Top Asian News 3:14 a.m. GMT

Police say at least 30 people have died in a stampede at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in India

PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — At least 30 people were killed and many more injured in a stampede at the world’s largest religious gathering early Wednesday, police said, as millions of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred waters during the Maha Kumbh festival in northern India. Police officer Vaibhav Krishna in Prayagraj city said another 60 injured were rushed to hospitals. Wednesday was a sacred day in the six-week Hindu festival, and authorities expected a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. Hindus believe that a dip at the holy site can cleanse them of past sins and end the process of reincarnation.

The Maha Kumbh festival in northern India is the world’s largest religious gathering

PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — Hindu devotees, mystics and holy men and women have gathered in India’s northern city of Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh festival, the world’s largest religious gathering. The festival is held every 12 years at the confluence of sacred rivers. A stampede occurred as people rushed to take part in a bathing ritual at the festival early Wednesday. In images from the scene of the stampede, families waited at makeshift hospitals to get word of their missing relatives, rescuers were helping the injured and police tried to manage the massive crowds. Here’s what to know about the festival: Hindus venerate rivers, and none more so than the Ganges and the Yamuna.

A look at stampedes and crowd disasters in India over the years

NEW DELHI (AP) — At least 30 people are dead and many more injured in a stampede Wednesday as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival in India, the world’s largest religious gathering. Wednesday was a holy day in the six-week festival, which started on Jan. 13, and authorities were expecting a record 100 million devotees to engage in ritual bathing at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers. The Maha Kumbh festival is held every 12 years. Authorities expect more than 400 million people to visit the pilgrimage site this year.

Australia wakes to more antisemitic graffiti after a discovery of explosives was revealed by police

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Three more incidents of antisemitic graffiti were found across Sydney on Thursday morning, leading Australian political leaders to warn of an escalation in hatred and decry as terrorism explosives found earlier in a trailer on the city’s outskirts. Law enforcement earlier this month found a list of Jewish targets together with a cache of Powergel — an explosive used in the mining industry — in Sydney’s outer suburb of Dural, state police said Wednesday. The amount uncovered could create a bomb with a blast zone of around 40 meters (130 feet), officers said. “This represents, undeniably, an escalation in race hatred, race-filled hatred and potential violence in New South Wales,” the state’s Premier Chris Minns told reporters on Thursday.

India’s Maha Kumbh festival, the world’s largest religious gathering, by the numbers

NEW DELHI (AP) — Hindu devotees, mystics and holy men and women have gathered in India’s northern city of Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh festival, the world’s largest religious gathering. The festival — site of a stampede on Wednesday — is held every 12 years at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. Hindus take a series of ritual baths at the confluence to cleanse them of their past sins and free them from reincarnation. Here’s a look at the festival by the numbers: The number of people expected in Prayagraj for the festival over the course of 45 days.

Longtime AP international journalist Earleen Fisher, whose career spanned five decades, dies at 78

Earleen Fisher, an editor and writer whose career across five decades with The Associated Press gave her a front-row seat to some of the late 20th century’s most chaotic and challenging news stories, has died. She was 78 and counted Yasser Arafat and the Dalai Lama among her interviews. Fisher died peacefully Wednesday morning at The Maples at Waterford Crossing nursing home in Goshen, Indiana, of complications from Parkinson’s disease, said her cousin, Phil Dowty. She had been ill from Parkinson’s for a number of years. She retired in 2004 after 32 years at the AP, a career that took her from her native Indiana to New York as an editor on the agency’s old General Desk with stints in Tel Aviv and Beirut — and ultimately to bureau chief jobs in India, Cyprus and Egypt, where she eventually oversaw all coverage of the Middle East.

Over 100 Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar arrive in Indonesia’s Aceh

PEREULAK, Indonesia (AP) — A rickety wooden boat carrying more than 100 Rohingya Muslims landed Wednesday in Indonesia as the northernmost province of Aceh continued to receive the refugees fleeing persecution and political unrest in Myanmar. Indonesia’s government blames a surge in human trafficking for the increasing number of Rohingya Muslims who have arrived over the past few years. Local police chief Nova Suryandaru said the boat’s engine had broken down and the boat, carrying mostly women and children, ran aground near Pereulak village in East Aceh district. He said authorities were collecting information about their identities. He said one refugee told authorities that the vessel set off from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh with the hope of reaching Malaysia.

US aid freeze leads to suspension of health care to Myanmar refugees in Thailand

BANGKOK (AP) — A 90-day freeze on foreign assistance programs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump has led to cuts in services to refugees from war-torn Myanmar, including the shutdown of hospital care in camps in Thailand where more than 100,000 are living, activists and Thai officials said Wednesday. About 106,000 long-term refugees live in nine camps along Thailand’s western border with Myanmar, according to the Border Consortium, which coordinates and supplies food, shelter and other support to most of them. The consortium’s mid-year report last year said the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration was its largest donor, contributing 69% of its funding.

AP PHOTOS: Move over peanuts, pistachio is the latest trend for Hong Kong New Year treats

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong culinary institution is acknowledging that changing times bring changing tastes and has found a hit in adding American pistachios to the range of flavors in its famed dumplings. The Kwan Hong Bakery last year began offering the new flavor alongside the traditional peanut and red bean fillings that are the heart of the sweet, deep-fried pastry, which is hand-filled and folded like the wide range of sweet and savory dumplings known in the local dialect as “kok zai.” Demand is especially strong around the Lunar New Year, which fell on Wednesday, with long lines outside the 46-year-old family-owned business in the city’s Sham Shui Po district.

Millions around the world celebrate Lunar New Year and ring in the Year of the Snake

BEIJING (AP) — Firecrackers popped, incense was offered at temples and dancers and drummers paraded Wednesday in Asia and farther afield as millions around the world celebrated the Lunar New Year. From Beijing to Havana, the holiday — known as the Spring Festival in China, Tet in Vietnam and Seollal in Korea — is a major festival celebrated in many countries. Wednesday marked the start of the Year of the Snake, one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. Throngs of people in down jackets filled a Beijing park for a “temple fair” on a sunny but chilly day. Some rang bells and tossed coins into containers in the shape of gold bars for good luck, while others ate traditional snacks from food stalls and took photos with a person dressed up as the God of Wealth.