Top Asian News 7:49 a.m. GMT

Philippine vice president preparing for impeachment battle but silent on option to resign

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said Friday that her lawyers were preparing for a legal battle in her upcoming impeachment trial but refused to say if resignation was an option so she could preempt a possible conviction that would bar her from running for president in the future. Duterte was speaking for the first time since the House of Representatives impeached her Wednesday on a raft of criminal charges, including plotting to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assassinated, which she again denied. Marcos was her running mate in the 2022 elections but they have had a bitter falling out.

Reid G. Miller, longtime AP international correspondent and editor, dies at 90

NEW YORK (AP) — Reid G. Miller, who traveled the planet as an intrepid international correspondent for The Associated Press and developed a reputation as a supportive editor and unswervingly loyal boss during the toughest of breaking-news moments, has died. He was 90. Miller died early Thursday in his sleep at his home in Sarasota, Florida, where he had been fighting congestive heart failure, said his son, G. Clay Miller of Brooklyn, New York. In his 43-year AP career, he bore witness to and reported on some of the late 20th century’s most momentous — and sometimes most violent — events from Washington to Central America, East Africa to South Korea.

Hong Kong’s post office continues to suspend packages for US as it seeks clarification over tariff

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s post office announced late Thursday it would continue to suspend shipping items containing goods to the United States until further notice, despite its American counterpart having reversed its ban on packages from the city and other parts of China. The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Hongkong Post was in talks with the U.S. postal administration but further clarification was still needed on certain matters, including over a tariff. It reiterated its strong disapproval over the U.S. imposition of additional duty on Hong Kong products, urging the U.S. to take “urgent actions to rectify its wrongdoing.”

Opposition lawmakers protest alleged mistreatment of Indian deportees by US

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Parliament was disrupted Thursday as opposition lawmakers protested the alleged mistreatment of 104 Indian immigrants deported by the United States. A U.S. military plane carrying Indian migrants arrived Wednesday in a northern Indian city, the first such flight to the country as part of a crackdown ordered by President Donald Trump’s administration. Renuka Chowdhury, a lawmaker in the Congress party, said the deportees were “handcuffed, had their legs chained and even struggled to use the washroom.” Her colleague, Gaurav Gogoi, called it “degrading.” Parliament adjourned as the opposition chanted slogans and demanded a discussion about flights.

The number of snakes removed from this Australian yard will make you shudder

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A man described feeling “the shudders” as more than 100 venomous red-bellied black snakes were removed from a pile of mulch in his Sydney backyard. David Stein called Reptile Relocation Sydney last week after watching around six snakes slither into the mulch. He learned from an internet search that pregnant, known as gravid, red-belly blacks pile on top of each other before they give birth. Snake catcher Dylan Cooper arrived that afternoon. Stein helped rake away mulch as Cooper bagged 102 pregnant and newborn snakes. “Just seeing that amount in one group, it gives you a bit of the shudders,” Stein said Friday.

China’s Xi and Thailand’s leader vow to crack down on scam networks that plague Southeast Asia

BANGKOK (AP) — China’s leader Xi Jinping and visiting Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra vowed to crack down on the scam networks that plague Southeast Asia as the two leaders met on Thursday in Beijing. Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which are south of China and share borders with Thailand, have became major centers of online scam operations where people lured by false advertising of well-paid jobs are trafficked to secretive compounds where they are forced to work by criminal groups that run online scams targeting people all over the world. That has impacted Thailand’s reputation, as multiple high-profile stories of Chinese people being lured to work in Bangkok only to be trafficked into a scam compound in Myanmar have surfaced, with Chinese actor Wang Xing being the latest such victim.

Baseball star Shohei Ohtani’s ex-interpreter is sentenced to nearly 5 years in sports betting case

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — The former interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani was sentenced Thursday to nearly five years in prison for bank and tax fraud after he stole nearly $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers player’s bank account. Ippei Mizuhara, who was supposed to bridge the gap between the Japanese athlete and his English-speaking teammates and fans, was sentenced in federal court in Santa Ana to four years and nine months after pleading guilty last year. He was ordered Thursday to pay $18 million in restitution, with nearly $17 million going to Ohtani and the remainder to the IRS.

US service member, 3 contractors killed in surveillance mission plane crash in southern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — One U.S. service member and three defense contractors were killed Thursday when a plane contracted by the U.S. military crashed in a rice field in the southern Philippines, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said. The aircraft was conducting a routine mission “providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies,” the command said in a statement. It said the cause of the crash was under investigation. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines also confirmed the crash of a light plane in Maguindanao del Sur province. It did not immediately provide other details. The bodies of the four people were retrieved from the wreckage in Ampatuan town, said Ameer Jehad Tim Ambolodto, a safety officer of Maguindanao del Sur.

Protests and a New Zealand leader’s absence overshadow a day marking the founding treaty with Māori

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — It’s often a day marked by spirited politics and at times boisterous protest. But Thursday’s anniversary of New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, passed in muted fashion with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon absent from the main commemorations, amid rancor over an unpopular proposed law redefining the treaty’s promises. On Feb. 6 1840, representatives of the British Crown and 500 Māori tribal leaders signed a treaty at Waitangi, in New Zealand’s far north, agreeing to the terms of their relationship. In modern times, annual events attended by lawmakers and Indigenous leaders at the treaty grounds have allowed the groups to speak face to face, even at times of racial discord.

Turbulence in Bangladesh as new government grapples with aftermath of Sheikh Hasina’s ouster

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s new government is struggling to deal with a host of issues, including a stumbling economy and human rights violations, left behind by the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina six months ago. Hasina fled to India in August after a student-led uprising ended her 15-year rule, and an interim government led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus took the helm, backed by the influential military. Hasina’s Awami League recently announced plans for protests in February, including a general strike. This infuriated student activists and anti-Hasina groups, who on Wednesday stormed and demolished the historic home of her father, Bangladesh’s independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.