Top Asian News 2:45 a.m. GMT

North Korea resumes missile tests, raising tensions with its rivals after their military drills’ end

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Monday morning, its neighbors said, days after the end of the South Korean-U.S. military drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal. The launches were North Korea’s first known missile testing activities in about a month. Outside experts earlier predicted North Korea would extend its run of missile tests and intensify its warlike rhetoric ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November to boost its leverage in future diplomacy. Japan’s Defense Ministry said North Korea fired three missiles, two together at 7:44 a.m. and the other about 37 minutes later.

Uber pays $178 million to end legal fight with Australian taxi drivers

SYDNEY (AP) — Global rideshare giant Uber will pay 272 million Australian dollars ($178 million) to settle a long-running dispute with Australian taxi and hire car drivers who lost out when the company entered the Australian market. A class action against Uber had been expected to go to trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday, but Maurice Blackburn Lawyers — representing 8,000 taxi and hire car drivers — said the case will be dropped because Uber agreed to the financial settlement. Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Michael Donelly said that drivers and car owners suffered financial losses due to Uber’s aggressive entry into the market in 2012 and that the company consistently attempted to avoid compensating them.

A man has fallen to his death from a hot-air balloon in Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A man fell to his death from a hot-air balloon Monday as it passed over suburban Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city. The hot-air balloon took off from Melbourne’s northern suburbs early in the morning and was in the air for about 30 minutes before the man fell from the basket. His body was found in a residential area, which Victoria state police closed off to traffic. The balloon landed safely many miles from where the man’s body was found. Police said it will prepare a report for the coroner and the death is not being treated as suspicious.

India’s Bengaluru is fast running out of water, and a long, scorching summer still looms

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Bhavani Mani Muthuvel and her family of nine have around five 20-liter (5-gallon) buckets worth of water for the week for cooking, cleaning and household chores. “From taking showers to using toilets and washing clothes, we are taking turns to do everything,” she said. It’s the only water they can afford. A resident of Ambedkar Nagar, a low-income settlement in the shadows of the lavish headquarters of multiple global software companies in Bengaluru’s Whitefield neighborhood, Muthuvel is normally reliant on piped water, sourced from groundwater. But it’s drying up. She said it’s the worst water crisis she has experienced in her 40 years in the neighborhood.

A highway crash in southern Afghanistan kills 21 people and injures 38

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A highway crash in southern Afghanistan left at least 21 people dead and 38 others injured, according to a provincial traffic department. The crash occurred on Sunday morning in Gerashk district of Helmand province on the main highway between southern Kandahar and western Herat provinces, the Helmand traffic office said. A motorbike crashed into a passenger bus, which then hit a fuel tanker on the opposite side of the road, said Qadratullah, a traffic official in Helmand. An investigation into the accident was underway, he added. Eleven of the 38 injured people were transferred to hospitals with serious injuries, said Hzatullah Haqqani, a spokesman for the Helmand police chief.

India announces 6-week general elections starting April 19 with Modi’s BJP topping surveys

NEW DELHI (AP) — India on Saturday announced its 6-week-long general elections will start on April 19, with most surveys predicting a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Voting in the world’s largest democracy will stretch over seven phases, with different states voting at different times and results will be announced on June 4. Over 970 million voters — more than 10% of the world’s population — will elect 543 members for the lower house of Parliament for a term of five years. Modi, who is seeking a third consecutive term, faces little challenge as the main opposition alliance of over two dozen regional parties led by the Indian National Congress party appears to be cracking, riven by rivalries, political defections and ideological clashes.

India’s navy takes control of bulk carrier hijacked by Somali pirates and evacuates crew

NEW DELHI (AP) — The Indian navy said late Saturday that it had taken control of a bulk carrier hijacked by Somali pirates and evacuated the 17 crew members on the vessel. In a statement on X, the navy said all 35 pirates on board the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen had surrendered and the vessel was checked for illegal arms, ammunition and contraband. The whole operation took about 40 hours and involved drones, navy vessels and marine commandos. The development came after men on the bulk carrier fired at an Indian warship in international waters Friday, triggering the navy to intercept the vessel some 2,600 kilometers (1,615 miles) off the Indian coast.

AP PHOTOS: Collecting sap to make palm sugar is an arduous, and less appealing, job for Cambodians

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Chin Choeun spends nearly 12 hours a day collecting sap from palm trees that he and his wife turn into palm sugar. The 54-year-old boasts of being one of Cambodia’s most skilful palm tree climbers, having learned the skill from his father. But after 36 years scaling tree after tree, Choeun plans to retire in the next couple of years, because of age-related safety concerns. “It was a job that I took over from my father. It was his legacy, and I don’t want it to end because of me. but I know that it will be over after me,” Choeun said.

North Korea’s Kim enjoys a Russian luxury limousine gifted by Putin as the two nations expand ties

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used a Russian luxury limousine gifted by President Vladimir Putin, Kim’s sister said Saturday, praising the car’s “special function” and the two countries’ deepening bilateral ties. In February, Putin sent Kim a high-end Aurus Senat limousine, which he had shown to the North Korean leader when they met for a summit in Russia in September. Observers said the shipment violated a United Nations resolution aimed at pressuring the North to give up its nuclear weapons program by banning the supply of luxury items to North Korea. In a statement carried by state media, Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, said that her brother used that limousine for the first time during an open event Friday.

Hong Kong jails 12 people over the storming of the legislature in 2019 protests

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court sentenced 12 people Saturday to prison over the storming of the city’s legislative council building at the height of the anti-government protests in 2019. Hundreds of protesters swarmed into the legislature the night of July 1, 2019 — the 22nd anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China — defacing pictures and smashing furniture. Some spray-painted slogans in the chamber and painted over the territory’s emblem on a wall before vacating the site as riot police cleared surrounding streets with tear gas before moving inside. The 12 defendants, including former student leader Althea Suen, actor Gregory Wong, and activists Ventus Lau and Owen Chow, were previously convicted for rioting.