists on April 22 pushed India and Pakistan a step closer to war, marking the biggest breakdown in relations since 2019. Conflict between India and Pakistan is not rare, with the two countries having periodically engaged in wars, clashes and skirmishes since gaining independence from British India in 1947. The difference with this escalation was the frequency and intensity of strikes and retaliation. Although the U.S. previously said it would not step in, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he and Vice President JD Vance talked to senior government and military officials on both sides, with the two countries agreeing to an immediate ceasefire.

South Korean conservative party fails in a bid to switch presidential candidates

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s embattled conservative party canceled then reinstated the presidential candidacy of Kim Moon Soo within hours as internal turmoil escalated ahead of the June 3 election. Saturday’s chaotic U-turn, after a failed attempt to replace Kim with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, underscored the People Power Party’s leadership crisis following the ouster of former President Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law imposition in December, which possibly doomed the conservatives’ chances of winning another term in government. Kim, a staunch conservative and former labor minister under Yoon, was named the PPP’s presidential candidate on May 3 after winning 56.3% of the primary vote, defeating a reformist rival who had criticized Yoon’s martial law.