Top Asian News 3:55 a.m. GMT

Bangladesh’s incoming interim leader Muhammad Yunus appeals for calm. He’ll take office Thursday

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s incoming interim leader Muhammad Yunus appealed for calm Wednesday and urged all parties to help the country rebuild after weeks of violence that killed hundreds and prompted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India. Yunus, a Nobel peace laureate, was in Paris for the Olympics when he was named interim leader following talks among military officials, civic leaders and the student activists who led the uprising against a prime minister seen as increasingly autocratic. Yunus made his first public comments in the French capital Wednesday before boarding a plane to return home.

AP PHOTOS: Bangladesh’s turbulent half-century, from coups to climate shocks

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh has had a turbulent existence since gaining independence in 1971 following a war with Pakistan. Its first coup occurred in 1975, when President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated. Two more coups that year ended with Ziaur Rahman seizing power. In 1981, Rahman was assassinated by rebels who stormed a government guest house. In 1982, successor Abdus Sattar was overthrown in a coup led by Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who later assumed the presidency. Power was then traded between two formidable women, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. Hasina was toppled this week by a student-led uprising. Her archrival Zia was freed this week from house arrest.

Ouster of Bangladesh’s prime minister will test India’s regional power, with Beijing’s on the rise

NEW DELHI (AP) — The dramatic resignation of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina poses a dilemma for India’s government, and the South Asian powerhouse could even see its influence in the region wane, according to experts. During her 15-year rule, Hasina cultivated deep ties with India, her biggest backer, as she oversaw an economic boom and drew the two countries closer on business, energy and defense. Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia, with bilateral trade of just under $16 billion. “India will need much political and diplomatic skill in dealing with the consequences of the fall of Sheikh Hasina, which could rattle the geopolitics of the subcontinent, if not reshape it,” C.

Thai court dissolves progressive Move Forward Party, which won election but was blocked from power

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Thailand on Wednesday ordered the dissolution of the progressive Move Forward Party, which finished first in last year’s general election, saying it violated the constitution by proposing an amendment of a law against defaming the country’s royal family. The Constitutional Court said it voted unanimously to dissolve the party because its campaign proposal to amend the law amounted to an attempt to overthrow the nation’s constitutional monarchy. The Move Forward Party was unable to form a government after topping the polls because members of the Senate, at that time a conservative military-appointed body, refused to endorse its candidate for prime minister.

Heir apparent to Sri Lanka’s powerful Rajapaksa family will run in September’s presidential election

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The man who is considered the heir apparent to the powerful Rajapaksa family in Sri Lanka will contest the presidential election in September, his political party said Wednesday, in an apparent bid to regain his family’s lost power after a humiliating setback two years ago during an unprecedented economic crisis in the Indian ocean island nation. The Sri Lanka Peoples’ Front said the 38-year-old lawyer Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former strongman president Mahinda Rajapaksa, will be its candidate in the Sept. 21 election, the first since the nation plunged into its worst economic crisis.

India should soon have its first Olympics sponsor, a sign of the country’s growing Games influence

PARIS (AP) — The International Olympic Committee expects to add an Indian sponsor soon in a sign of the country’s growing influence over the Olympics during a bid to host the 2036 Summer Games. The IOC currently has 15 top-tier partners, which collectively paid almost $740 million last year in cash and services, though none from India. “We would love to welcome a first new TOP sponsor from India and I am sure that this is going to happen very, very soon,” Anne-Sophie Voumard, the IOC’s marketing director said Wednesday, using the acronym of The Olympic Partner commercial program. “For us, it is certainly a country that we believe has a lot of potential, including on commercial,” Voumard said.

New Zealand and Australia trade barbs over accent and language in row over Māori words

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The removal of basic Māori phrases meaning “hello” and “New Zealand” from a Māori lunar new year invitation to an Australian official was not a snub of the Indigenous language by New Zealand’s government, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Wednesday, seemingly joking that it instead reflected the “incredibly simple” language required when speaking to Australians. Luxon’s defense in Parliament of the lawmaker who ordered the removal of the Māori words from an invitation sent to Australia’s arts minister was an attempt to rebuff criticism that his government is anti-Māori, as it seeks to reverse policies favoring Indigenous people and language.

A tanker ship catches fire off Indonesia’s Bali island, leaving 5 crew dead and 15 injured

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — A tanker ship caught fire Wednesday off Indonesia’s Bali island, leaving five crew members dead and 15 others injured, officials said. The tanker Elisabeth with 21 crew on board caught fire at Gili Tepekong in Bali’s Karangasem district while traveling to West Nusa Tenggara province, police said. A crew member said that when the tanker neared Gili Tepekong, an explosion occurred near the crew’s living area. The chief officer found the helmsman lying on the deck with burns on his body, Karangasem police Chief Nengah Sadiarta said. The tanker stopped moving and then a second explosion occurred, he said.

5 people killed in a helicopter crash in the mountains northwest of Nepal’s capital

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — All five people on board a helicopter were killed when it crashed Wednesday in the mountains just northwest of Nepal’s capital, authorities said. The bodies of four men and a woman were pulled from the wreckage, said Krishna Prasad Humagai, the government administrator of Nuwakot district. Police and army rescuers reached the area and two rescue helicopters were also sent to assist in the operation, the official said. The crash site is in the Suryachaur area, which is just northwest of Kathmandu, and is on a mountain covered by forest. The helicopter had taken off from Kathmandu international airport at 1:54 p.m.

US, Australia, Canada, Philippines stage naval and air force maneuvers in disputed South China Sea

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The United States, Australia, Canada and the Philippines held air and naval maneuvers Wednesday in a show of force that they said aimed to promote the rule of law in the disputed South China Sea, where China has increasingly asserted its territorial claims. In an apparent response, China said it conducted air and sea combat patrols on the same day. The Philippine military said three Chinese navy ships “tailed” the four-nation maneuvers off the western coast of the Philippines, but did not provide more details. Adm. Samuel Paparo, who heads the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and top military and defense commanders from Australia, Canada and the Philippines said in a joint statement that they “stand together to address common maritime challenges and underscore our shared dedication to upholding international law and the rules-based order.” They said they were staging the two-day exercises to uphold unhindered passage in the Indo-Pacific region.