Top Asian News 3:46 a.m. GMT
NEW DELHI (AP) — Millions of Indians began voting Friday in a six-week election that’s a referendum on Narendra Modi, the populist prime minister who has championed an assertive brand of Hindu nationalist politics and is seeking a rare third term as the country’s leader. The voters began queuing up at polling stations hours before they were allowed in at 7 a.m. in the first 21 states to hold votes, from the Himalayan mountains to the tropical Andaman Islands. Nearly 970 million voters — more than 10% of the world’s population — will elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament for five years during the staggered elections that run until June 1.
AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — Hindu nationalism, once a fringe ideology in India, is now mainstream. Nobody has done more to advance this cause than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one of India’s most beloved and polarizing political leaders. And no entity has had more influence on his political philosophy and ambitions than a paramilitary, right-wing group founded nearly a century ago and known as the RSS. “We never imagined that we would get power in such a way,” said Ambalal Koshti, 76, who says he first brought Modi into the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the late 1960s in their home state, Gujarat.
SYDNEY (AP) — A 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics during a Sydney church service has been charged by police with terrorism offenses. Authorities said the stabbing was declared a terrorist act because of the teenager’s suspected religious motivation and that the boy traveled up to 90 minutes from his home to the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Sydney’s western suburbs. The teen spoke in Arabic about the Prophet Muhammad being insulted after he stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and the Rev. Isaac Royel during Monday night’s Assyrian Orthodox service. He was later overpowered by parishioners, sustaining severe hand injuries.
MANADO, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities closed an airport and residents left homes near an erupting volcano Thursday due to the dangers of spreading ash, falling rocks, hot volcanic clouds and the possibility of a tsunami. Mount Ruang on the northern side of Sulawesi Island had at least five large eruptions Wednesday, causing the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation to issue its highest-level alert, indicating an active eruption. The crater emitted white-gray smoke continuously during the day Thursday, reaching more than 500 meters (1,600 feet) above the peak. People have been ordered to stay at least 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the 725-meter (2,378 foot) mountain.
BANGKOK (AP) — A prominent Christian church leader and human rights advocate from Myanmar’s Kachin ethnic minority was detained by the authorities just hours after he was released from prison under an amnesty by the military government, a relative, a colleague and local media said Thursday. The Rev. Hkalam Samson, former head of the Kachin Baptist Convention and chairman of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, was among the 3,300 prisoners released nationwide on Wednesday to mark the traditional Thingyan New Year holiday. The assembly is an umbrella organization uniting religious and civil society groups with political organizations promoting Kachin rights, including autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.
BEIJING (AP) — Europe wants two things from China: First, a shift in its relatively pro-Russia position on the war in Ukraine. Second, a reduction in the trade imbalance — Chinese goods exports to the EU exceeded its imports from the 27-nation bloc by 291 billion euros ($310 billion) last year. It’s not clear if it will get very far on either front. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz became the latest European leader to leave China with promises to talk but little more. The Chinese statements on his meetings in Beijing this week didn’t appear to give ground on the issues that divide the EU and China.
SYDNEY (AP) — A 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics during a Sydney church service might have “anger management and behavioral issues” and a “short fuse” but had shown no signs of being radicalized, a community leader said Thursday, after authorities declared the stabbing a terrorist attack. The teen spoke in Arabic about the Prophet Muhammad being insulted after he stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and the Rev. Isaac Royel during Monday night’s Assyrian Orthodox service, which was being streamed online. The bishop released an audio statement on Thursday saying that he was “doing fine, recovering very quickly” and that he forgave his attacker.
MALE, Maldives (AP) — A court in the Maldives on Thursday threw out former President Abdulla Yameen’s 11-year prison sentence on money laundering and bribery charges and ordered a retrial. The development comes two days ahead of parliamentary elections in this Indian Ocean archipelago nation, known as an exclusive tourist destination. The ruling, which was broadcast on the court’s YouTube channel, is seen as a potential boost to President Mohamed Muizzu’s party, which is seeking to secure a majority in the 87-member Parliament. Yameen and Muizzu have long been political allies. The High Court ruled on Yameen’s appeal and said in its decision that his 2022 trial before the Criminal Court was unfair and released him.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Pakistan as scheduled next week despite increasing tension in the Middle East in the wake of Tehran’s aerial attack on Israel, Pakistan’s foreign minister said Thursday. Ishaq Dar said Raisi will arrive in the capital, Islamabad, on April 22 on an official three-day visit. Dar provided no further details, but the visit seems to be part of efforts by the two sides to mend ties which had briefly been strained in January, when Tehran and Islamabad carried out tit-for-tat strikes targeting militants accused of attacking each other’s security forces. But the two sides soon agreed to work together to improve security cooperation.
SYDNEY (AP) — French construction worker Damien Guerot was made an Australian permanent resident on Thursday as a reward for his heroism during a knife attack in a Sydney shopping mall that left six victims dead and a dozen wounded. Guerot was nicknamed “Bollard Man” on social media after security camera footage showed the 31-year-old standing at the top of an escalator at the Westfield Bondi Junction mall on Saturday and warding off knife-wielding Joel Cauchi with a plastic barrier post. Cauchi fled down the escalator and people on Guerot’s floor were safe. Guerot’s temporary Australian work visa was due to expire in July until Prime Minister Anthony Albanese intervened with an invitation to settle in Australia.