Top Asian News 3:44 a.m. GMT

Votes are being counted in the election for a truncated government in Indian-controlled Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Votes were being counted Tuesday in the recent election for a largely powerless local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the first since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago. Thousands of additional police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled roads and guarded 28 counting centers as officials tallied votes. A final result was expected to be declared later Tuesday by the region’s electoral office. Nearly 8.9 million people were eligible to vote in the election that began on Sept. 18 and concluded on Oct. 1. The overall turnout was 64% across the three phases, according to official data.

No evidence of major fuel spill on Samoan reef where New Zealand navy ship sank

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Divers and marine experts found no evidence of a major fuel spill on a Samoan reef Tuesday after a New Zealand navy ship ran aground and sank, Samoa’s deputy prime minister said. All 75 people on board the HMNZS Manawanui evacuated safely as the boat foundered about a mile off the coast of Upolu, Samoa, early Sunday. The ship was one of only nine in New Zealand’s navy and was the first the country lost at sea since World War II. Samoan Deputy Prime Minister Tuala Tevaga Iosefo Ponifasio had earlier said a fuel spill was “highly probable.” But he said Tuesday there was no evidence of oil spilling onto the reefs, ashore and nearby area, except for “small leakages of oil coming from the vessel.” That had been contained using specialized equipment, Ponifasio said in a statement.

Self-described Nazi becomes first in Australian state of Victoria to be convicted over Nazi salute

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A self-described Nazi on Tuesday became the first person convicted in the Australian state of Victoria of performing an outlawed Nazi salute. Jacob Hersant, 25, gave the salute and praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in front of news media cameras outside the Victoria County Court on Oct. 27, 2023, after he had appeared on a unrelated charge. It was six days after the Victoria state government had made the salute illegal. The Federal Parliament passed legislation in December that outlawed nationwide performing the Nazi salute in public or to publicly display, or trade in, Nazi hate symbols.

Chagos islanders displaced for a US military base protest a deal on their future made without them

LONDON (AP) — Islanders who were forced to leave their remote Indian Ocean home to make way for a U.S. military base half a century ago protested outside the U.K. Parliament on Monday against a deal they say has decided their homeland’s fate without them. The British government announced last week that it is handing the Chagos Islands to Mauritius under an agreement that will see the American naval and bomber base stay on one of the islands, Diego Garcia. Opponents accuse the government of surrendering sovereignty over a British territory. And the deal has left displaced residents uncertain whether they can go home.

North Korea’s Kim again threatens to use nuclear weapons against South Korea and US

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the United States, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported Tuesday. Kim has issued similar threats to use nuclear weapons preemptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as outside experts say North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s U.S. presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong Un University of National Defense, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack capabilities against its enemies” if they attempt to use armed forces” against North Korea, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Ex-Philippine President Duterte to run as mayor despite his drug killings legacy

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines’s former President Rodrigo Duterte registered Monday to run for mayor of his southern home city despite his notorious legacy over his brutal anti-drugs crackdown that the International Criminal Court is investigating as a possible crime against humanity. Duterte, 79, filed his papers before the Election Commission in Davao city, where he had served as mayor for about two decades before winning the presidency in 2016. His son — incumbent Davao city Mayor Sebastian Duterte — would run as his vice-mayor in next year’s mid-term elections, officials said. More than 6,000 people, mostly poor drug suspects, were killed under a massive police-enforced crackdown against illegal drugs that Duterte oversaw when he was president, according to government pronouncements.

South Korean woman sues government and adoption agency after her kidnapped daughter was sent abroad

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A 70-year-old South Korean woman sued her government, an adoption agency, and an orphanage Monday over the adoption of her daughter, who was sent to the United States in 1976, months after she was kidnapped at age 4. The damage suit filed by Han Tae-soon, whose story was part of an Associated Press investigation published last month, could ignite further debate on the dubious child-gathering practices and widespread falsification of paperwork that tarnished South Korea’s adoption program, which annually sent thousands of kids to the West during the 1970-80s. It was the first known case of a Korean birth parent suing for damages against the government and an adoption agency over the wrongful adoption of their child, said Kim Soo-jung, one of the lawyers representing Han.

Senior member of Myanmar’s former ruling party dies while serving prison sentence

BANGKOK (AP) — Zaw Myint Maung, a senior member of Myanmar’s former ruling party arrested during the 2021 military takeover, died Monday while serving a prison sentence that was considered politically motivated. He was 72. He was a close colleague of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and spokesperson of her National League for Democracy party. He had been a second vice president and chief minister of the central Mandalay region before the army seized control of the government in 2021, arresting him, Suu Kyi and many top members of her NLD party and government. Zaw Myint Maung had been jailed at least twice under previous governments for his political activities.

A Pakistani separatist group claims bombing that killed 2 Chinese near Karachi airport

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani separatist group claimed responsibility for a late-night bombing that targeted a convoy with Chinese nationals outside the country’s largest airport, killing two workers from China and wounding eight people, officials and the insurgent group said Monday. The attack by the Baloch Liberation Army outside the airport in the southern port city of Karachi was the latest deadly assault on the Chinese in Pakistan and came a week before Islamabad is to host a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security grouping founded by China and Russia to counter Western alliances. The explosion, which the BLA said was the work of a suicide bomber, also raised questions about the ability of Pakistani forces to secure high-profile events or foreigners in the country.

Philippines, South Korea deepen security cooperation, elevating ties to a strategic partnership

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — South Korea and the Philippines, each faced by increasingly hostile rival nations, elevated their ties to a strategic partnership on Monday, including broader defense and security cooperation between the two U.S. treaty allies. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is on a state visit to the Philippines, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced the upgrade in overall relations after talks in Manila. Under the strategic partnership, the two countries agreed to strengthen cooperation between their coast guards. Yoon also pledged to help modernize the Philippine military. The two leaders discussed regional issues such as territorial disputes in the South China Sea and tensions on the Korean Peninsula, they said.