Top Asian News 3:53 p.m. GMT
At least 38 killed as gunmen open fire on vehicles carrying Shiites in northwest Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying Shiite Muslims in Pakistan’s restive northwest on Thursday, killing at least 38 people, including six women, and wounding 20 others in one of the region’s deadliest such attacks in recent years, police said. The attack happened in Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where sectarian clashes between majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites have killed dozens of people in recent months. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack. It came a week after authorities reopened a key highway in the region that had been closed for weeks following deadly clashes.
Southeast Asian defense chiefs discuss regional security with US, China and other partner nations
VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Southeast Asian defense chiefs met Thursday with their counterparts from China, the United States and other nations in Laos for security talks, which come as Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance in its claim to most of the South China Sea is leading to more confrontations. The closed-door talks put U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun in the same room, a day after Dong refused a request to meet with Austin one-on-one on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit of defense ministers. The U.S. and China have been working to improve frayed military-to-military communications and Austin said he regretted Dong’s decision, calling it “a setback for the whole region.” A Chinese statement indicated that Beijing was unhappy with U.S.
Australia’s parliament considers legislation banning social media for under 16s
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s communications minister introduced a world-first law into Parliament on Thursday that would ban children under 16 from social media, saying online safety was one of parents’ toughest challenges. Michelle Rowland said TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram were among the platforms that would face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts. “This bill seeks to set a new normative value in society that accessing social media is not the defining feature of growing up in Australia,” Rowland told Parliament. “There is wide acknowledgement that something must be done in the immediate term to help prevent young teens and children from being exposed to streams of content unfiltered and infinite,” she added.
Shares in India’s Adani Group plunge 20% after US bribery, fraud indictments
NEW DELHI (AP) — One of Asia’s richest men, controversial Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, is again in the spotlight. His companies’ stocks plunged up to 20% on Thursday after he was indicted by U.S. prosecutors on charges he duped investors in a massive solar energy project in India by concealing that it was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme. In an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday, Adani, 62, was charged with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. One result of the U.S. legal action is that the Adani group decided not to proceed with a proposed U.S.
Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai denies he asked a newspaper colleague to draft list of sanction targets
HONG KONG (AP) — Former publisher Jimmy Lai denied that he asked a colleague to draft a list of potential sanction targets in his second day of testimony Thursday at his landmark national security trial in Hong Kong. The 77-year-old founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily pro-democracy newspaper is being tried on charges of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to issue seditious publications. He was arrested in 2020 in a political crackdown following massive anti-government protests in 2019. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison. The testimony highlighted WhatsApp conversations between Lai and Apple Daily’s ex-associate publisher Chan Pui-man.
Australian who drank tainted alcohol in Laos has died, raising toll to 4, including an American
VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — An Australian teenager has died after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos in what Australia’s prime minister on Thursday called every parent’s nightmare. An American and two Danish tourists also died, officials said, following reports that several people had been sickened in a Laotian town popular with backpackers. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Parliament that 19-year-old Bianca Jones had died after being evacuated from Vang Vieng, Laos for treatment in a Thai hospital. Her friend, also 19, remains hospitalized in neighboring Thailand. “This is every parent’s very worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure,” Albanese said.
North Korea and Russia agree to expand their economic cooperation
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea and Russia reached a new agreement for expanding economic cooperation following high-level talks in Pyongyang this week, the North’s state media said Thursday, as they continue to align in the face of their confrontations with Washington. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency didn’t elaborate on the details of the agreement signed Wednesday between its senior trade officials and a Russian delegation led by Alexandr Kozlov, the country’s minister of natural resources and ecology. The Russian news agency Tass on Tuesday said officials following an earlier round of talks agreed to increase the number of charter flights between the countries to promote tourism.
A draft deal on climate aid for developing world is vague on money as UN summit nears end
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Countries of the world took turns rejecting a new but vague draft text released early Thursday which attempts to form the spine of any deal reached at United Nations climate talks on money for developing countries to transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change. The draft left out a crucial sticking point: how much wealthy nations will pay poor countries. A key option for the lowest amount donors are willing to pay was just a placeholder “X.” Part of that is because rich nations have yet to make an offer in negotiations. So the host Azerbaijan presidency with its dawn-released package of proposals did manage to unite a fractured world on climate change, but it was only in their unease and outright distaste for the plan.
Thai court dismisses activist’s suit against Israeli spyware producer over lack of evidence
BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai court on Thursday threw out a lawsuit brought by a pro-democracy activist which alleged spyware produced by an Israeli tech firm had been used to hack his phone. The Civil Court in Bangkok said Jatupat Boonpattararaksa had failed to show sufficient proof that his phone was infected with Pegasus spyware produced by NSO Group Technologies. Jataput, also known as Pai Dao Din, had alleged that the NSO Group had violated his and other activists’ constitutional rights by facilitating the use of Pegasus to allegedly target them and extract data from their devices. He had claimed his phone was infected on three occasions in 2021, at a time of large-scale protests against the government that included unprecedented demands for reform of Thailand’s powerful but opaque monarchy.
Papuan women’s mangrove forest in Indonesia is increasingly threatened by development and pollution
JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — On the southeastern coast of the city of Jayapura, Petronela Merauje walked from house to house in her floating village inviting women to join her the next morning in the surrounding mangrove forests. Merauje and the women of her village, Enggros, practice the tradition of Tonotwiyat, which literally means “working in the forest.” For six generations, women from the 700-strong Papuan population there have worked among the mangroves collecting clams, fishing and gathering firewood. “The customs and culture of Papuans, especially those of us in Enggros village, is that women are not given space and place to speak in traditional meetings, so the tribal elders provide the mangrove forest as our land,” Merauje said.