Top Asian News 1:19 p.m. GMT

Fire engulfs hospital ward in northern India, killing 10 newborn babies

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — A fire tore through a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital in northern India, killing 10 newborn babies and injuring 16 others, authorities said. The fire occurred late Friday at a hospital in Jhansi city in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. Officials said the blaze spread quickly through the ward, where 55 infants were being treated. Forty-five babies were rescued and are receiving medical care, said Bimal Kumar Dubey, a local official. An initial investigation points to lapses in safety protocols, including expired fire extinguishers and non-functional fire alarms, which officials say delayed rescue efforts. Authorities are conducting a thorough probe to determine the cause of the fire and those responsible.

Japan’s minister visits Ukraine to stress mutual concern over North Korean troops

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Japan’s foreign minister arrived in Kyiv on Saturday to discuss North Korea’s deepening military alliance with Russia, including the deployment of thousands of troops to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya will meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, to reaffirm Japan’s “strong support” for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and to discuss further sanctions against Moscow, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said. High on the agenda was Tokyo’s “grave concern” over growing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, the ministry said. According to U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments, up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia as part of a major defense treaty between the countries.

An Indian family froze to death crossing the Canada-US border, a perilous trip becoming more common

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — On the last night of their lives, Jagdish Patel, his wife and their two young children tried to slip into the U.S. across a near-empty stretch of the Canadian border. Wind chills reached minus 36 Fahrenheit (minus 38 Celsius) that night in January 2022 as the family from India set out on foot to meet a waiting van. They walked amid vast farm fields and bulky snowdrifts, navigating in the black of an almost-moonless night. The driver, waiting in northern Minnesota, messaged his boss: “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please.” Coordinating things in Canada, federal prosecutors say, was Harshkumar Patel, an experienced smuggler nicknamed “Dirty Harry.” On the U.S.

Party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning president wins two-thirds majority in parliament

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake won a two-thirds majority in parliament, according to official election results Friday, providing a strong mandate for his program for economic revival. Dissanayake’s National People’s Power Party won 159 of the 225 seats, according to the Elections Commission. The Samagi Jana Balawegaya, or United People’s Power Party, led by opposition leader Sajith Premadasa had 40 seats and was in second place. The election comes at a decisive time for Sri Lankans, as the island nation is struggling to emerge from the worst economic crisis in its history, having declared bankruptcy after defaulting on its external debt in 2022.

Pakistani province declares health emergency due to smog and locks down two cities

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani province declared a health emergency Friday due to smog and imposed a shutdown in two major cities. Smog has choked Punjab for weeks, sickening nearly 2 million people and shrouding vast swathes of the province in a toxic haze. A senior provincial minister, Marriyum Aurangzeb, declared the health emergency at a press conference and announced measures to combat the growing crisis. Time off for medical staff is cancelled, all education institutions are shut until further notice, restaurants are closing at 4 p.n. while takeaway is available up until 8 p.m. Authorities are imposing a lockdown in the cities of Multan and Lahore and halting construction work in those two places.

South Korean opposition leader gets a suspended jail term for violating election law

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was convicted of violating election law and sentenced to a suspended prison term Friday by a court that ruled he made false statements while denying corruption allegations during a presidential campaign. If it stands, the ruling could significantly shake up the country’s politics by potentially unseating Lee as a lawmaker and denying him a shot at running for president in the next election. But Lee, who faces three other trials over corruption and other criminal charges, is expected to challenge any guilty verdict and it remains unclear whether the Supreme Court will decide on any of the cases before the presidential vote in March 2027.

Australia’s plan to ban children from social media proves popular and problematic

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — How do you remove children from the harms of social media? Politically the answer appears simple in Australia, but practically the solution could be far more difficult. The Australian government’s plan to ban children from social media platforms including X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram until their 16th birthdays is politically popular. The opposition party says it would have done the same after winning elections due within months if the government hadn’t moved first. The leaders of all eight Australian states and mainland territories have unanimously backed the plan, although Tasmania, the smallest state, would have preferred the threshold was set at 14.

Myanmar airstrikes indiscriminately target civilians a rights group says in a new report

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military has consistently targeted civilians and their communities as a form of collective punishment in the country’s southeast since the army seized power in early 2021, a rights group said in a report released Friday. Documented airstrikes on villages examined by researchers from the Karen Human Rights Group based in Myanmar’s southeast, are emblematic of a broader assault on civilians across the war-torn nation, said James Rodehaver, the Bangkok-based chief of the Myanmar team of the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He spoke Friday in an online panel discussion accompanying the release of the new report.

Malaysia protests new Philippine maritime laws that it says infringe on its territory

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia has protested new maritime laws in the Philippines that it says encroach on its territory, a government official said Friday. Deputy Foreign Minister Mohamad Alamin said Malaysia sent a protest note on Thursday over the Philippine laws. Experts have found that reference documents related to the laws restated Manila’s long-standing claim over the oil-rich Malaysian state of Sabah in northern Borneo, he said. Last week, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the Philippine Maritime Zones act and the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes act, which reaffirmed the country’s maritime territories and right to resources, including in the South China Sea.

Biden praises cooperation at meeting with South Korean, Japanese leaders amid North Korea worries

LIMA, Peru (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday praised the cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the U.S. at countering what he described as North Korea’s “dangerous and destabilizing cooperation with Russia.” Biden spoke at the start of a meeting in Peru with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The talks came amid heightened concerns about North Korea’s growing military partnership with Russia and Pyongyang’s stepped-up cadence of ballistic missile tests. Biden celebrated the partnership between Japan and South Korea, two countries that have historical enmity but under Biden’s presidency are now tightening security and economic ties as their corner of the world becomes more complicated.