Top Asian News 4:21 a.m. GMT

Frozen in time: Families of those on missing Flight 370 cannot shake off their grief without answers

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Over the past decade, Grace Subathirai Nathan graduated from law school, got married, opened a law firm and had two babies. But part of her is frozen in time, still in denial over the loss of her mother on a missing Malaysia Airlines plane in 2014. There has been no funeral service, and Grace, 35, still speaks of her mother in the present tense. When she got married in 2020, she walked down the aisle with a picture of her mother tucked in a bouquet of daisies — chosen because of her mother’s name, Anne Catherine Daisy.

Modi is visiting Kashmir’s main city for the first time since revoking region’s semi-autonomy in ’19

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday is making his first official visit to Kashmir’s main city since New Delhi stripped the disputed region’s semi-autonomy and took direct control of it in 2019. Thousands of armed paramilitary troops and police in flak jackets maintained extra vigilance across the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of the rebellion against Indian rule over the majority-Muslim territory where many residents strongly favor independence or a merger with Pakistan. Modi’s two previous visits to Kashmir after its status was changed were to the Hindu-dominated city of Jammu. In 2019, Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government revoked the region’s semi-autonomous status, annulled its separate constitution, split the area into two federal territories — Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir — and removed inherited protections on land and jobs.

Houthi missile attack kills 3 crew members in Yemen rebels’ first fatal assault on shipping

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday killed three of its crew members and forced survivors to abandon the vessel, the U.S. military said. It was the first fatal strike in a campaign of assaults by the Iranian-backed group over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The attack on the Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned bulk carrier True Confidence further escalates the conflict on a crucial maritime route linking Asia and the Middle East to Europe that has disrupted global shipping. The Houthis have launched attacks since November, and the U.S.

North Korea’s Kim calls for stronger war fighting capabilities against the US and South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for greater war fighting capabilities against the United States and South Korea, state media reported Thursday, after his defense ministry vowed to respond to the ongoing South Korean-U.S. military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. During a visit to a western operational training base on Wednesday, Kim said the military must “steadily intensify the actual war drills aimed at rapidly improving its combat capabilities for perfect war preparedness,” the official Korean Central News Agency said. Kim said the heightened readiness is required to “contain the constant threat of the enemies with overwhelming force,” KCNA said.

China accuses US of devising tactics to suppress China despite improvement in relations

BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister accused the U.S. on Thursday of devising tactics to suppress China’s rise and criticized the Biden administration for adding more Chinese companies to its sanctions lists. Wang Yi, speaking to media during the annual meeting of China’s legislature, said that relations with the U.S. have improved since Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden met in November, but that America has not fulfilled its promises. “If the U.S. always says one thing and does another, where is its credibility as a major power? If the U.S. gets nervous and anxious when it hears the word ‘China,’ where is its confidence as a major power?” he said.

Australian and Vietnamese prime ministers elevate their nations’ booming economic relationship

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian and Vietnamese prime ministers on Thursday discussed ways of improving an already booming economic relationship, as part of Australia’s strategy to diversify trade away from China. Vietnamese Pham Minh Chinh’s official state visit came after he attended a summit of Southeast Asian leaders this week co-chaired by his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese and Laotian Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone. The Vietnam bilateral relationship has proved a success in Australia’s hedge against Chinese economic moves. Australia says China’s official and unofficial trade barriers have cost Australian exporters up to 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year since 2020, though those steps have been relaxed gradually since Albanese’s government came to power in 2022.

At least 8,500 migrants died on land and sea routes worldwide last year, the most in a decade

GENEVA (AP) — At least 8,565 migrants died on land and sea routes worldwide last year, the highest number since the U.N. migration agency began counting deaths a decade ago. The biggest increase was on the treacherous Mediterranean Sea crossing, to 3,129 from 2,411 in 2022, the International Organization for Migration said Wednesday. However, that was well below the 5,136 deaths recorded on the Mediterranean in 2016 as huge numbers of Syrians, Afghans and others fled conflicts in their homelands toward Europe. The 2023 count was nearly 20% more than the previous year. Most of the deaths last year, about 3,700, were people who drowned.

South Korea’s president vows not to tolerate walkouts by junior doctors

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president vowed Wednesday not to tolerate the prolonged walkouts by thousands of junior doctors, calling them “an illegal collective action” that threatens public health and shakes the country’s governing systems. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government was in the process of suspending the licenses of about 9,000 medical interns and residents over their joint walkouts that have impacted hospitals’ capacity to provide care. The doctors-in-training have been on strike for more than two weeks to protest a government push to admit thousands more new students to medical schools in coming years. Officials say the enrollment plan is essential to bracing for the country’s rapidly aging population, but doctors say schools can’t handle such an abrupt, steep increase in the number of students, and that would eventually undermine the quality of South Korea’s medical services.

The Philippines says it won’t let China remove a Filipino military outpost on a disputed shoal

ABOARD BRP SINDANGAN (AP) — The Philippines will not allow China to remove a Philippine military outpost in a fiercely disputed South China Sea shoal, a navy official said Wednesday, a day after four Filipino navy personnel were injured in a confrontation between Chinese and Philippine ships. Philippine officials summoned a Chinese Embassy diplomat in Manila to convey a strong protest over the confrontation Tuesday off Second Thomas Shoal. A small Filipino navy contingent has stood guard on a long-marooned warship that has served as an outpost in the shoal since the 1990s. Washington issued a warning after Tuesday’s hostilities that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack anywhere in the South China Sea.

Sri Lankan president says he is seeking to defer loan payments until 2028 amid economic crisis

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s president said Wednesday that he is seeking a loan repayment moratorium until 2028 as the debt-ridden county tries to emerge from bankruptcy. President Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament the government is asking lenders to accept a plan to defer payments for five years and then pay down the debts from the beginning of 2028 through 2042. Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in April 2022 and suspended repayments on some $83 billion in local and foreign loans amid a severe foreign exchange crisis that led to a severe shortage of essentials such as food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas, and hours-long power cuts.