Top Asian News 4:05 a.m. GMT

Indonesia search resumes after flash flood and landslide leaves 17 dead and 9 missing

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian rescuers resumed a search Wednesday for people missing after flash floods and landslides on Indonesia’s main island of Java that killed at least 17 people. Waters from flooded rivers tore through nine villages in Pekalongan regency of Central Java province and landslides tumbled onto mountainside hamlets after the torrential rains Monday. National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said flooding triggered a landslide that buried two houses and a cafe in Petungkriyono resort area. The disasters all together destroyed 25 houses, a dam and three main bridges connecting villages in Pekalongan. Muhari said at least 17 people were dead, nine were missing and 13 injured by Wednesday.

Police investigate whether foreign actors are paying for antisemitic crimes in Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian detectives are investigating whether foreign actors are paying criminals to commit antisemitic attacks in the country, police said on Wednesday. Australia Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw was meeting on Wednesday with state police chiefs to discuss an increase in antisemitic crime in Australia since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, 2023. “We believe criminals-for-hire may be behind some incidents,” Kershaw told reporters in the national capital, Canberra. “So part of our inquiries include: Who is paying those criminals, where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is,” Kershaw added.

Same-sex marriages will soon become legal in Thailand after historic law

BANGKOK (AP) — They have been in a committed relationship for more than 13 years, and even had a wedding in 2019. Since then, Danaya Phonphayung and Sunma Piamboon, both women, have considered themselves a married couple, even if same-sex marriages were not legally recognized. The walls of their home in suburban Bangkok are decorated with faded photos from their happy union, filled with joy and love from their families and friends. Come this Thursday, their wedded status will be recognized by the nation as well, when a law that allows members of the LGBTQ+ community in Thailand to get married and have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples takes effect.

Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi discuss their close ties in chat after Trump’s inauguration

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and emphasized their close ties a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th U.S. president. The two leaders discussed their prospective contacts with Trump’s administration during the video call that lasted more than 1 1/2 hours, the Kremlin said. They have developed strong, personal links that brought their relations even closer after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. China has become a major customer for Russian oil and gas and a source of key technologies amid sweeping Western sanctions on Moscow. In the call with Xi, Putin emphasized that Russia-China relations are based on shared interests, equality and mutual benefits, noting they “don’t depend on internal political factors and the current international environment.” “We jointly support the development of a more just, multipolar global order, and work to ensure indivisible security in Eurasia and the world as a whole,” Putin told Xi in remarks carried by Russian state TV.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has memoir coming out in June

NEW YORK (AP) — Two years after her shocking decision to resign as prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern is set to publish a memoir. Crown, a division of Penguin Random House, announced Tuesday that Ardern’s “A Different Kind of Power” is scheduled for June 3. Only 37 when elected in 2017, Ardern will reflect on some of the decisions and events that made her known worldwide. She was widely praised for her compassionate response to the 2019 terrorist attacks against two mosques in Christchurch and for her initial handing of the coronavirus pandemic. “Some people thought kindness was sentimental, soft.

Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

NEW YORK (AP) — Used to leading off, Ichiro Suzuki got antsy when he had to wait. Considered a no-doubt pick for baseball’s Hall of Fame and possibly the second unanimous selection, he waited by the phone for the expected call Tuesday. Fifteen minutes passed without a ring. “I actually started getting kind of nervous,” he said through a translator. “I was actually relieved when I first got the call.” Suzuki became the first Japanese player chosen for the Hall, falling one vote shy of unanimous when he was elected along with CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner. Quite the journey for a 27-year-old who left the Pacific League’s Orix BlueWave in November 2000 to sign with Seattle as the first Japanese position player in Major League Baseball.

Trump vexes New Zealanders by claiming one of their proudest historical moments for America

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Among other false and misleading claims in U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration addresses on Tuesday, his declaration that Americans “split the atom” prompted vexed social media posts by New Zealanders, who said the achievement belonged to a pioneering scientist revered in his homeland. Ernest Rutherford, a Nobel Prize winner known as the father of nuclear physics, is regarded by many as the first to knowingly split the atom by artificially inducing a nuclear reaction in 1917 while he worked at a university in Manchester in the United Kingdom. The achievement is also credited to English scientist John Douglas Cockroft and Ireland’s Ernest Walton, researchers in 1932 at a British laboratory developed by Rutherford.

South Korea’s Yoon defends his martial law decree in his first public appearance since his arrest

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s impeached president denied Tuesday that he ordered the military to drag lawmakers out of the National Assembly to prevent them from voting to reject his martial law decree last month, as he appeared for the first time before the Constitutional Court that will determine his fate. Yoon Suk Yeol’s presence at the court was his first public appearance since becoming South Korea’s first sitting president to be detained over his short-lived declaration of martial law, which plunged the country into political turmoil. After abruptly imposing martial law on Dec. 3, Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but enough lawmakers managed to enter to vote unanimously to reject his decree, forcing Yoon’s Cabinet to lift the measure early the following morning.

South Korea to shrink biomass energy subsidies after criticism over link to deforestation

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The South Korean government will reduce subsidies for biomass energy after rising domestic and international criticism of its link to deforestation. Environmental activists generally applauded the reforms but criticized loopholes and slow timelines for phasing out the subsidies. “While not without caveats, (the) decision by the South Korean government demonstrates that large-scale biomass power has no place in a renewable energy future,” Hansae Song, program lead at South Korea-based nongovernmental organization Solutions for Our Climate, said in an email to The Associated Press. Biomass power, predominantly generated by burning wood, is growing globally as countries accelerate their transition to use cleaner energy — even though many scientists and environmentalists see it as problematic.

Lawmakers in Pakistan’s Punjab impose total ban on kite fliers over safety concerns

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Lawmakers in Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province on Tuesday passed a law permanently banning kite flying. The measure, which includes enhanced prison terms and heavy fines on kite fliers and kite manufacturers, comes ahead of the decades-old festival of Basant. A ban on kite flying was initially imposed in 2005 in Lahore, the capital of the province, when at least 11 bystanders were fatally cut by wire or string made from metal or coated with glass during competitions. The ban was extended beyond Lahore to other cities and under the latest legislation it will come into effect across the province ahead of the Basant festival, whose centerpiece is kite flying to welcome spring.