Top Asian News 3:28 a.m. GMT

Millions vote in India’s grueling election with Prime Minister Modi’s party likely to win a 3rd term

NEW DELHI (AP) — Millions of Indians are voting Saturday in the next-to-last round of a grueling national election with a combined opposition trying to rattle Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign for a third-consecutive term for himself and his Hindu nationalist party. Many people lined polling stations before the start of voting at 7 a.m. to avoid the blazing sun later in the day at the peak of Indian summer. Saturday’s voting in 58 constituencies, including seven in New Delhi, will complete polling for 89.5% of 543 seats in the lower house of Parliament. The voting for the remaining 57 seats on June 1 will wrap up a six-week election.

Farmers in India are weary of politicians’ lackluster response to their climate-driven water crisis

BEED, India (AP) — On a stifling hot day this May, farm worker Shobha Londhe is reminded of the desperate conditions that led her husband to take his own life. It’s the hottest and driest summer in years, she said, and for farm workers that often means little to no income, rising debts and intolerable heat. Londhe, a resident of Talegaon village in western India, knows well the toll these climate change-induced droughts can take on farmers. Three years ago, she said the family’s financial situation was untenable as crops failed from too much heat and not enough water. Her husband Tatya went out to the fields one October day, and never returned.

China sends dozens of warplanes and ships near Taiwan to show its anger over island’s new leaders

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan tracked dozens of Chinese warplanes and navy vessels off its coast on Friday, the second day of a large military exercise launched by Beijing to show its anger over the self-governing island’s inauguration of new leaders who refuse to accept its insistence that Taiwan is part of China. China has issued elaborate media statements showing Taiwan being surrounded by forces from its military, the People’s Liberation Army. A new video on Friday showed animated Chinese forces approaching from all sides and Taiwan being enclosed within a circular target area while simulated missiles hit key population and military targets.

Over 100 feared dead in landslide in remote part of Papua New Guinea, with rescue efforts underway

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — More than 100 people are believed to have been killed in a landslide Friday that buried a village in a remote, mountainous part of Papua New Guinea, and an emergency response is underway, officials in the South Pacific island nation said. The landslide struck Enga province, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of the capital, Port Moresby, at roughly 3 a.m., Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Residents from surrounding areas said boulders and trees from a collapsed mountainside buried parts of the community and left it isolated. Residents said that estimates of the death toll were above 100, although authorities haven’t confirmed that figure.

A fire in an apartment building in Hanoi, Vietnam, kills 14 people and injures 6

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — An overnight fire in an apartment building on a narrow alley in Vietnam’s capital killed 14 people and injured six others, state media said Friday. The apartment building in central Hanoi could only be accessed through an alley just 2 meters (6.5 feet) wide, preventing firetrucks from reaching it, and firefighters eventually contained the fire by using hoses, state media said. The fire started around 12:30 a.m. and was accompanied by several explosions, the Vietnam News Agency said. It took an hour to extinguish. Neighbor Nguyen Thanh Trung said he was asleep when he heard the explosions and rushed out to see what was happening.

Fire at chemical factory in India kills at least 9, with searchers looking for more victims

THANE, India (AP) — Rescuers combed through piles of debris and wreckage Friday searching for bodies after an explosion and fire at a chemical factory in western India killed at least nine people and injured 64 others, officials said. The explosion in the factory’s boiler on Thursday led to a fire that affected nearby factories and houses in Maharashtra state’s Thane district, administrative official Sachin Shejal said. Shejal said the blaze was extinguished and rescuers were searching through the debris to find two more bodies, though the process was hampered by the presence of huge debris. Two bodies have been identified so far and seven are burnt beyond recognition, Shejal said.

2 men will go on trial for allegedly helping Hong Kong authorities gather intelligence in UK

LONDON (AP) — The office manager of the Hong Kong trade office in London and another man will go on trial in February for allegedly helping Hong Kong authorities gather intelligence in the U.K. a judge said Friday. Chung Biu Yuen, 63, and Chi Leung Peter Wai, 38, appeared at London’s Central Criminal Court for a preliminary hearing, charged with agreeing to undertake information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception that were likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service between December 2023 and May 2. Hong Kong authorities have confirmed that Yuen was the office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London.

China’s latest AI chatbot is trained on President Xi Jinping’s political ideology

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s latest artificial intelligence chatbot is trained on President Xi Jinping’s doctrine, in a stark reminder of the ideological parameters that Chinese AI models should abide by. China’s cyberspace academy earlier this week announced the chatbot trained on Xi Jinping Thought, a doctrine which promotes “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The chatbot was trained on seven databases, six of which were mostly related to information technologies provided by China’s internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China, or CAC. Xi Jinping Thought was the seventh database that the chatbot was trained on, according to a WeChat messaging service post by CAC’s magazine about the AI model.

UN human rights office decries beheadings, other violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights office warned Friday of “frightening and disturbing reports” about the impact of new violence in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, pointing to new attacks on Rohingya civilians by the military and an ethnic armed group fighting it. Spokesperson Liz Throssell of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights cited the burning of the town of Buthidaung, as well as air strikes, reports of shootings at unarmed fleeing villagers, beheadings and disappearances as part of the violence in the northern part of Rakhine in recent weeks. “We are receiving frightening and disturbing reports from northern Rakhine state in Myanmar of the impacts of the conflict on civilian lives and property,” she told a regular briefing in Geneva.

A police officer is held in deadly shooting in riot-hit New Caledonia after Macron pushes for calm

PARIS (AP) — A police officer in riot-hit New Caledonia shot and killed a man Friday after being attacked by a group of about 15 people, the territory’s prosecutor said, the seventh shooting death in the unrest shaking the French Pacific archipelago. The officer was in custody and an investigation was underway. The fatal shooting came hours after an emergency round-trip from Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron to de-escalate the violence. Prosecutor Yves Dupas says the officer is believed to have fired one shot, killing the 48-year-old man on Friday afternoon. On Thursday, Macron made a whistle-stop visit and urged local leaders to use their clout to help quell the unrest that erupted May 13, sparked by proposed voting reforms contested by Indigenous Kanak people who have long sought independence from France.