Top Asian News 3:59 a.m. GMT

Former Philippine leader Duterte arrested on an ICC warrant over drug killings

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by police at Manila’s international airport Tuesday on order of the International Criminal Court in connection with a case of crime against humanity filed against him, the Philippine government said. Duterte was arrested after arriving from Hong Kong and police took him into custody on orders of the ICC, which has been investigating the massive killings that happened under the former president’s deadly crackdown against illegal drugs, President Ferdinand Marcos’ office said in a statement. “Upon his arrival, the prosecutor general served the ICC notification for an arrest warrant to the former president for the crime of crime against humanity,” the government statement.

‘Nervous and rushed': Massive Fukushima plant cleanup exposes workers to high radiation and stress

OKUMA, Japan (AP) — The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s radiation levels have significantly dropped since the cataclysmic meltdown 14 years ago Tuesday. Workers walk around in many areas wearing only surgical masks and regular clothes. It’s a different story for those who enter the reactor buildings, including the three damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They must use maximum protection — full facemasks with filters, multi-layered gloves and socks, shoe covers, hooded hazmat coveralls and a waterproof jacket, and a helmet. As workers remove melted fuel debris from the reactors in a monumental nuclear cleanup effort that could take more than a century, they are facing both huge amounts of psychological stress and dangerous levels of radiation.

What to expect after South Korea’s Constitutional Court rules on the impeachment of President Yoon

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Constitutional Court could soon rule on whether to dismiss or reinstate impeached conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol. That doesn’t mean the political crisis caused by Yoon’s short-lived imposition of martial law is over. South Korea’s already-severe political divide between conservatives and liberals will likely intensify as Seoul grapples with major foreign policy challenges like U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy platform and North Korea’s increasing military cooperation with Russia. Here’s what to expect about the court’s likely impending verdict on Yoon’s Dec. 3 martial law decree that is testing South Korea’s democracy.

North Korea fires several ballistic missiles after the US and South Korea began military drills

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired several ballistic missiles into the sea Monday, South Korea’s military said, hours after South Korean and U.S. troops kicked off their large annual combined drills, which the North views as an invasion rehearsal. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile firings, North Korea’s fifth missile launch event this year, were detected from the North’s southwestern Hwanghae province. It called the weapons close-range but didn’t say how far they flew. The military said South Korea bolstered its surveillance posture and is closely coordinating with the United States. Earlier Monday, the South Korean and U.S.

Tokyo was filled with charred corpses after US firebombing 80 years ago. Survivors want compensation

TOKYO (AP) — More than 100,000 people were killed in a single night 80 years ago Monday in the U.S. firebombing of Tokyo, the Japanese capital. The attack, made with conventional bombs, destroyed downtown Tokyo and filled the streets with heaps of charred bodies. The damage was comparable to the atomic bombings a few months later in August 1945, but unlike those attacks, the Japanese government has not provided aid to victims and the events of that day have largely been ignored or forgotten. Elderly survivors are making a last-ditch effort to tell their stories and push for financial assistance and recognition.

China’s annual political meetings feature minority delegates in tribal finery with a message

BEIJING (AP) — Every year in early March, China’s rubber-stamp legislature and its advisory body gather to hear speeches and hold discussions in the capital, Beijing. In contrast to the long and monotonous sessions, a bustling scene unfolds outside the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing, where ethnic minority delegations from far-flung provinces pose for photographs donning their finest traditional costumes. Jangly silver headdresses and elaborate embroidery work, felt hats and long, layered skirts in a kaleidoscope of colors draw attention in stark contrast to the drab business suits, routinely dark grey with conservative ties or bows.

Floodwaters still threaten parts of Australia’s east coast as tropical storm cleanup begins

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australia’s prime minister cautioned that the fallout from a vicious tropical storm over the weekend was “far from over” as parts of two states remained inundated with perilous floodwaters on Monday, even as the initial threat from the deluge continued to recede. One person was killed and several others injured after heavy rain lashed Australia’s east coast on Saturday, toppling trees and power lines and inundating some parts of Queensland and New South Wales with record downpours. The two states escaped the level of chaos forecast from the tropical low weather system, which was earlier expected to make landfall as the first tropical cyclone to hit south east Queensland in 51 years — before weakening as it approached.

Tibetans scuffle with police outside the Chinese Embassy in India as they mark uprising anniversary

NEW DELHI (AP) — Dozens of Tibetan protesters clashed with police outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday as Tibetans living in exile marked the 66th anniversary of their uprising against China that was crushed by Chinese forces. As in past years, police blocked the protesters from entering the embassy and briefly detained some of them after wrestling them to the ground. Hundreds also marched in the north Indian town of Dharamshala, the seat of the exiled Tibetan government and home of Dalai Lama, their 89-year-old spiritual leader. Separately, about a hundred Tibetan women gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, an area designated for protests close to Parliament.

A cache of explosives in Sydney provoked antisemitic terrorism fears. Police now say it was faked

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An explosives-filled trailer that Australian politicians earlier described as an antisemitic terrorism plot and a foiled mass casualty event was staged by criminals in a complicated hoax -- and was never meant to be detonated, police said Monday. Law enforcement agencies investigating January’s discovery of the trailer on the outskirts of Sydney divulged in a news conference that its placement was concocted by criminals who meant to derive personal gain from tipping off authorities to its presence — a bizarre twist in a saga that followed a monthslong wave of antisemitic crimes in Australia. The cluster of attacks targeting places where Jewish people live, work and study, including a firebombing of a synagogue and a daycare center and several instances of antisemitic vandalism, were committed by “a very small group, and potentially one individual behind all those matters,” Deputy Police Commissioner for the state of New South Wales David Hudson told reporters on Monday.

Thousands in Nepal want monarchy back as public frustration with politics grows

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Thousands of supporters greeted Nepal’s former king in capital Kathmandu on Sunday and demanded his abolished monarchy be reinstated and Hinduism brought back as a state religion. An estimated 10,000 supporters of Gyanendra Shah blocked the main entrance to Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport as he arrived from a tour of western Nepal. “Vacate the royal palace for the king. Come back king, save the country. Long live our beloved king. We want monarchy,” the crowds chanted. Passengers were forced to walk to and from the airport. Hundreds of riot police blocked the protesters from entering the airport and there was no violence.