Top Asian News 11:48 a.m. GMT

Hong Kong residents compete to name twin panda cubs who just turned 6 months old

HONG KONG (AP) — Panda craze has once again gripped Hong Kong as residents compete to name the territory’s first locally-born giant panda cubs who just turned six months old. The competition to name the twin cubs, born Aug. 15, launched Saturday following a celebratory ceremony attended by Hong Kong leader John Lee and other officials at Ocean Park, the theme park that houses the twins, their parents and two other giant pandas that arrived from mainland China last year. Residents can submit their suggestions via the park’s website. Lee said the southern Chinese city now has the largest number of pandas in captivity outside of mainland China, and the cubs’ names would be announced in the first half of this year.

Guarded optimism in India as Trump and Modi outline plans to deepen defense partnership

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — There was guarded optimism among military experts in India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump outlined plans to ramp up sales of defense systems to New Delhi, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, to deepen the U.S.-India strategic relationship. “Defense sector is a big money, and India happens to be one of the top buyers in the world,” said Lt. Gen. Vinod Bhatia, India’s director-general for military operations from 2012 to 2014. “As long as we buy, Trump will be happy but it’s surely going to expand our conventional deterrence.” The meeting signaled that “defense diplomacy is the core of diplomacy these days,” Bhatia said.

Construction site catches fire in South Korea, leaving at least 6 dead

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A fire broke out at a resort construction site in the South Korean city of Busan on Friday, killing at least six people, fire officials said. About 100 workers managed to evacuate the site, while another 14 were rescued by helicopter from the top of the structure, said Hong Moon-shik, chief of the Busan Gijang District Fire Department. Hundreds of firefighters were deployed to the site and had largely extinguished the blaze by Friday afternoon, hours after it was reported at around 10:20 a.m. Hong said six people were found unconscious on the first floor of the structure, near where the fire was believed to have started.

Australian and Philippine police help would-be victims avoid online love scams on Valentine’s Day

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Australian and Philippine authorities took steps on Valentine’s Day to help would-be victims avoid hurting their “hearts and bank accounts” in online love scams. The Australian Federal Police, with the help of Filipino authorities, on Friday publicized online dialogues used by an online love scam syndicate, which had been dismantled in the Philippines, to help foster vigilance. “The Australian Federal Police is flipping the script on romance scammers this Valentine’s Day by revealing real-life dialogue used to target the bank accounts — and hearts — of thousands of potential victims online,” a joint statement by the Australian police, the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission and other law enforcement agencies said.

Hong Kong plans to ban substandard tiny apartments. Low-income families fear higher rents

HONG KONG (AP) — Jimmy Au’s world shrinks to about the size of a parking space whenever she gets home. Her cramped Hong Kong home is one of four units carved out of what was once a single apartment. Most of the space is occupied by the bunk bed she shares with her husband and son, and their sleep is often disrupted by neighbors returning late or heading out early. Au’s son often gets bruises bumping into things. Privacy is limited, with only a curtain separating the bathroom from the kitchen. But what troubles Au most about her home is that she might lose it.

Why some Hong Kongers live in homes smaller than a parking space, by the numbers

HONG KONG (AP) — Tens of thousands of people in densely populated, land-poor Hong Kong live in tiny dwellings made by dividing up apartments, most smaller than a parking space. It’s an affordable option for students and low-income families but can also mean banging shins in cramped and in some cases substandard living spaces. The city’s government has proposed new rules that would set minimum standards for such housing units, but residents and advocates for the poor worry that it could drive up rents and make it even harder to hang on in the city. The city’s eventual goal, mandated by Beijing, is to eliminate subdivided apartments over the next 25 years.

Takeaways from Modi, Trump meeting: Cooperation on trade and defense — plus some mutual praise

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the U.S. President Donald Trump spoke about easing tariffs, resolving trade issues and shoring up defense ties in a meeting at the White House on Thursday. Even though Trump threatened to impose tariffs, the two leaders said they’d talk about trade, signaling that New Delhi and Washington could offer each other concessions. Trump called Modi a “much better negotiator than me,” while Modi played on Trump’s “MAGA,” or “Make America Great Again,” catchphrase, saying he he was determined to “Make India Great Again.” Here are some key takeaways from the meeting: Trade and tariffs issues figured extensively in the meeting.

Elon Musk met with Modi during the Indian prime minister’s US visit. What does he want from India?

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk during his visit to the U.S. to meet President Donald Trump. The exact nature of the meeting is unclear, although Modi said on X that the two men “discussed various issues, including those he is passionate about such as space, mobility, technology and innovation.” Musk was recently chosen by Trump to head a new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Modi and Musk also met each other in New York in 2023. At that time Musk said he was “confident that Tesla will be in India ...

German prosecutors investigate possible Islamic extremist motive for Munich car-ramming attack

MUNICH (AP) — The suspect in the car-ramming attack in Munich that injured 39 people appears to have had an Islamic extremist motive, but there’s no evidence that he was involved with any radical network, authorities said Friday. The 24-year-old Afghan, who arrived in Germany as an asylum-seeker in 2016 and lived in Munich, was arrested after driving a Mini Cooper into a labor union demonstration in the Bavarian city on Thursday. He was arrested after police officers pulled him out of the car after firing a shot at the vehicle, which didn’t hit him. Authorities said 39 people were injured in the attack, two of them very seriously and eight seriously.

An Indian court finds a 31-year-old man guilty of the rape and murder of an Irish backpacker

NEW DELHI (AP) — A court in India on Friday found a 31-year-old man guilty of raping and murdering an Irish woman at a popular tourist resort in 2017. Vikat Bhagat was found guilty of the crime by Judge Kshama Joshi at the District and Sessions Court in western Goa state. Joshi said she will pronounce sentencing on Monday. The body of 28-year-old Danielle McLaughlin was found by a farmer on a beach popular with holidaymakers in the western state of Goa in March 2017. An autopsy showed that cerebral damage and constriction of the neck caused her death. Usually, rape victims cannot be named under Indian law.