Top Asian News 3:57 a.m. GMT

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the lure of moving to the city grows even stronger amid climate shocks

CAN THO, Vietnam (AP) — Dao Bao Tran and her brother Do Hoang Trung, 11-year-old twins growing up on a rickety houseboat in the Mekong Delta, have dreams. Tran loves K-pop, watches videos at night to learn Korean and would love to visit Seoul. Trung wants to be a singer. But their hopes are “unrealistic,” said Trung: “I know I’ll end up going to the city to try and make a living.” Such dreams have a way of dissipating in southern Vietnam’s Mekong, one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world. For the poor, the future is especially uncertain. A U.N.

Pakistani authorities bar visitors for imprisoned ex-PM Khan for 2 weeks, citing possible attack

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani authorities on Tuesday barred visitors to imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan after receiving intelligence reports about a possible attack on the prison where he is held, government officials and his party said. Under a government order, no visitors will be allowed to meet with Khan or other inmates at the Adiala prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi for two weeks for security reasons. The order came days after authorities increased security at the prison. It was unclear whether the intelligence obtained by authorities was about Khan or other inmates in separate barracks, including militants who are on trial.

India’s new citizenship law excludes Muslims. Why?

NEW DELHI (AP) — India has implemented a controversial citizenship law that has been widely criticized for excluding Muslims, a minority community whose concerns have heightened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. The rules for the law were announced Monday. It establishes a religious test for migrants from every major South Asian faith other than Islam. Critics argue that the law is further evidence that Modi’s government is trying to reshape the country into a Hindu state and marginalize its 200 million Muslims. The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a fast track to naturalization for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before Dec.

Thai election body to seek dissolution of progressive party that won last year’s general election

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Election Commission on Tuesday said it will seek the dissolution of the progressive Move Forward party, which won last year’s general election, after a court ruled that the party’s proposal to amend a royal anti-defamation law was unconstitutional. The commission said that after studying the Constitutional Court’s ruling, its members unanimously agreed to file a case with the court seeking the party’s dissolution because they believe the proposal was an attempt to overthrow Thailand’s constitutional monarchy. It was unclear whether the court will accept the petition. Parit Wacharasindhu, a spokesperson for Move Forward, said the party’s legal team would “try their best until the last second to prevent the party from being dissolved,” and that proving its innocence would also help “create a proper standard for Thai politics in the future.” The Constitutional Court ruled in January that the party must stop advocating changes to the law, known as Article 112, which protects the monarchy from criticism, by imposing penalties of up to 15 years in jail per offense.

African Development Bank chief criticizes opaque loans tied to Africa’s natural resources

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The head of the African Development Bank is calling for an end to loans given in exchange for the continent’s rich supplies of oil or critical minerals used in smartphones and electric car batteries, deals that have helped China gain control over mineral mining in places like Congo and have left some African countries in financial crisis. “They are just bad, first and foremost, because you can’t price the assets properly,” Akinwumi Adesina said in an interview with The Associated Press in Lagos, Nigeria, last week. “If you have minerals or oil under the ground, how do you come up with a price for a long-term contract?

Japan’s first private-sector rocket launch attempt ends with explosion shortly after takeoff

TOKYO (AP) — A rocket that was supposed to become Japan’s first from the private sector to put a satellite into orbit exploded shortly after takeoff Wednesday, livestreamed video showed. Online video showed the rocket called Kairos blasting off from Wakayama Prefecture, in central Japan, a mountainous area filled with trees, but exploding midair within seconds. A huge plume of smoke engulfed the area, and flames shot up in some spots. The video then showed spurts of water trying to put out the blaze. There were no reports of injuries, and the fire has been brought under control, according to the fire department in Kushimoto city, Wakayama, Tokyo-based startup Space One, behind the rocket launch, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An explosion in a building outside Beijing kills 1 person and injures 22

BEIJING (AP) — Rescuers were responding to a suspected gas leak explosion Wednesday in a building in northern China that has killed one person and injured 22, authorities said. The explosion came early in the morning from a fried chicken shop in the city of Sanhe, authorities said in a short statement. The city is just an hour drive west of Beijing. Videos online showed smoke billowing out of a mid-level commercial building at an intersection. Fires were still burning, according to CCTV, and 154 firefighters were sent there to control the damage. Police cordoned off streets 1 kilometer (over half a mile) out from the explosion, Associated Press reporters saw, and were directing people away.

South Korea criticizes senior doctors for threatening to resign to support their juniors’ walkouts

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s government criticized senior doctors at a major hospital Tuesday for threatening to resign in support of the weekslong walkouts by thousands of medical interns and residents that have disrupted hospital operations. About 12,000 junior doctors in South Korea have been off the job for a month to protest a government plan to sharply increase medical school admissions. Officials say the plan is meant to add more doctors to deal with the country’s rapidly aging society, but doctors say universities can’t handle an abrupt, steep increase in the number of students, and that would eventually hurt the quality of South Korea’s medical services.

Chinese Nobel-winning author targeted in patriotic lawsuit

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — His writing won China’s first Nobel Prize for Literature, but is it patriotic enough for Xi Jinping’s China? That’s the question at the center of a high-profile lawsuit that has driven a debate about nationalism in China in recent weeks. Patriotic campaigns have become more common in recent years in China, as online nationalists attack journalists, writers or other public figures they say have offended the country’s dignity, but it is unusual for a figure as prominent as Mo Yan to be targeted. Patriotic blogger Wu Wanzheng, who goes by “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo” online, filed suit against the novelist last month under a 2018 law that made insulting heroes and martyrs a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.

Iran, Russia and China show off their ships in a joint naval drill in the Gulf of Oman

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — China, Iran and Russia have begun a joint naval drill in the Gulf of Oman, a crucial waterway near the mouth of the Persian Gulf, officials said Tuesday. Footage aired by Chinese state television and a video released by the Russian navy showed the ongoing drill, known as “Marine Security Belt 2024.” China sent the guided-missile destroyer Urumqi and the guided-missile frigate Linyi to the exercise. Russia’s forces are being led by the Varyag, a Slava-class cruiser. More than 20 ships, support vessels and combat boats from the three countries, as well as naval helicopters, are involved in the exercise.