Top Asian News 4:58 a.m. GMT

Construction site catches fire in South Korea, leaving at least 6 dead

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A fire broke out at a resort construction site in the South Korean city of Busan Friday, killing at least six people, fire officials said. About 100 workers managed to evacuate from the site and about 90 firefighters were trying to put out the blaze, which was reported at around 10:20 a.m., according to Busan’s fire agency. It wasn’t immediately clear whether workers were still trapped inside. The agency said six people were taken to hospitals in cardiac arrest and later pronounced dead. Seven other people sustained minor injuries. Television footage showed gray-black smoke and flames rising from the site and a helicopter approaching the building as part of rescue efforts.

A crackdown on substandard homes leaves low-income Hong Kongers wondering where to go

HONG KONG (AP) — Jimmy Au’s world shrinks to about the size of a parking space whenever she gets home. Her cramped Hong Kong home is one of four units carved out of what was once a single apartment. Most of the space is occupied by the bunk bed she shares with her husband and son, and their sleep is often disrupted by neighbors returning late or heading out early. Au’s son often gets bruises bumping into things. Privacy is limited, with only a curtain separating the bathroom from the kitchen. But what troubles Au most about her home is that she might lose it.

Why some Hong Kongers live in homes smaller than a parking space, by the numbers

HONG KONG (AP) — Tens of thousands of people in densely populated, land-poor Hong Kong live in tiny dwellings made by dividing up apartments, most smaller than a parking space. It’s an affordable option for students and low-income families but can also mean banging shins in cramped and in some cases substandard living spaces. The city’s government has proposed new rules that would set minimum standards for such housing units, but residents and advocates for the poor worry that it could drive up rents and make it even harder to hang on in the city. The city’s eventual goal, mandated by Beijing, is to eliminate subdivided apartments over the next 25 years.

Trump calls India’s Modi a ‘great friend’ but warns of higher U.S. tariffs on Indian goods

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump greeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House with a bear hug on Thursday and called him “a great friend of mine,” but nonetheless warned that India won’t be spared from higher tariffs he’s begun imposing on U.S. trade partners around the world. Trump, who had previously derided India as the “tariff king,” called the import levies imposed by Modi’s country “very unfair and strong.” “Whatever India charges, we charge them,” Trump said at a joint news conference where he stood next to Modi. “So, frankly, it no longer matters to us that much what they charge.” As he has while recently hosting other foreign leaders, Trump talked about ensuring that the U.S.

AP PHOTOS: Older women in Nepal are learning how to read and write

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Sushila Gautam, 77, checks her smartwatch, a gift from her son living in the United States, to see if she should leave for her reading and writing lessons. “At home, I get bored when my son and daughter-in-law go to work and grandchildren are at school. I want something to do,” she says with a smile. When Sushila was young, girls in her village weren’t sent to school. For about a year now, she has been going for free lessons near her home on the outskirts of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, at the Ujyalo Community Learning Center. The center was set up three years ago by the local council to provide basic education to women like her.

How South Korea’s Constitutional Court is deciding on the president’s future

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is putting up a desperate fight for his political life at Seoul’s Constitutional Court after being impeached and arrested for his short-lived imposition of martial law last year. After weeks of hearings, the court is nearing a decision on whether to formally remove him from office. Yoon’s legal saga, which also includes a separate criminal indictment on rebellion charges, has become a stress test for the country’s democracy, which has been challenged by deepening political polarization and distrust. Yoon’s conservative supporters rioted at a Seoul court that authorized his arrest; his lawyers and ruling party have openly questioned the credibility of courts and law enforcement institutions; and Yoon has continued to express contempt for his liberal rivals, endorsing baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud to justify his ill-fated authoritarian push.

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated

BANGKOK (AP) — Some 260 people believed to have been trafficked and trapped into working in online scam centers are to be repatriated after they were rescued from Myanmar, Thailand’s army announced Thursday. In a fresh crackdown on scam centers operating from Southeast Asia, the Thai army said it was coordinating an effort to repatriate some 260 people believed to have been victims of human trafficking after they were rescued and sent from Myanmar to Thailand. Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which share borders with Thailand, have become known as havens for criminal syndicates who are estimated to have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere into helping run online scams including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.

Tennessee man sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife during their Fiji honeymoon

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A man from Memphis, Tennessee, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife during their honeymoon in Fiji in 2022, a court official said on Friday. Bradley Robert Dawson, 40, will have to serve at least 18 years in prison before he can be considered for release, a Fiji High Court registry official in Lautoka said. Dawson was convicted in December of murdering his wife, Christe Chen, who was then 36, at the exclusive Turtle Island resort in the Yasawa archipelago two days after the newlyweds arrived in the South Pacific nation. He then fled by kayak to a nearby island.

Gas explosion at Taiwan food court kills 4 and injures 26

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A gas explosion at a department store in Taiwan on Thursday killed four people and injured 26, fire authorities said. The blast occurred at the food court on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store in Taichung city, the Taichung Fire Bureau said. The higher floors of the upscale department store were blown out, raining debris on pedestrians below. Among the dead were two people visiting from Macau, Macao’s Tourism Office confirmed Thursday. Local media reported that they were part of a family of seven who were there for tourism. The other five were also injured are now being treated at local hospitals in Taichung.

Top diplomats of Britain and China hold talks as part of efforts to rebuild ties

LONDON (AP) — The foreign ministers of Britain and China held talks in London on Thursday, reviving a formal dialogue between the two countries after almost seven years. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said “robust and constructive” discussions with Foreign Minister Wang Yi would include economic relations and issues where the U.K. and China “do not always see eye to eye.” The meeting came as the U.K.’s center-left Labour Party government cautiously tries to reset ties with Beijing. Relations turned frosty in recent years over spying allegations, human rights concerns, China’s support for Russia in the Ukraine war and a crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former British colony.