Top Asian News 3:38 a.m. GMT

WikiLeaks’ Assange pleads guilty to publishing US military secrets in deal that secures his freedom

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets Wednesday in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that secures his liberty and concludes a drawn-out legal saga that raised divisive questions about press freedom and national security. The criminal case of international intrigue, which had played out for years in major world stages of Washington and London, came to a surprise end in a most unusual setting with Assange, 52, entering his plea in a U.S. district court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. The American commonwealth in the Pacific is relatively close to Assange’s native Australia and accommodated his desire to avoid entering the continental United States.

Who is Julian Assange, the polarizing founder of the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks?

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — He emerged on the information security scene in the 1990s as a “famous teenage hacker” following what he called an “ itinerant minstrel childhood” beginning in Townsville, Australia. But the story of Julian Assange, eccentric founder of secret-spilling website WikiLeaks, never became less strange — or less polarizing — after he jolted the United States and its allies by revealing secrets of how America conducted its wars. Since Assange drew global attention in 2010 for his work with prominent news outlets to publish war logs and diplomatic cables that detailed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other matters, he has provoked fervor among his admirers and loathing from his detractors with little in-between — seen either as a persecuted hero for open and transparent government, or a villain who put American lives at risk by aiding its enemies, and prompting fraught debates about state secrecy and freedom of the press.

A timeline of the legal case involving WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

The drawn-out legal case involving WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has concluded with his guilty plea to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets. In a deal with the U.S. Justice Department, Assange was sentenced Wednesday to the five years he’d already served in a British prison while fighting extradition. It allows him to walk free and resolves the case that centered on the publication of a trove of classified documents. — 2006: Assange founded WikiLeaks in Australia. The group begins publishing sensitive or classified documents. — 2010: In a series of posts, WikiLeaks releases almost half a million documents relating to the U.S.

North Korea’s latest missile test likely ended in failure, South Korea’s military says

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A North Korean ballistic missile test Wednesday likely ended in failure, South Korea’s military said, days after the North protested the recent regional deployment of a U.S. aircraft carrier for a trilateral military drill with South Korea and Japan. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that North Korea launched a ballistic missile from its capital region around 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday. It said the missile was launched toward the North’s eastern waters, but the launch was suspected to have ended in failure. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korean and U.S.

Britain’s King Charles III welcomes the visiting Japanese emperor and empress

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III welcomed the Japanese emperor and empress for a state visit that began on Tuesday, offering the best in pomp and circumstance as the U.K. seeks to bolster its role as the most influential European nation in the Indo-Pacific region. Emperor Naruhito and Empress of Masako are to attend a banquet hosted by the king, lay a wreath at Westminster Abbey and tour one of Britain’s premier biomedical research institutes. But the emperor began this week’s trip by visiting a site that has special meaning: The Thames Barrier. The retractable flood control gates on the River Thames seemed a natural destination for a royal long interested in the waterway that runs through the heart of London.

Doctors treat thousands of heatstroke victims in southern Pakistan as temperatures soar

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A days-long intense heat wave has disrupted normal life in Pakistan, especially in its largest city, Karachi, where doctors treated thousands of victims of heatstroke at various hospitals, health officials said Tuesday. Several people fell unconscious in the city and some of them later died, local media said. Temperatures soared as high as 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) in Sindh province on Tuesday. Authorities in Karachi, the provincial capital, are urging people to stay indoors, hydrate, and avoid unnecessary travel. Weather forecasters say the heat wave, which began in May, will subside next week. According to local media, the days-long heat wave also killed more than two dozen people in Karachi, but no government spokesman was available to confirm the number of heatstroke-related deaths.

A Chinese lunar probe returns to Earth with the world’s first samples from the far side of the moon

BANGKOK (AP) — China’s Chang’e 6 probe returned on Earth with rock and soil samples from the little-explored far side of the moon in a global first. The probe landed in the Inner Mongolian region in northern China on Tuesday afternoon. “I now declare that the Chang’e 6 Lunar Exploration Mission achieved complete success,” Zhang Kejian, Director of the China National Space Administration, said in a televised news conference after the landing. Chinese scientists anticipate the returned samples will include 2.5 million-year-old volcanic rock and other material that scientists hope will answer questions about geographic differences on the moon’s two sides.

Nepalese spiritual leader ‘Buddha Boy’ convicted of sexual assault on minor

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A court in southern Nepal convicted a controversial spiritual leader known as “Buddha Boy” on charges of sexually assaulting a minor. Ram Bahadur Bamjan, who’s believed by some to be the reincarnation of the founder of Buddhism, was arrested by police in January on charges of sexual assault and suspicion of involvement in the disappearance of at least four of followers from his camps. A judge at the Sarlahi District Court on Monday found him guilty of sexually assaulting an underage girl, and said sentencing will be on July 1. The charges related to the disappearances of his followers are still pending trial.

UN World Food Program decries looting and burning of its warehouse in western Myanmar combat zone

BANGKOK (AP) — The United Nations’ food agency on Tuesday strongly condemned the looting of food supplies and burning of one of its warehouses over the weekend in a war-torn area in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine. A statement released by the World Food Program said the destroyed building in Rakhine’s Maungdaw township held 1,175 metric tons (1,295 U.S. tons) of food and supplies — enough to sustain 64,000 people for a month in case of an emergency. The incident, which happened on Sunday, makes even more desperate a humanitarian crisis caused by bitter fighting between Myanmar’s military government and guerrillas of the Arakan Army belonging the Rakhine ethnic minority, which seeks autonomy from the central government.

Hong Kong court edges closer to sentencing democracy activists involved in unofficial primary

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court on Tuesday began mitigation hearings for prominent pro-democracy activists who were convicted under a national security law and now face up to life in prison. The activists were among 47 democracy advocates who were charged with conspiracy to commit subversion in 2021 for their involvement in an unofficial primary, in the biggest case brought under the Beijing-imposed national security law. They were accused of attempting to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and topple the city’s leader by securing a legislative majority and using it to block city budgets. Forty-five of the defendants either pled guilty or were convicted by a three-judge panel whose membership was approved by the government.