Top Asian News 4:22 a.m. GMT

Impeachment complaint filed against Philippine Vice President Duterte after she threatened president

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — An impeachment complaint was filed Monday against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing a legal storm over a death threat she made against the president and her alleged role in extra-judicial killings of drug suspects, corruption and failure to stand up to Chinese aggression in the disputed South China Sea. The impeachment bid filed by several prominent civil society activists in the House of Representatives accuses Duterte of violating the country’s Constitution, betrayal of public trust and other “high crimes,” including the death threats she made against the president, his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives.

This whale species is so rare it’s never been seen alive. A dissection may decode its mysteries

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — It is the world’s rarest whale, with only seven of its kind ever spotted. Almost nothing is known about the enigmatic species. But on Monday a small group of scientists and cultural experts in New Zealand clustered around a near-perfectly preserved spade-toothed whale hoping to decode decades of mystery. “I can’t tell you how extraordinary it is,” said a joyful Anton van Helden, senior marine science adviser for New Zealand’s conservation agency, who gave the spade-toothed whale its name to distinguish it from other beaked species. “For me personally, it’s unbelievable.” Van Helden has studied beaked whales for 35 years, but Monday was the first time he has participated in a dissection of the spade-toothed variety.

Hong Kong will display 2,500 panda sculptures to capitalize on a local bear craze

HONG KONG (AP) — Thousands of giant panda sculptures will greet residents and tourists starting Saturday in Hong Kong, where enthusiasm for the bears has grown since two cubs were born in a local theme park. The 2,500 exhibits were showcased in a launch ceremony of PANDA GO! FEST HK, the city’s largest panda-themed exhibition, at Hong Kong’s airport on Monday. They will be publicly displayed at the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui, a popular shopping district, this weekend before setting their footprint at three other locations this month. One designated spot is Ocean Park, home to the twin cubs, their parents and two other pandas gifted by Beijing this year.

Three climbers from the US and Canada are missing on New Zealand’s highest peak

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Three mountain climbers from the U.S. and Canada are missing after they failed to return from a planned ascent of New Zealand’s highest peak, Aoraki, authorities said Tuesday. The Americans — Kurt Blair, 56, from Colorado and Carlos Romero, 50, of California — are certified alpine guides, according to the website of the American Mountain Guides Association. A statement by New Zealand’s police did not name the Canadian climber, citing the need to notify his family. The men flew to a hut partway up the mountain on Saturday to begin their ascent and were reported missing on Monday when they did not arrive to meet their prearranged transport after the climb.

A landmark climate change case opens at the top UN court as island nations fear rising seas

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top United Nations court took up the largest case in its history on Monday, hearing the plight of several small island nations helpless in combating the devastating impact of climate change that they feel endangers their very survival. They demand that major polluting nations be held to account. After years of lobbying by island nations who fear they could simply disappear under rising sea waters, the U.N. General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice last year for an opinion on “the obligations of States in respect of climate change.” “The stakes could not be higher.

Taiwan’s president visits East-West think tank as China criticizes his 2-day visit to Hawaii

HONOLULU (AP) — Taiwan’s president visited a U.S. State Department-funded think tank and educational institution Sunday on the second day of a two-day visit to Hawaii that’s part of a Pacific island tour that has already triggered criticism from Beijing. Lai Ching-te met and exchanged gifts with the president of the East-West Center, which is on the University of Hawaii’s flagship Manoa campus. He spoke to an audience at the center but journalists were escorted out of a conference hall before he began speaking. China’s Foreign Ministry said it “strongly condemned” U.S. support for Lai’s visit and had lodged a complaint with the U.S.

Australian police arrest 13 people and seize a record 2.3 tons of cocaine from a fishing boat

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australian police seized a record 2.3 tons of cocaine and arrested 13 people in raids after the suspects’ boat broke down off the coast of Queensland, authorities said Monday. The drugs had a sale value of 760 million Australian dollars ($494 million) and equaled as many as 11.7 million street deals if they had reached the country of 28 million people, federal police said in a statement. Investigators told reporters in Brisbane that the drugs were transported from an unidentified South American country. The arrests on Saturday and Sunday followed a monthlong investigation after a tipoff that the Comancheros motorcycle gang was planning a multi-ton smuggling operation, Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay said.

A 2nd ceasefire is reached between warring Shiites and Sunni Muslims in Pakistan’s restive northwest

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities with help from community leaders brokered a second ceasefire between warring minority Shiites and Sunni Muslims in a troubled northwestern region bordering Afghanistan following a deadly sectarian violence that left dozens of people dead, officials said Monday. The violence in Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, erupted after gunmen attacked a convoy of vehicles carrying mostly Shiites, killing 52 people on Nov.21. Though nobody claimed the assault, some Shiites, after burying the victims, launched attacks on Sunni Muslims and clashes ensued, killing 78 people and wounding 200 others. A ceasefire was reached on Nov.

China condemns Lithuania’s expulsion of its diplomats

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China on Monday condemned Lithuania’s expulsion of three Chinese diplomats as relations between the two countries continue to sour. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused Lithuania of expelling its diplomats and declaring them persona non grata “without any reason,” according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website. “China strongly condemns and firmly rejects this wanton and provocative action,” the spokesperson said. The spat comes amid an investigation into the suspected involvement of a Chinese ship in severing two undersea data cables, one of which runs under the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Sweden. Sweden has asked China to cooperate in explaining the cables’ rupture.

Philippine navy shadows Russian submarine in the South China Sea

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine military deployed a navy ship and air force planes to shadow a Russian submarine, which passed through the South China Sea off the country’s western coast last week, a security official said Monday. The Russian submarine identified itself in response to a Philippine navy two-way radio inquiry, saying it was en route home to Russia’s eastern city of Vladivostok after joining an exercise with the Malaysian navy, Jonathan Malaya, assistant director-general of the National Security Council, said. The submarine, like other foreign ships, has the right of “innocent passage” in the country’s exclusive economic zone but it still sparked concern when it was spotted on Thursday about 80 nautical miles (148 kilometers) off the Philippine province of Mindoro, Malaya said.