Top Asian News at 3:30 p.m. GMT

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A pair of suicide bombers detonated themselves near two churches in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday as worshippers were gathered inside — killing 15 people, officials said, in the latest attack against religious minorities in the increasingly fractured country. In the tense aftermath of the blasts, an angry Christian mob turned violent — blocking a major highway, burning cars, ransacking a bus terminal setting two people on fire who the mob suspected of involvement in the attacks. Christian demonstrators blocked roads in other major Pakistani cities as well.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Officials struggled Sunday to determine the scale of the devastation wrought by a monstrous cyclone that tore through the tiny South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, with death counts varying in the single digits but expected to rise once communications are restored with outlying islands. Cyclone Pam tore through Vanuatu early Saturday, packing winds of 270 kilometers (168 miles) per hour, and leaving a trail of destruction and unconfirmed reports of dozens of deaths.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A massive cyclone tore through the South Pacific archipelago nation of Vanuatu on Saturday, and officials are still trying to assess the level of damage and number of deaths. A snapshot of the small country, from volcanoes to snorkeling:

WAITANGI, New Zealand (AP) — Their land was confiscated, their homes burned down and many of their people killed. Now, 150 years later, the indigenous Ngai Tuhoe tribe in New Zealand is getting a new start. The government has apologized for its past atrocities, handed over 170 million New Zealand dollars ($128 million) and agreed the tribe should manage a sprawling, rugged national park it calls home.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A senior Myanmar official on Sunday denied Chinese accusations that one of his country's warplanes crossed China's border and dropped a bomb that killed four farmers during fighting with Myanmar rebels. The official, from Myanmar's presidential office, said his government regretted the deaths and suggested it could have been the work of a group seeking to create confusion. He also promised "full cooperation" with Beijing into the incident, which has tested generally good ties that have been strained in recent years by Myanmar's perceived shift toward the U.S.

BEIJING (AP) — Premier Li Keqiang expressed determination Sunday to press ahead with reforms meant to reduce the Chinese government's role in the world's second-largest economy in hopes of spurring growth despite what he acknowledged would be pain for "vested interests" that benefit from regulation. "This is not nail-clipping. This is like taking a knife to one's own flesh," Li said at a news conference after the close of China's annual legislature in Beijing. "But however painful it might be, we are determined to keep going until our job is done."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is abandoning plans to cut the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 5,500 by year's end, bowing to military leaders who want to keep more troops, including many into the 2016 fighting season, U.S. officials say. While no final decision on numbers has been made, the officials said the administration is poised to slow withdrawal plans and probably will allow many of the 9,800 American troops to remain well into next year.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Two planes from an Indonesian acrobatic air team clipped wings and crashed Sunday during a practice session ahead of an air show in Malaysia, officials said. All four pilots ejected and were safe. The pilots from both planes ejected from their aircraft after the jets went out of control and landed safely with their parachutes, said a Malaysian defense official who declined to be named because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

KOLKATA, India (AP) — A nun in her 70s was gang-raped by a group of bandits Saturday when she tried to prevent them from robbing a Christian missionary school in eastern India, police said, the latest crime to focus attention on the scourge of sexual violence in the country. The nun was hospitalized in serious condition after being attacked by seven or eight men at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School in Nadia district, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the West Bengal state capital of Kolkata, a police officer said.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The president of the Maldives urged the world community to respect the court verdict that sentenced his main political opponent to 13 years in prison after widespread criticism that the trial was flawed. President Yameen Abdul Gayoom in a statement Saturday called on "international partners to engage constructively, based on mutual respect and dialogue."

BEIJING (AP) — An earthquake in the eastern Chinese city of Fuyang has killed two people and damaged thousands of homes. The quake struck in the Anhui province city Saturday afternoon, and 13 people also were injured, officials in the city said. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured magnitude 4.7.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A crowded double-decker passenger ferry capsized in northwestern Myanmar after being slammed by huge waves, killing 34 people and leaving more than a dozen missing, officials and state television said Saturday. Rescuers pulled 167 survivors from the sea and brought them to safety after the Aung Tagun 3 went down near Myebon in Rakhine state late Friday, said Myanmar Red Cross Disaster Management chief Maung Maung Khin. He said many of the survivors were sent back to their homes.

While more than 70 percent of U.S. states now allow same-sex marriage, the waves of change have yet to reach America's far-flung and socially conservative territories in the Caribbean and Pacific. Of the five territories, only Puerto Rico has faced a lawsuit seeking the right for gay and lesbian couples to wed, and a federal judge there — bucking the trend in federal courts on the mainland — rejected the suit. That case is under appeal before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

SENDAI, Japan (AP) — The president of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu appealed to a U.N. disaster conference Saturday for help as a powerful cyclone swept across his archipelago, driving painfully home the rising risks from extreme weather and climate change. "I am speaking to you today with a heart that is so heavy. I do not really know what impact the cyclone has had on Vanuatu," Vanuatu's president, Baldwin Lonsdale, told the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in the northeastern Japanese city of Sendai.

BEIJING (AP) — People in China who want to take industries to task for fouling their surroundings have been rushing to file complaints and lawsuits this year in a test of legal reforms that toughen environmental penalties and make clear that many public-interest groups have the right to sue. Environmental watchdogs say people have filed hundreds of complaints with local governments under the new law launched in January, taking advantage of requirements that authorities respond to environmental complaints or risk having the cases be bumped up to higher levels of government. State media reports say at least one complaint resulted in immediate action, when authorities in eastern Shandong province shut down the coal furnace of a rubber factory that had bothered neighbors.