Top Asian News 4:19 a.m. GMT

Modi’s ruling party looks to topple corruption crusader in Delhi poll with graft allegations

NEW DELHI (AP) — The resurgent Hindu nationalist party of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is eyeing a state legislature election in Delhi where it is looking to unseat the governing movement which has led the Indian capital for over a decade but has recently been embroiled in graft allegations. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which failed to secure a majority of its own in last year’s national election but formed the government with coalition partners, has gained some lost ground by winning two state elections in northern Haryana and western Maharashtra states. It is up against the Aam Aadmi Party, or AAP, led by Arvind Kejriwal, that runs Delhi and has built a huge support base on the back of its popular welfare policies.

RFK Jr. misled the US Senate on measles deaths, Samoa’s health chief says

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Samoa’s top health official on Monday denounced as “a complete lie” remarks that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made during his bid to become U.S. health secretary, rejecting his claim that some who died in the country’s 2019 measles epidemic didn’t have the disease. “We don’t know what was killing them,” Kennedy said during tense U.S. Senate hearings last week on whether he should oversee the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, suggesting that the cause of the 83 deaths — mostly of children under age 5 — was unclear. “It’s a total fabrication,” Samoa Director-General of Health Dr.

Tariff threats take aim at fentanyl trafficking. Here’s how the drug reaches the US

President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China is partly aimed at combating the illicit flow of fentanyl into the U.S., where the opioid is blamed for some 70,000 overdose deaths annually. Mexico agreed Monday to send 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a deal with Trump to pause the tariffs for a month — and hold off levying its own. Canada reached its own deal with Trump hours later, delaying the trade war and pledging several steps against fentanyl trafficking. China hasn’t signaled major changes in tackling the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., and has said it would retaliate for any U.S.

What is USAID? Explaining the US foreign aid agency and why Trump and Musk want to end it

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of senior officials put on leave. Thousands of contractors laid off. A freeze put on billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to other countries. Over the last two weeks, President Donald Trump’s administration has made significant changes to the U.S. agency charged with delivering humanitarian assistance overseas that has left aid organizations agonizing over whether they can continue with programs such as nutritional assistance for malnourished infants and children. Then-President John F. Kennedy established the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, during the Cold War. In the decades since, Republicans and Democrats have fought over the agency and its funding.

Indonesia prepares to send home an ailing French national on death row

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities on Tuesday were set to return an ailing French national who has been on death row in the Southeast Asian country, under an arrangement between the two nations. Serge Atlaoui, who has spent almost 20 years in an Indonesian prison for drug offenses, won a last-minute reprieve from execution by a 13-member firing squad in 2015, after France’s government stepped up pressure because Atlaoui still had an outstanding court appeal. Indonesia executed eight others in May 2015, but Atlaoui was granted a stay of execution. An Administrative Court in Jakarta denied his last court appeal the following month.

Preoccupied with its troops in Russia, North Korea unlikely to embrace Trump’s overture soon

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In its first direct criticism of the Trump administration, North Korea lashed out at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for calling it a “rogue” state and warned Monday that such “coarse and nonsensical remarks” will never contribute to U.S. interests. The statement is the latest in a series of North Korean signals that it’s not interested in resuming diplomacy with the United States anytime soon, though Trump has said he’ll reach out to its leader Kim Jong Un. Many experts say that Kim, preoccupied with his deployment of troops to Russia, is likely concentrating on developments in the Russia-Ukraine war for now.

Chinese nationals in Karachi withdraw harassment complaint after province pledges to investigate

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Six Chinese nationals who run businesses in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi have withdrawn a harassment complaint against police after provincial authorities said they would investigate the claims, a defense lawyer said on Monday. The men had approached a court in Karachi saying they had invested a significant amount of money in Pakistan’s largest city but their movement was being restricted by police on the pretext of security and it had affected their business. The provincial government in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province said it was investigating the complaint, but added that any grievance should have been made to the government through the Chinese embassy instead of petitioning a court.

Pakistan threatens to deport Afghans in resettlement programs if cases are not swiftly processed

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan threatened to deport Afghan refugees awaiting relocation unless their cases are swiftly processed by host governments, officials said Monday. Tens of thousands of Afghans fled to neighboring Pakistan after the Taliban took over in 2021 and were approved for resettlement in the U.S. through a program that helps people at risk because of their work with the American government, media, aid agencies and rights groups. However, after U.S. President Donald Trump paused U.S. refugee programs last month, around 20,000 Afghans are now in limbo in Pakistan. The Trump administration also announced the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program would be suspended from Jan.

Gunmen kill a police officer working on Pakistan’s first polio drive of the year

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Unidentified gunmen shot and killed on Monday a police officer working on Pakistan’s first polio vaccination drive of the year, police said. Pakistan has deployed thousands of police officers to protect health workers posted to go house-to-house to inoculate children and are targeted by militants who falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize young ones. Local official Jamshed Khan said the police officer was killed in Jamrud, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack in a statement, vowing to continue the campaign to “eliminate polio in the country.” The campaign that began Monday aims to vaccinate 44.2 million children younger than 5 and will continue through next Sunday.

South Korean appeals court upholds acquittal of Samsung chief Lee

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean appeals court on Monday upheld a lower court’s ruling that acquitted Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong of financial criminal charges over a contentious merger between Samsung affiliates that cemented his grip over the biggest South Korean company. The Seoul High Court rejected an appeal by prosecutors. You Jin Kim, Lee’s lawyer, welcomed the ruling, saying he hopes that Lee would now focus on his company following Monday’s verdict. Prosecutors can again appeal to the Supreme Court, whose rulings are final. In February 2024, the Seoul Central District Court said the prosecution failed to sufficiently prove the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries was unlawfully conducted with an aim to strengthen Lee’s control over Samsung Electronics.