Top Asian News 4:49 a.m. GMT

Thailand gears up for a celebration as a long-awaited marriage equality law takes effect

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.

Strong earthquake in Taiwan injures 27 and causes scattered damage

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan early Tuesday, leaving 27 people with minor injuries and some reported damage. The quake hit at 12:17 a.m. and was centered 38 kilometers (24 miles) southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration said. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the earthquake at a less powerful magnitude 6. There were scattered reports of minor to moderate damage around the cities of Chiayi and Tainan. Taiwan’s fire department said 27 people were sent to hospitals for minor injuries. Among them were six people, including a 1-month-old baby, who were rescued from a collapsed house in the Nanxi district of Tainan.

Australian state commits more police to investigate antisemitic crime

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian state was committing more police to investigate a spate of antisemitic crimes, officials said on Tuesday after a childcare center was torched near a Sydney synagogue. The childcare center a block from a synagogue in a suburb of Maroubra was also spray-painted with anti-Jewish graffiti before it was set alight early Tuesday, police said. The building was extensively damaged, but police said no one was hurt. The arson is the latest in a spate of targeted attacks in Australia’s largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, 2023.

Ichiro is about to get his Hall of Fame moment. For Japan, he’s more than just a baseball star

TOKYO (AP) — Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he’s much more than that in Japan. Back home, he’s a wellspring of national pride, much like Shohei Ohtani now. His triumphs across the Pacific buoyed the nation as Japan’s economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades of the 1990s and into the 2000s. “He healed the wounds in Japan’s national psyche,” Kiyoteru Tsutsui, professor of sociology at Stanford University, told The Associated Press. On Tuesday, he’s expected to be the first Japanese player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and possibly only the second player chosen unanimously after New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

The Chinese president’s envoy meets with Vance and Musk on the eve of Trump’s inauguration

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s vice president held meetings with the U.S. vice president-elect and U.S. business leaders, including Elon Musk, in Washington on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, as the two major powers tackle ongoing tensions over trade and technology. Han Zheng, who serves as an envoy for Chinese President Xi Jinping at the inauguration, “discussed a range of topics including fentanyl, balancing trade and regional stability” with J.D. Vance, according to the Trump transition team. Han stressed the “extensive common interests and enormous space of cooperation” the United States and China share in economic and trade relations despite “some disagreements and frictions,” according to a readout of his meeting with Vance issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday.

Vice President Han Zheng, China’s representative at Trump’s inauguration, is a trusted adviser to Xi

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Vice President Han Zheng, China’s representative at Donald Trump’s inauguration, is a trusted adviser to President Xi Jinping and a long-time survivor of Chinese politics who rose from toiling on a collective farm and in factories to becoming one of the most powerful people in the country. China’s decision to send Han, rather than its ambassador to Washington as it has in the past, appears to be a carefully calibrated signal that it is willing to improve relations with the U.S. while not leaving Xi exposed to criticism should ties worsen. Many of the most divisive bilateral issues involve trade, with Trump threatening to impose 60% tariffs on imports from China.

China says it brokered a ceasefire between Myanmar army and an ethnic rebel group

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military government and a major ethnic rebel group in the country’s northeast have signed a formal ceasefire agreement, mediator China said Monday. The ceasefire between the military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), which seized large tracts of territory along the border with China, is the second such pact in little over a year and came into effect on Saturday. A previous pact in January last year was not honored by either side. The new ceasefire was brokered by China in mid-January, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing in Beijing. China is the most important foreign ally of Myanmar’s military rulers, who took power after ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

Pakistan’s largest airport becomes operational, part of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s largest airport, funded and built in the country’s restive southwest by Beijin g, has become operational, officials said Monday. Gwadar airport is in the province of Balochistan, which has for decades been the scene of an insurgency by separatists demanding autonomy or outright independence. Pakistani Defense Minister, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, and Chinese officials were among those attending a ceremony at Gwadar airport and watched the arrival of the Pakistan International Airlines inaugural flight from the southern city of Karachi. The ceremony came months after Chinese Premier Li Qiang and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif virtually inaugurated the airport, which has a capacity of handling 400,000 travelers annually.

Indian court sentences a police volunteer to life in prison in the rape, killing of trainee doctor

NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian court on Monday sentenced a police volunteer to life in prison after finding him guilty in the rape and killing of a trainee doctor last year, a crime that sparked nationwide protests over inadequate safety for women and led to a speedy trial in the country’s slow-moving justice system. Sanjay Roy, 33, who has consistently maintained his innocence, can appeal the judgment in a higher court. The killing of the 31-year-old physician while she was on duty at a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata highlighted the chronic issue of violence against women in the country.

Pakistan launches security operation in the northwest after surge in violence and sectarian strife

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces launched an operation targeting militants in a restive northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, officials said on Monday, following a surge in attacks and sectarian strife. It is the first large-scale operation in the area in recent years. The latest attack in Kurram, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was on Friday when unidentified gunmen ambushed and burned aid trucks, killing two security personnel and at least five drivers. The district has been cut off from the rest of the country since November after authorities blocked roads following clashes between heavily armed Shiite and Sunni tribes.