Top Asian News 4:05 p.m. GMT

North Korean GPS manipulation disrupted dozens of planes and vessels, South Korea says

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military said North Korea disrupted GPS signals from border areas for the second-straight day on Saturday, affecting an unspecified number of flights and vessel operations. Tensions between the rival Koreas have escalated as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un flaunts his advancing nuclear and missile program and engages in electronic and psychological warfare, such as flying thousands of balloons to drop trash and anti-South Korean propaganda leaflets in the South. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korean operations to manipulate GPS signals were detected from around the western border city of Kaesong and the nearby city of Haeju on Friday and Saturday, and said the activities disrupted dozens of civilian aircraft and several vessels.

A powerful suicide bombing at a rail station in southwestern Pakistan kills at least 26

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a train station in restive southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 26 people, including soldiers and railway staff, and wounding about 62 others, some critically, officials said. The attack happened when nearly 100 passengers were waiting for a train to travel to the garrison city of Rawalpindi from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, according to Hamza Shafqaat, a senior government administrator. When asked about a security breach that led to the bombing, Shafqaat told reporters that “it is usually very difficult to stop such suicide attacks.” However, Shahid Nawaz, who is in charge of security at Quetta’s train station, insisted there was no breach as the attacker was disguised as a passenger and blew himself up among people at the station.

Newly inaugurated Indonesian President Subianto visits China in first overseas trip

BEIJING (AP) — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto pledged to maintain close ties with China during a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Saturday, his first overseas stop since he took office three weeks ago. Subianto is seeking to strengthen relations with China, Indonesia’s largest trading partner and one of its most important foreign investors. This is his second visit to Beijing this year, following a visit in April as president-elect, the first overseas trip he made after winning the Indonesian presidential election in February. “Indonesia considers China not only as a great power but as a great civilization,” Subianto said at the meeting, adding that the two countries had had close relations for centuries.

Philippine president angers China with new laws to demarcate South China Sea territories

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed two laws on Friday reaffirming the extent of his country’s maritime territories and right to resources, including in the South China Sea, angering China, which claims the hotly disputed waterway almost in its entirety. China’s foreign ministry said it summoned the Philippines ambassador to China to lodge a “stern protest.” The ministry condemned the move as an attempt to “solidify the illegal ruling of the South China Sea arbitration case through domestic legislation.” Confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces in the disputed sea passage have spiked alarmingly since last year.

Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki unleashes towering columns of hot clouds

MAUMERE, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano spewed towering columns of hot ash high into the air Saturday, days after a huge eruption killed nine people and injured dozens of others. Activity at the volcano on the remote island of Flores, in East Nusa Tenggara province, has increased since Monday’s initial eruption. On Thursday, authorities expanded the danger zone as the volcano erupted again. Friday’s activity saw the largest column of ash so far recorded at 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) high, Hadi Wijaya, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation, told a news conference.

India’s ban on Salman Rushdie ‘The Satanic Verses’ may end — thanks to missing paperwork

NEW DELHI (AP) — The decadeslong ban of Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” in his native India is now in doubt — not because of a change of heart more than two years after the author’s near-fatal stabbing, but because of what amounts to some missing paperwork. Earlier this week, a court in New Delhi closed proceedings on a petition filed five years ago that challenged the then-government’s decision to ban the import of the novel, which enraged Muslims worldwide because of its alleged blasphemy, just days after its 1988 publication. In a ruling issued Tuesday, according to the Press Trust of India news agency, a bench headed by Justice Rekha Palli said authorities had failed to produce the notification of the ban.

Japan’s prime minister vows military buildup and deeper ties with the US as regional tension rises

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba renewed a pledge Saturday to build up his country’s military and deepen its alliance with the United States under President-elect Donald Trump. Ishiba, who made the comments at an annual troop review held at Camp Asaka in the Tokyo suburbs, said the security environment surrounding Japan and the international community has significantly worsened due to escalating tensions with China, Russia and North Korea. He pledged to reinforce Japan’s military power. He said breaches of Japanese airspace by Chinese and Russian warplanes earlier in the year “not only violated Japanese sovereignty but also threatened the safety of Japan, and are absolutely unacceptable.” He said Japan faces growing threats from China’s accelerating military activity around Japanese coasts and from North Korea’s repeated missile firings.

Typhoon floods villages, rips off roofs and damages 2 domestic airports in northern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Yinxing battered the northern Philippines with floods and landslides before blowing away from the country on Friday, leaving two airports damaged and aggravating a calamity caused by back-to-back storms that hit in recent weeks. There were no immediate reports of casualties from Yinxing, the 13th major storm to hit the disaster-prone Southeast Asian archipelago this year. The typhoon, locally called Marce, was last tracked over the South China Sea about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Norte with sustained winds of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 205 kph (127 mph), according to government forecasters.

Thousands rally in Bangladesh capital as major political party demands quick reforms and an election

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Tens of thousands of activists of a leading political party in Bangladesh rallied in the nation’s capital on Friday, calling for a new election and quick reforms. The country is under an interim government after the fall of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled in August. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia organized the rally as it has been pushing the interim government, headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, to bring about quick reforms and to hold the next national election. Hasina and Zia are the main political rivals in a dynastic political framework.

Italian President Mattarella meets Chinese leader Xi in Beijing amid complex ties

BEIJING (AP) — Italian President Sergio Mattarella met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping Friday on an official visit to China that came as Russia’s full-on invasion of Ukraine pitted Rome’s NATO allies against Beijing’s support for Moscow. The two exchanged greetings following a ceremony with full military honors at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing. In his opening remarks, Xi referred to the 700th anniversary of Italian adventurer and trader Marco Polo’s journey to China that encouraged cultural, economic and religious links between Europe and East Asia. Italy is heavily reliant on foreign trade such as luxury products that have a large market in China.