Top Asian News 3:21 a.m. GMT
South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung says he’ll bolster US-Japan ties and pursue talks with North
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s new President Lee Jae-myung said Wednesday he’ll pursue dialogue with North Korea while bolstering a trilateral partnership with the U.S. and Japan. He said in his inaugural address a day after his election that his government will deal with potential North Korean aggressions with “a strong deterrence” based on the solid South Korea-U.S. military alliance. But he would also leave the door open for dialogue with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. He said he’ll pursue pragmatic diplomacy and boost a trilateral Seoul-Washington-Tokyo cooperation based on the South Korea-U.S. alliance. Lee, who rose from childhood poverty to become South Korea’s leading liberal politician vowing to fight inequality and corruption, won a snap election Tuesday that was triggered by the removal of former President Yoon Suk Yeol over his ill-fated imposition of martial law late last year.
US says it broke up effort to bring toxic fungus to Michigan lab from China
DETROIT (AP) — A Chinese scientist entered the U.S. last year with a toxic fungus stashed in his backpack, federal authorities said Tuesday as they filed charges against him and a girlfriend who worked in a lab at the University of Michigan. The pathogen is known as Fusarium graminearum, which can attack wheat, barley, maize and rice and sicken livestock and people, the FBI said in a court filing in Detroit. The FBI said a scientific journal describes it as a “potential agroterrorism weapon.” Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged with conspiracy, smuggling, making false statements and visa fraud.
Over 1,800 people arrested in crack down on Asia-based scam operations
HONG KONG (AP) — More than 1,800 people have been arrested in a joint operation across Asia targeting scam networks, police in Hong Kong said on Tuesday. The crack down involving authorities in six other jurisdictions successfully intercepted fraudulent funds involving about $20 million, Wong Chun-yue, chief superintendent of the city’s police’s commercial crime bureau, said. The scam networks were closed down during the operation jointly conducted by South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and neighboring Chinese gambling hub Macao, he said. The operation, which also involved authorities from Malaysia and the Maldives, targeted cases of online shopping and telephone scams, as well as investment and employment frauds.
Over 100 inmates escape and 1 is killed as a quake prompts the evacuation of a Pakistan prison
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — More than 100 inmates escaped from a prison and at least one was killed in a shootout in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi overnight after they were temporarily moved out of their cells following mild earthquake tremors, officials said Tuesday. Kashif Abbasi, a senior police official, said 216 inmates fled the prison in the capital of Sindh province before dawn. Of those, 78 had been recaptured. No one convicted or facing trial as a militant is among those who fled, he said. One prisoner was killed and three security officials were wounded in the ensuing shootout, but the situation has been brought under control, Abbasi said, adding that police are conducting raids to capture the remaining escapees.
AP PHOTOS: Cricket’s Indian Premier League crowns Royal Challengers Bengaluru as champions
The 10-week, 73-game Indian Premier League has come to an end. The world’s biggest Twenty20 cricket franchise tournament saw Royal Challengers Bengaluru clinch its first title with a six-wicket win over the Punjab Kings on Tuesday. The sold-out final was at Narendra Modi Stadium, the world’s largest cricket venue with a capacity of 132,000. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors. ___ AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
Resource-rich Mongolia faces political uncertainty after the prime minister resigns
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Resource-rich Mongolia is facing political uncertainty following the resignation early on Tuesday of its prime minister in the wake of protests over endemic corruption in the landlocked Asian country, squeezed between China and Russia. Before he lost the confidence vote in the parliament, Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai warned that his removal could undermine Mongolia’s fledgling democracy. The vote followed weeks of protests sparked by reports of lavish spending by his son and calls for him to step down. The reports, which cited expensive jewelry and helicopter rides for the son’s female companion, underscored the vast gap between Mongolians who have grown extremely wealthy off the country’s exports and much of the rest of the population, mired in poverty.
Woman who denies mushroom murders of her in-laws accepts that she served them death caps for lunch
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An Australian woman accused of murdering three of her estranged husband’s relatives with poisonous mushrooms told a court on Tuesday she accepted that the fatal lunch she served contained death caps. But Erin Patterson said the “vast majority” of the fungi came from local stores. She denies three counts of murder and one of attempted murder over the beef Wellington meal she served to her parents-in-law and her estranged husband’s aunt and uncle at her home in July 2023. Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson were hospitalized and died after the lunch in the rural town of Leongatha in the Australian state of Victoria.
2 Japanese men were killed in northern China in a business dispute, police say
BEIJING (AP) — Two Japanese men were killed last month in the Chinese port city of Dalian because of a dispute with a Chinese business partner, police said Tuesday. The partner, a 42-year-old man surnamed Yuan, was arrested May 24, one day after the killings were reported to Dalian police. Yuan is a long-time resident of Japan and did business with the victims in that country and the Japanese men were visiting China, a Chinese police statement said. The police statement did not say what the dispute was about or how the victims were killed. Two stabbing attacks on Japanese schoolchildren last year have raised concern among Japanese about traveling to and living in China.
Swedish inquiry finds abuse and fraud in international adoptions dating back decades
STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish commission recommended Monday that international adoptions be stopped after an investigation found a series of abuses and fraud dating back decades. Sweden is the latest country to examine its international adoption policies after allegations of unethical practices, particularly in South Korea. The commission was formed in 2021 following a report by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter detailing Sweden’s problematic international adoption system. Monday’s recommendations were sent to Minister of Social Services Camilla Waltersson Grönvall, who said her department would review the report. “The assignment was to investigate whether there had been irregularities that the Swedish actors knew about, could have done and actually did,” Anna Singer, a legal expert and the head of the commission, told a news conference.