Top Asian News 3:50 a.m. GMT

South Korea warns it can send arms to Ukraine after reports of North’s troops in Russia

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea warned Tuesday it could consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea allegedly dispatching troops to Russia, as both North Korea and Russia denied the movements. NATO’s secretary general said that would mark a “significant escalation.” South Korea’s statement was apparently meant to pressure Russia against bringing in North Korean troops for its war against Ukraine. South Korean officials worry that Russia may reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated weapons technologies that can boost the North’s nuclear and missile programs that target South Korea. In an emergency National Security Council meeting, top South Korean officials condemned North Korea’s alleged dispatch of troops as “a grave security threat” to South Korea and the international community.

Putin hosts Global South leaders at BRICS summit meant to counterbalance Western clout

KAZAN, Russia (AP) — China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and other world leaders arrived Tuesday in the Russian city of Kazan for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies that the Kremlin hopes to turn into a rallying point for defying Western influence in global affairs. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the three-day meeting also offers a powerful way to demonstrate the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine. Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov called it “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia, with 36 countries attending and more than 20 of them represented by heads of state.

King Charles III’s Commonwealth visit to Samoa will highlight climate change ... and dance

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III should be prepared to dance when he visits Samoa this week. Freddie Tuilagi made sure of that when he visited St. James’ Palace recently wearing nothing but a bark cloth wrap and a necklace historically worn by orator chiefs. Charles, in a blue suit and carefully knotted tie, grinned while gamely trying to follow along as Samoa’s honorary consul to the U.K. moved through the steps of a traditional dance. “He loves it. He said he wants to learn the dance,” Tuilagi said afterward, showing off his moves once again. Tuilagi, who moved to Britain to play professional rugby, said the 75-year-old king can expect more of the same when he arrives in the South Pacific island nation on Wednesday.

How a nearly extinct crocodile species returned from the brink in Cambodia

PHNOM TAMAO, Cambodia (AP) — A tiny snout poked out to widen the crack of the slowly shattering eggshell. The Siamese crocodile was taking its time, lagging others that had already wriggled out, chirping, into the sand. Adults can be up to 4 meters (13 feet) long and weigh up to 350 kilogram (770 pounds). They have few natural predators. But these hatchlings — each roughly the size of a New York hotdog — are vulnerable and their chorus of shrill calls was a signal for mothers to protect them and for stragglers to catch up. Hor Vichet, a zookeeper at the nonprofit Fauna and Flora’s breeding center for the critically endangered reptiles in Cambodia’s Phnom Tamao, broke the rest of the shell.

About 140 Rohingya Muslims on wooden boat off Indonesia’s coast as residents refuse to let them land

LABUHAN HAJI, Indonesia (AP) — About 140 weak and hungry Rohingya Muslims, mostly women and children, were on a wooden boat anchored about 1 mile (0.60 kilometers) off the coast of Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh on Tuesday, officials said, and local residents refused to allow them onto land. The blue-painted boat has been floating off the coast since Friday. Three Rohingya died during the nearly two-week-long trip from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to the waters off Labuhan Haji in South Aceh district, local police said. Authorities have transferred 11 Rohingya to a government hospital since Sunday after their health worsened.

Tropical storm swamps Philippine provinces in widespread flooding and trap people, some on roofs

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Torrential rain set off by an approaching tropical storm swamped eastern Philippine cities and towns overnight in widespread flooding that trapped people, some on their roofs, and sparked frantic appeals for rescue boats and trucks, officials said Wednesday. The government shut down public schools and government offices, except those urgently needed for disaster response, on the entire main island of Luzon to protect millions of people as Tropical Storm Trami blew closer from the Pacific. The storm was about 310 kilometers (193 miles) east of Baler in the northeastern province of Aurora with sustained winds of 85 kilometers (53 miles) per hour and gusts to 105 kph (65 mph).

Pakistani parliamentary panel picks a judge third on seniority list to head Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A parliamentary panel on Tuesday recommended a judge who was third on the seniority list of a panel of judges to head the Supreme Court of Pakistan, government officials said, a move which virtually blocked the elevation of the senior-most judge and is likely to further deepen a lingering political crisis. Under the constitution, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government overnight sent a summary to President Asif Ali Zardari, who approved the appointment of Yahya Afridi as the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Afridi’s name was third on the list of a three-judge panel that was considered by a committee.

Giant fish thought to be extinct is spotted in the Mekong River

WASHINGTON (AP) — A huge fish in the Mekong River thought to be extinct has been spotted three times in recent years. “The giant salmon carp is like a symbol of the Mekong region,” said Chheana Chhut, a researcher at the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The predatory fish can grow up to 4 feet in length, and has a conspicuous knob at the tip of its lower jaw. A striking patch of yellow surrounds its large eyes. With the last confirmed sighting in 2005, “this species of fish seems to have disappeared from the Mekong region for decades,” said Chheana, who is a co-author of a study published online Monday in the journal Biological Conservation that documents the recent sightings.

Lee Kuan Yew’s youngest son says the UK has granted him asylum from persecution in Singapore

LONDON (AP) — Lee Hsien Yang, the estranged brother of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said Tuesday that he is now a “political refugee” after the U.K. government granted him asylum from what he described as persecution at home. The Lee brothers are the sons of Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, widely regarded as the city-state’s modern founding father. They have been engaged in a public spat since 2017 over the late patriarch’s family home, and Lee Hsien Yang has accused Singapore’s government of persecuting him, his wife and his son. In a Facebook post Tuesday, he said that he sought asylum protection in 2022 “as a last resort.” “The Singapore government’s attacks against me are in the public record.

An Air New Zealand flight to Auckland diverts to Melbourne because of disruptive passenger

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An Air New Zealand flight bound for Auckland, New Zealand, from Perth, Australia, was forced to divert on Wednesday morning after a passenger became disruptive, the airline said. The flight landed instead in the Australian city of Melbourne, where police officers awaited the aircraft. The flight continued to Auckland after a 90-minute delay, Air New Zealand said in a statement. The carrier did not give more details about the episode. “Our crew managed the incident well, but incidents like this are distressing for our customers and our people and we have zero tolerance for this sort of behavior on our aircraft,” said an airline spokesperson, David Morgan.