Top Asian News 4:02 a.m. GMT

84 Indonesians freed from scam centers in Myanmar are set to go home

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) — Eighty-four Indonesians freed from scam centers in Myanmar were set to return home Friday as the repatriation of thousands of such workers after a crackdown strains regional resources. The Indonesians were among more than 7,000 people being held in the Myanmar border town Myawaddy following a crackdown on the scam centers by Thailand, Myanmar and China. Two buses carrying the Indonesians arrived Thursday in the Thai border city of Mae Sot, where the passengers had health checks and their identities were verified. Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been lured to work in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos to commit global scams through false romances, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.

Judge overthrows conviction of owners of New Zealand island where 22 died in volcanic eruption

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The owners of an island volcano in New Zealand where 22 tourists and local guides died in an eruption had their criminal conviction for failing to keep visitors safe thrown out by a judge on Friday. The ruling absolves the company from paying millions of dollars in restitutions to the families of those bereaved in the 2019 explosion on Whakaari, also known as White Island, and two dozen seriously injured survivors. Most of the 47 people on the island were U.S. and Australian cruise ship passengers on a walking tour, along with their local guides.

In northeast India, a border fence could cut through villages, houses and lives

LONGWA, India (AP) — To the people who live there, Longwa is a typical hilltop village. The most imposing structure is a corrugated tin roof belonging to the Angh, a hereditary tribal chief. But recently, residents have been worried about another, less visible, local landmark: the border between India and Myanmar, which runs right through the village’s center. National boundaries never mattered before to the local Konyak tribe. “I eat in Myanmar and sleep in India,” says Tonyei Phawang, the Angh, whose house sits on the border. The Indian government is now seeking to stop border crossings for the first time, revoking a system that made it legal for Indigenous people to cross freely and threatening to build a border fence that could cut villages like Longwa in two.

North Korea says it performed cruise missile tests, days after it vowed to respond to US threats

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday it had test-fired strategic cruise missiles to demonstrate its nuclear counter-attack capability, days after it vowed to respond to what it called escalating U.S.-led hostilities since the start of the Trump administration. The official Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the missile tests off the country’s west coast Wednesday. They were the North’s fourth missile launch event this year and the second of President Donald Trump’s second term. The launches were designed to inform “the enemies, who are seriously violating our security environment and fostering and escalating the confrontation environment,” of the North Korean military’s counterattack capability and the readiness of its nuclear operations, KCNA said.

Russian tourist dies after being attacked by sharks in Philippine diving spot, another drowns

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Two Russian tourists died when they were swept away by strong undercurrents while scuba diving in waters south of Manila, with one believed to have drowned and the other attacked by sharks, a Philippine coast guard official said Friday. Two other Russian tourists managed to swim back safely to their dive boat Thursday off Verde Island, a popular diving destination in the province of Batangas, Philippine coast guard provincial commander Capt. Airland Lapitan said. The four Russian tourists traveled by boat to the waters off Verde Island from the nearby town of Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro province with a Filipino dive instructor.

South Korean police summon Japanese woman for kissing BTS member without consent

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police said Friday they are summoning a Japanese woman for questioning over allegedly kissing Jin, a member of the K-pop supergroup BTS, without consent during a free hug event last year. A police officer who answered the phone at Seoul’s Songpa police station said it requested the woman to appear for questioning over an allegation of sexual harassment. The police station refused to disclose her identity citing privacy. The station said it had launched an investigation after receiving an online complaint and refused to provide further details because an investigation was under way. Media reports said that South Korean police were able to confirm the identity of the woman with the help of Japanese police.

FBI accuses North Korean-backed hackers of stealing $1.5 billion in crypto from Dubai-based firm

ROME (AP) — The FBI has accused North Korean-linked hackers of conducting one of the largest thefts of cryptocurrency publicly known, seizing some $1.5 billion worth of ethereum from a Dubai-based firm. The theft earlier this month targeting Bybit, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, represents yet another involving a team of hackers identified by the U.S. government by the names TraderTraitor and the Lazarus Group. The hackers steal cryptocurrency “through the dissemination of cryptocurrency trading applications that were modified to include malware that facilitates theft of cryptocurrency,” the FBI has said. In an online public service announcement late Wednesday, the FBI said it believed the North Korean-backed hackers were “responsible for the theft.” “TraderTraitor actors are proceeding rapidly and have converted some of the stolen assets to Bitcoin and other virtual assets dispersed across thousands of addresses on multiple blockchains,” the FBI said in its announcement.

North Korea appears to have sent more troops to Russia to back its war against Ukraine, Seoul says

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday that North Korea appears to have sent additional troops to Russia, after its soldiers deployed on the Russian-Ukraine fronts suffered heavy casualties. The National Intelligence Service said in a brief statement it was trying to determine exactly how many more troops North Korea has deployed to Russia. The NIS also assessed that North Korean troops were redeployed at fronts in Russia’s Kursk region in the first week of February, following a reported temporary withdrawal from the area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an address on Feb. 7, confirmed a new Ukrainian offensive in Kursk and said North Korean troops were fighting alongside Russian forces there.

Key Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing remains shut, disrupting trade and movement of people

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A nearly weeklong closure of a key crossing on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has disrupted bilateral trade and the movement of people, causing financial losses to traders and leaving people stranded in harsh winter conditions, officials said Thursday. The Torkham border crossing has remained closed since Feb. 21 after Pakistan shut it down over a dispute concerning Afghanistan’s construction of a border post. Since then, more than 5,000 trucks and vehicles carrying goods, including fruits and vegetables, have been stranded on both sides, awaiting the reopening of the trade route, according to Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, a director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Philippine authorities arrest more than 400 people in suspected cybercrime hub

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — More than 400 people, half of them from China, were arrested by Philippine authorities in a raid on a suspected online gambling and scam hub in a busy commercial district in the capital, officials said Thursday. The 401 detained included 207 Chinese and 132 Vietnamese nationals who were arrested in a condo building in Pasay city on Wednesday night. They were suspected by Philippine authorities of involvement in illegal online gaming operations, along with cryptocurrency, romance and investment scams, according to a government report. Other arrested suspects were from South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Madagascar, according to the report.