Top Asian News 3:48 a.m. GMT

US boosting alliance with the Philippines with military funding and pact amid concern over China

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Washington’s top diplomat and defense chief, in Manila for talks Tuesday, will announce $500 million in military funding to boost Philippine defenses and progress in a proposed military pact, given that China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the region “will not stop,” a Philippine official said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has fortified Manila’s decades-old treaty alliance with Washington as hostilities between Philippine and Chinese forces flared since last year in the disputed South China Sea. Marcos welcomed Blinken and Austin, praising the “very open” communication lines between Washington and Manila so that their treaty alliance and the issues on the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region “are continuously examined and reexamined so we are agile in terms of our responses.” Blinken, along with Austin, expressed their condolences over the dozens of deaths wrought by typhoon-worsened monsoon rains in recent weeks and offered U.S.

Indonesian leader starts working in new capital despite construction work and lack of facilities

PENAJAM PASER UTARA, Indonesia (AP) — Outgoing Indonesian President Joko Widodo started work Monday from the new presidential palace in his country’s ambitious new capital, where he intends to spend the last few months of his presidency. “Today I have started receiving officials for meetings here, in the president’s office,” Widodo told reporters at the new presidential palace, as authorities race to complete other key infrastructure projects in the future capital city of Nusantara before Independence Day celebrations next month. The capital, also known as IKN, is located in East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo. Widodo said his first agenda item on Monday was a meeting with executives of the Nusantara development authority.

China’s Xi calls for cooperation with Italy, evoking ancient ‘Silk Road’

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping called for further cooperation with Italy on Monday at a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, saying the two countries were the ends of the historical Silk Road trade route. Meloni pulled Italy out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative — whose name refers to the ancient overland trade route — in December, but signed an agreement Sunday that provides a new path for the two countries to cooperate on trade and other issues. Meloni is on a five-day state visit, her first trip to China as prime minister. The Belt and Road Initiative, one of Xi’s signature policies, aims to build power and transportation infrastructure around the world in order to stimulate global trade while also deepening China’s ties with other nations.

Skyrocketing power bills draw protests near Pakistan’s capital

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Protests over skyrocketing power bills shut down a major road into Pakistan’s capital on Monday as some 3,000 supporters of a major Islamist party continued a sit-in despite pouring monsoon rains. In Pakistan’s southwest, meanwhile, thousands protested against police violence, an internet shutdown and highway closures. At least one person was reportedly killed. Protesters demanding that the government withdraw taxes on electricity to offset price hikes have occupied a road in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since Friday, as police prevented them from heading to the capital Islamabad. Hoisting the white, blue, and green flags of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, the protesters chanted: “This cruel increase in electricity bills is not acceptable.” The government has met with protest leaders, but given no indication that it is considering accepting their demands.

Pakistan arrests top leader of radical party on charge of ordering the killing of the chief justice

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s police on Monday arrested the deputy chief at a radical Islamist party on the charge of ordering the killing of the chief justice over his alleged support to the minority Ahmadi community, officials said. Zaheerul Hassan Shah was arrested a day after a video went viral on social media, showing him telling a gathering of his supporters from the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan that he would personally give 10 million rupees ($36,000) to anyone who beheads Qazi Faez Esa, the Chief Justice at the Supreme Court. Esa has been the target of criticism by extremists in Pakistan in recent months after he granted bail to an Ahmadi blasphemy suspect.

Landslides caused by heavy rains kill 5 and bury many others in southern India

NEW DELHI (AP) — Multiple landslides triggered by torrential rains in southern India have killed five people and left many others feared trapped under the debris, the Press Trust of India reported. The landslides hit hilly villages in Wayanad district of Kerala state Monday after heavy rains battered the state. Rescuers were working to pull out those stuck under mud and debris, but their efforts were hampered due to blocked roads and unstable terrain. India’s weather department has put Kerala on alert as the state has been lashed by incessant rains. The downpours have disrupted life for many, and authorities closed schools in some parts Monday.

5,000 rescued from flooding in North Korea, state media says

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — More than 5,000 people isolated by flooding in northwestern North Korea were rescued by airlift and other evacuation work after heavy summer rains caused a river on the Chinese border to swell, state media reported Monday. The official Korean Central News Agency did not mention any deaths or how much damage the flooding on Saturday caused. Summer floods in North Korea often cause serious damage to farmlands due to poor drainage, deforestation and dilapidated infrastructure. About 10 military helicopters and navy and government boats were mobilized for the evacuation efforts in Sinuiju city and Uiju town where flooding had stranded residents.

North Korean officials seek medicine for Kim’s health problems related to obesity, Seoul says

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has regained weight and appears to have obesity-related health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and his officials are looking for new medicines abroad to treat them, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Monday. The 40-year-old Kim, known for heavy drinking and smoking, comes from a family with a history of heart problems. Both his father and grandfather, who ruled North Korea before his 2011 inheritance of power, died of heart issues. Some observers said Kim, who is about 170 centimeters (5 feet, 7 inches) tall and previously weighed 140 kilograms (308 pounds), appeared to have lost a large amount of weight in 2021, likely from changing his diet.

Australian inquiry will hear evidence that Christian extremists killed 3 in an act of terrorism

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An inquiry will hear evidence that three Christian extremists who killed two police officers and a bystander and wounded a third police officer in an ambush on a rural Australian property in 2022 committed an act of terrorism aimed at intimidating state authorities, a coroner was told on Monday. Queensland State Coroner Terry Ryan began hearing the inquiry into a siege in the sparsely populated Wieambilla region west of the state capital, Brisbane, on Dec. 12, 2022. Brothers Gareth and Nathaniel Train and Gareth’s wife Stacey Train were killed by police hours after they fired on four police officers who attended their fortified Wieambilla property to check on Nathaniel’s welfare.

Cambodian helicopter spotted crashed on mountain 17 days after being lost. No survivors seen

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The wreckage of a Cambodian military helicopter that went missing more than two weeks ago with two pilots aboard was spotted Monday on a mountaintop with no survivors immediately seen, the government and state news agency reports said. A Defense Ministry statement posted on its Facebook page said that a search flight spotted the wreckage of the Chinese-made Z-9 helicopter in the heavily forested Cardamom Mountains in the southwestern province of Pursat. Military recovery personnel have been sent to the crash site, but it will be difficult to reach because it is densely forested and the weather is bad, the ministry said.