Top Asian News 3:46 a.m. GMT

Taiwan says China told Taiwan’s coast guard to not interfere in the detention of Taiwanese boat crew

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan said Wednesday that China ordered Taiwan’s coast guard against interfering in the detention of a Taiwanese fishing boat in what is seen as an increasing Chinese attempt to encroach on Taiwanese territory. Taiwan’s coast guard also repeated its call for the release of the boat and its crew members who were taken from waters off the Taiwanese-controlled island of Kinmen just off the Chinese coast on Tuesday night. That call is complicated by China’s refusal to communicate with Taiwan’s government. Spokesman for Taiwan’s coast guard Hsieh Ching-chin said the boat was not in Chinese waters when it was boarded by Chinese agents and steered to a port in the Chinese province of Fujian.

Stampede at religious event in India kills at least 116 people, mostly women and children

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Thousands of people at a religious gathering in India rushed to leave a makeshift tent, setting off a stampede Tuesday that killed at least 116 people and injured scores, officials said. It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic following an event with a Hindu guru known locally as Bhole Baba. Local news reports cited authorities who said heat and suffocation in the tent could have been a factor. Video of the aftermath showed the structure appeared to have collapsed. At least 116 people died, most of them women and children, said Prashant Kumar, the director-general of police in northern India’s state of Uttar Pradesh, where the stampede occurred.

A look at stampedes and crowd disasters in India over the years

More than 100 people were killed in a stampede Tuesday in northern India following a Hindu religious gathering, making it one of the deadliest such accidents in recent years. Thousands had gathered at a makeshift tent for a religious event led by a Hindu preacher in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh state. The victims were crushed to death as they rushed to leave. Video of the aftermath showed the structure appeared to have collapsed, and authorities said heat, overcrowding and suffocation may have been factors. Here’s a look at other major stampedes in India over the past two decades: A crowd surge at a popular Hindu shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 12 people and injured 15 on New Year’s Day 2022.

Italian landowner is arrested after an Indian worker bled to death in accident with farm equipment

ROME (AP) — Italian police arrested a farm owner on Tuesday on suspicion of homicide after one of his workers, an undocumented laborer from India, bled to death when his arm was cut off by a piece of farm equipment. The landowner abandoned the bleeding worker and failed to call an ambulance, prosecutors said. The death of Satnam Singh has shocked Italians and sparked protests by unions and farm workers demanding better working conditions. They have called for an end to the exploitive “caporalato” system of using underpaid migrant labor to work in Italy’s agriculture industry. Even President Sergio Mattarella has weighed in on the case, referring to what he said was the “cruel” exploitation of workers like Singh and “inhuman” conditions in which seasonal farmhands often work in Italy.

AP PHOTOS: Finding echoes of the Mongol empire as a country looks ahead

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — A towering statue of Genghis Khan dominates the landscape of rolling plains and endless skies outside Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar. The leader of the Mongols founded an empire in the early 13th century that expanded under his descendants into parts of Europe and the Middle East while subduing neighboring China and ruling it for nearly a century. Modern-day Mongolia, still large though sparsely populated, is landlocked and surrounded by two giants: Russia to the north and China to the south. The country transitioned to democracy in the early 1990s — holding its most recent election last week — after more than six decades as a single-party communist state with close ties to the Soviet Union.

China and the Philippines hold crucial talks to ease tensions after intense clash in disputed waters

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — China and the Philippines held a crucial meeting Tuesday to try to ease mounting tensions following their worst confrontation in the disputed South China Sea that sparked fears of a wider conflict that could involve the United States. There was no mention of any major agreement, however, after the daylong meeting in Manila that could prevent a repeat of the June 17 clash at Second Thomas Shoal which caused injuries to Filipino navy personnel and damaged two military boats. The shoal off the northwestern Philippines has emerged as the most dangerous flashpoint in the disputed waters, which China claims virtually in its entirety.

North Korea brags of new missile with ‘super-large warhead.’ Outsiders doubt the North’s claim

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Tuesday it had test-fired a new tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying “a super-large warhead,” a claim quickly disputed by South Korean officials and experts who speculate the North likely fabricated a successful test to conceal a botched launch. It’s the second time that South Korea has questioned North Korea’s claim on the development of new weapons in recent days, as the rivals are locked in heightened animosities over the North’s testing activities. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that Monday’s test involved the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5 missile, which can carry a 4.5 ton-class warhead.

Ten Cambodian environmental activists receive prison sentences of 6-8 years each

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Ten members of a Cambodian environmental activist group that campaigned against destructive infrastructure projects and alleged corruption were each sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison on charges of conspiring against the state. Three of the members of the group Mother Nature Cambodia were also convicted of insulting Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, for which they were sentenced to an additional two years in prison, giving them a total of eight years behind bars. Only five of the defendants attended the trial and the others were convicted in absentia. They included four Cambodians whose whereabouts are unknown and Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, a Spanish national who co-founded the group and was deported in 2015 and barred from ever returning to Cambodia.

Chinese firms eye Morocco as way to cash in on US electric vehicle subsidies

TANGIERS, Morocco (AP) — After the United States passed new subsidies designed to boost domestic electric vehicle production and cut into Beijing’s supply chain dominance, Chinese manufacturers began investing in an unlikely place: Morocco. In the rolling hills near Tangiers and in industrial parks near the Atlantic Ocean, they have announced plans for new factories to make parts for EVs that may qualify for $7,500 credits to car buyers in the United States. Similar investments have been announced in other countries that share free trade agreements with the United States, including South Korea and Mexico. But few countries have seen the kind of boom that Morocco has.

Australian police arrest 14-year-old boy suspected of stabbing a student at the University of Sydney

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A 14-year-old boy dressed in military clothing was arrested after police alleged he stabbed a 22-year-old student in the neck Tuesday at the University of Sydney. The student was taken to hospital in a stable condition. The suspect was treated in hospital for cuts and was kept for a mental health assessment, said Mark Walton, acting assistant commissioner for the New South Wales Police. “A motive or ideology importantly has not been determined at this time,” Walton told reporters. The New South Wales Joint Counterterrorism Committee was investigating the matter, but there was no ongoing threat to the community, Walton said.