Top Asian News 3:42 a.m. GMT

US, Japan and South Korea hold drills in disputed sea as Biden hosts leaders of Japan, Philippines

ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (AP) — A U.S. carrier strike group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt has held a three-day joint exercise with its allies Japan and South Korea as U.S. President Joe Biden met for talks with leaders from Japan and the Philippines at the White House. The dueling military and diplomatic maneuvers are meant to strengthen the partners’ solidarity in the face of China’s aggressive military actions in the region. A number of U.S. and South Korean guided missile destroyers and a Japanese warship joined the April 10-12 drill in the disputed East China Sea, where worries about China territorial claims are rising.

Chinese official talks with North Korean counterpart in the nations’ highest-level meeting in years

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A top Chinese official arrived in North Korea and held talks on how to boost their cooperation, North Korea’s state media reported Friday, in the counties’ highest-level meeting in about five years. Zhao Leji, who is chairman of China’s National People’s Congress and considered the No. 3 official in the ruling Communist Party, arrived in North Korea on Thursday. China’s government earlier said he will stay in North Korea until Saturday. Zhao met his North Korean counterpart Choe Ryong Hae later Thursday and discussed how to promote exchanges and cooperation on all areas such as politics, economy and culture, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported.

Why did Yoon’s party lose in South Korea’s elections and what troubles does he face now?

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean voters have handed liberals extended opposition control of parliament in what looks like a massive political setback to conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol. Some experts say the results of Wednesday’s parliamentary elections make Yoon “a lame duck” — or even “a dead duck” — for his remaining three years in office. Others disagree, saying Yoon still has many policy levers and could aggressively push his foreign policy agenda. But it’s certain that the election outcome poses the toughest political challenge to Yoon since the former top prosecutor took office in 2022 for a single five-year term.

Shohei Ohtani’s ex-interpreter charged with stealing $16M from baseball star in sports betting case

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities charged the former longtime interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani on Thursday with federal bank fraud, alleging that he stole more than $16 million from the Japanese sensation to cover gambling bets and debts. Interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, a constant presence beside Ohtani in baseball stadiums across the country since 2018, abused the two-way player’s trust in him and exploited the language barrier to plunder a bank account that only he could access, prosecutors said. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said Mizuhara was so intertwined in Ohtani’s life and career that he became the star’s “de facto manager.” The role enabled him to withdraw money from the account — at times lying and impersonating Ohtani to bank employees — to finance his “insatiable appetite for illegal sports betting.” Thursday’s announcement, at a packed news conference in downtown Los Angeles, ended weeks of speculation about Mizuhara’s self-admitted gambling problems, the wide-ranging federal investigation and Ohtani’s role in the scandal.

AP Week in Pictures: Asia

April 5-11, 2024 Women celebrating the Marathi New Year rode motorcycles in traditional attire in Mumbai, Bangladeshi Muslims climbed onto the roof of an overcrowded train in Dhaka to travel home for Eid al-Fitr and Cambodian villagers raced their oxcarts in Kampong Speu province. This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images in the Asia-Pacific region made or published by The Associated Press in the past week. The selection was curated by AP photo editor Subramoney Iyer in New Delhi. ___ Follow AP visual journalism: AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews AP Images on X: http://twitter.com/AP_Images

What to know about the real estate tycoon sentenced to death in Vietnam’s largest fraud case

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A Vietnamese real estate tycoon was sentenced to death Thursday in the country’s biggest ever financial fraud case, a shocking development in an intensifying anti-corruption drive in the southeast Asian nation. Truong My Lan, a high-profile businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022. The 67-year-old was formally charged with fraud amounting to $12.5 billion –- nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP. Death sentences are not uncommon in Vietnam, but it is rare in financial crime cases and for someone this well known. Here is a look at the key details of the case: Lan was born in 1956 and started out helping sell cosmetics with her mother, a Chinese businesswoman, in Ho Chi Minh city’s oldest market, according to state media outlet Tien Phong.

Vietnam sentences real estate tycoon Truong My Lan to death in its largest-ever fraud case

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced Thursday to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam in the country’s largest financial fraud case ever, state media Vietnam Net said. The 67-year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was formally charged with fraud amounting to $12.5 billion — nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP. Lan illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and allowed 2,500 loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion to the bank, reported state media VnExpress. The court asked her to compensate the bank $26.9 million.

Biden says US support for Philippines, Japan defense ‘ironclad’ amid growing China provocations

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that U.S. defense commitment to Pacific allies was “ironclad” as he gathered Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House in the midst of growing concern about provocative Chinese military action in the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. and the Philippines have had a mutual treaty in place for more than 70 years. Biden’s forceful reinforcement of the American commitment comes in the midst of persistent skirmishes between the Philippine and Chinese coast guards in the disputed South China Sea. “The United States defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad.

Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders issued different messages for Eid. Experts say that shows tensions

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Messages by two influential Taliban leaders in Afghanistan this week showed tensions between hardliners and more moderate elements who want to scrap harsher policies and attract more outside support, experts said Thursday. The messages for Eid al-Fitr marking the end of Ramadan were delivered by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who defended the imposition of Islamic law and railed against the international community for its criticism, and Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who called on the Taliban to be humble and avoid behaving in ways that make Afghans unhappy. The Taliban seized power in 2021 amid the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.

Myanmar’s ethnic Karen guerrillas claim to have seized the last army base defending key border town

BANGKOK (AP) — Guerrillas from the Karen ethnic minority on Thursday claimed to have captured the last of the army’s outposts in Myawaddy township in eastern Myanmar, virtually clearing the way for them to take over the town of Myawaddy, the major crossing point for trade with Thailand. The Karen National Union, the ethnic group’s leading political body, said in a statement posted on Facebook that its armed wing, acting together with the affiliated Karen National Defense Organization and allied pro-democracy forces, had captured the garrison of the army’s Infantry Battalion 275, about 4 kilometers (3 miles) to the west of the town before dawn on Thursday, after besieging it since the start of the week.