Top Asian News 3:37 a.m. GMT

Man who stabbed South Korea’s opposition leader sentenced to 15 years in prison

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A man who stabbed South Korea’s opposition leader in the neck earlier this year was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday, court officials said. The knife-wielding man attacked Lee Jae-myung, head of the liberal Democratic Party, South Korea’s biggest political party, in January after approaching him asking for his autograph at an event in the southeastern city of Busan. After being detained by police, he told investigators that he wanted to kill Lee to prevent him from becoming South Korea’s president. The Busan District Court said the man was handed the 15-year prison term after being found guilty for an attempted murder and a violation of an election law.

New Zealand will radically ease zoning rules to try to relieve its stubborn housing shortage

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand will drastically ease zoning restrictions in a bid to “flood the market” with land for homes and override the powers of local councils to curb development, the nation’s housing minister said in announcing reforms to what he called one of the world’s least affordable housing markets. “It’s about allowing maximum choice and opportunity for people to build and develop,” said the minister, Chris Bishop, in a speech in Auckland this week. “Let’s get away from the idea that planners can plan our cities and let actual individuals and families decide how they live their lives.”

‘We have to be wacky.’ With suggestive poses and pets, election campaigning tests Tokyo’s patience

TOKYO (AP) — Rescheduled for 2g Friday Tokyo elects a new governor this weekend, but residents say personal publicity stunts have overtaken serious campaigning to a degree never seen before, with nearly nude women in suggestive poses, pets, an AI character and a man practicing his golf swing. It’s impossible to ignore. With internet campaigning still relatively new, candidates traditionally use designated election billboards — more than 14,000 of them — to promote themselves. The makeshift billboards are set up only during the short campaign season and are valuable space for exposure in a city already crammed with advertising. But this year’s wackiness — notably from non-candidates renting the billboard space — is proving exceptional, and residents have flooded election offices with angry calls and messages.

A study finds Indonesia’s deforested land is often left idle. But some see potential in that

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Years after being felled, vast swathes of Indonesia’s old-growth forests are left sitting idle. And when the land is finally put to use, it’s most often for new palm oil plantations, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But some experts — including the study’s authors — are hoping for a silver lining: The opportunity for Indonesia to expand its agricultural, palm, pulp and other commodities without having to cut down more trees, thus meeting increasing demand from companies and governments for products that didn’t depend on deforestation. “There’s maybe some hope that if the country can focus on these idle, non-forest lands ...

Leaders of Russia, China attend summit of regional security grouping

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday attended the summit of a security grouping created by Moscow and Beijing to counter Western alliances. Putin and Xi joined the leaders of other countries that are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization at its annual meeting in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana. The grouping was established in 2001 by China, Russia and the four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to promote regional security and economic cooperation. It was later joined by India, Pakistan and Iran. Russia’s western neighbor and ally, Belarus, joined the SCO on Thursday.

Cambodia welcomes the Met’s repatriation of centuries-old statues looted during past turmoil

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The return to Cambodia this week of 14 sculptures that had been looted from the country during a period of war and unrest is like welcoming home the souls of ancestors, Cambodia’s culture minister said Thursday. The items repatriated from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Ar t arrived Wednesday and were displayed to journalists and VIPs on Thursday at the National Museum in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. They “were made between the 9th and 14th centuries in the Angkorian period and reflect the Hindu and Buddhist religious systems prevailing at that time,” the museum said in a statement this week.

India’s Modi will meet with Putin on 2-day visit to Russia starting Monday, Kremlin says

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin on Thursday said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia next Monday and Tuesday and hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The visit was first announced by Russian officials last month, but the dates have not been previously disclosed. Russia has had strong ties with India since the Cold War, and New Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner for Moscow has grown since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China and India have become key buyers of Russian oil following sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies that shut most Western markets for Russian exports.

Philippine military chief warns his forces will fight back if assaulted again in disputed sea

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine forces will defend themselves with “the same level of force” if they come under assault again from China’s coast guard in the disputed South China Sea, where Chinese personnel armed with machetes and spears injured Filipino navy personnel and damaged two of their boats in a chaotic faceoff last month, the Philippine military chief said Thursday. Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. asked China to pay 60 million pesos ($1 million) in damages for the two navy boats and return seven rifles which he said were seized by Chinese coast guard personnel during the June17 confrontation at Second Thomas Shoal.

Key partner withdraws support from Nepal’s government to join new coalition

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s second largest party withdrew from the government Thursday to join its longtime rival in a new coalition, as pressure builds on the prime minister to resign. The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), which is the second largest party, announced it was withdrawing support for Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. All their ministers resigned late Wednesday. Leaders of the party and the Nepali Congress, the country’s largest party, had signed an agreement Tuesday to form a new partnership to govern for the remaining three years before general elections. Dahal had been leading his shaky governing coalition since becoming prime minister in December 2022 following an inconclusive election where his party finished third.

Pro-Palestinian protesters breach security at Australia’s Parliament House to unfurl banners

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Pro-Palestinian protesters breached security at Australia’s Parliament House to unfurl banners from the roof on Thursday as a senator quit the government over its direction on the Gaza war. Tensions over Israel’s war against Hamas dominated Parliament’s final sitting day before a five-week break. The four protesters were arrested after draping the words “war crimes” and “genocide” as well as the Palestinian rallying cry “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” for more than an hour over the building’s façade known as the Great Verandah. Inside the building, Afghanistan-born Sen. Fatima Payman, the only Australian federal lawmaker ever to wear a hijab during sittings, announced she had quit the ruling Labor Party over her refusal to toe the party line on Gaza.