Top Asian News 5:07 p.m. GMT

Hundreds of police raid a religious compound in search of Filipino preacher wanted for child abuse

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Hundreds of police officers backed by riot squads raided a vast religious compound in a southern Philippine city Saturday in search of a local preacher accused of sexual abuse and human trafficking, police officials said. A supporter of the group, called Kingdom of Jesus Christ, reportedly died due to a heart attack during the massive police raid that started at dawn in the group’s compound in Davao city, livestreamed online by a local TV network owned by the group, police said, adding that the death was not related to the police operations. Officers brought equipment that could detect people behind cement walls.

Mourners in southern Pakistan attend funerals for 28 Shiite pilgrims killed in a bus crash in Iran

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — Hundreds of mourners in various parts of southern Pakistan attended funerals for 28 Shiite pilgrims who were killed in a bus crash in Iran this week while heading to Iraq, community leaders and officials said. The victims of the crash were later buried in various graveyards in the Sindh province, local Shiite leader Jaafar Hussain said. The funerals took place hours after a military aircraft brought home the bodies and the injured on orders from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. All the victims were from Sindh province, where the plane landed. Authorities have not announced the cause of the crash near the city of Taft, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Nikki Haley in Taiwan says an isolationist policy is not healthy while expressing support for Trump

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on a visit to Taiwan Saturday that an isolationist policy isn’t “healthy” and called on the Republican Party to stand with her country’s allies, while still putting in good words for the party’s nominee, Donald Trump. Haley, who ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, told reporters in the capital, Taipei, that supporting U.S. allies, including Ukraine and Israel, is vital. She underscored the importance of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, to be brought under control by force if necessary. “I don’t think the isolationist approach is healthy.

Philippines says flares fired from a Chinese island base threatened its fisheries plane

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine fisheries bureau plane was threatened by flares fired from a Chinese island base while conducting a routine patrol in the South China Sea, Philippine officials said Saturday, the latest territorial spat between Beijing and Manila over one of the world’s busiest trade routes, with confrontations spreading from the disputed waters to the airspace above. China has been at odds with several other countries in the Asia-Pacific for years over its sweeping maritime claims, including almost all of the South China Sea. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’ Cessna 208B Grand Caravan plane was flying near Subi Reef on Thursday when it spotted flares being fired from the fishing atoll, which China has transformed into a militarized island base, a Philippine government interagency task force said in a statement.

Heavy rainstorms killed 11 people and left 14 others missing in northeastern Chinese city

BEIJING (AP) — Heavy rainstorms that swept a city in northeast China this week killed 11 people and left 14 others missing, while causing more than $1 billion in damages, state media reported Friday. State broadcaster CCTV said an officer who was trying to save lives was one of the people who died in the city of Huludao in Liaoning province. Rescuers were still trying to find the people who went missing during the “historically rare” destructive rainfall, it said. An image from the broadcaster showed roads seriously flooded. According to preliminary estimates, 188,800 people were affected by the natural disaster, with losses amounting to 10.3 billion yuan (about $1.4 billion), officials announced.

A roadside bomb in southwest Pakistan kills 2 children and a woman

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A roadside bomb attached to a motorcycle went off near a police office in restive southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least two children and a woman and wounding 15 people, authorities said. The bomb seemed to have been detonated remotely and an investigation was ongoing, said police official Mujirbur Rehman. He said the wounded included police and passersby and some were hospitalized in critical condition in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Pishin, a district in Balochistan. Suspicion is likely to fall on separatist groups that have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months.

Indian Prime Minister Modi offers to help ‘as a friend’ to bring peace to Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered “as a friend” to help bring peace to Ukraine in a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a brief visit on Friday that many in the war-battered country hope will pave the way for an Indian role in peace mediation. Modi’s trip marks the most prominent wartime visit by a leader from a nation that maintains a neutral position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. India’s support is seen as a factor that could bolster efforts toward peace negotiations. Zelenskyy and Modi discussed at length Ukraine’s peace formula, which prioritizes territorial integrity and the withdrawal of Russian troops, according to the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As more floods batter Bangladesh and India, death toll rises to 30

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Floods wreaked more havoc in India’s northeast and neighboring Bangladesh’s eastern region, raising this week’s total death toll to 30, officials and media reports said Friday. Rain stopped in many parts of Bangladesh on Friday and weather officials in Dhaka said the waters had started receding in some areas, but said the flooding would not be over for days. In India’s Tripura state, eight more people died in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 19 since Monday, said a state disaster management official on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

27 killed after a bus with Indian pilgrims drives off a Nepal highway and crash

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — At least 27 people were killed and 16 others injured when a bus carrying dozens of Indian pilgrims drove off a key highway and crashed on Friday in Nepal, officials said. The bus veered off Prithvi Highway and rolled toward a fast-flowing river. Its roof was ripped open before stopping on the rocky bank just shy of the Marsyangdi’s rushing, murky water. Rescue workers recovered 27 bodies from the wreckage and flew the 16 injured to the capital Kathmandu for treatment, according to Armed Police Force spokesperson Shailendra Thapa. The wreckage was found near Abukhaireni, a town about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu and the river.

UN rights chief raises alarm about Myanmar’s Rohingya civilians trapped by fighting

BANGKOK (AP) — The U.N.’s human rights chief joined a chorus of concern Friday for members of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority after many were reported killed in recent fighting between the military government and the Arakan Army, an armed ethnic rebel group. According to a statement from the Geneva office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, he “expressed grave alarm and raised profound concerns about the sharply deteriorating situation across Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State where hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed while trying to flee the fighting.” It said his agency had documented that ”both the military and the Arakan Army, which now controls most of the townships in Rakhine, have committed serious human rights violations and abuses against the Rohingya, including extrajudicial killings, some involving beheadings, abductions, forced recruitment, indiscriminate bombardments of towns and villages using drones and artillery, and arson attacks.” The statement cited an Aug.