Top Asian News 3:52 a.m. GMT
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest as a health measure due to a heat wave, the military government said. Suu Kyi, 78, and Win Myint, the 72-year-old former president of her ousted government, were among the elderly and infirm prisoners moved from out of prison because of the severe heat, the military’s spokesperson, Maj. Gen. General Zaw Min Tun, told foreign media representatives late Tuesday. The move has not yet been publicly announced in Myanmar. Suu Kyi has been serving a 27-year prison term in the capital Naypyitaw on a variety of criminal convictions her supporters and rights groups say were fabricated for political reasons.
SYDNEY (AP) — A teenager has been accused of wounding a Christian bishop and a priest during a church service in the second high-profile knife attack to rock Sydney in recent days, leaving communities on edge, leaders calling for calm and a besieged church urging against retaliation. The 16-year-old was overpowered by the shocked congregation at Christ the Good Shepherd Church after he allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and the Rev. Isaac Royel during a service on Monday night that was being streamed online. Police have not commented on reports that the boy’s fingers were severed by parishioners in the Orthodox Assyrian church in suburban Wakeley, but confirmed his hand injuries were “severe.” Video of the attack spread quickly on social media and an angry mob converged on the church demanding vengeance.
BEIJING (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday to pressure Russia to end its “insane campaign” in Ukraine, the latest in a parade of European leaders and senior officials to make such an appeal. The Chinese side gave no sign of any change in its position, which has been to blame Europe and the U.S. for prolonging the fighting by supplying Ukraine with weapons and calling for peace negotiations that recognize Russian as well as Ukrainian concerns. “China is not a party to the Ukraine crisis but has consistently promoted talks for peace in its own way,” read a Chinese statement following talks between Xi and Scholz in the Chinese capital.
HONIARA, Solomon Islands (AP) — Voting began across the Solomon Islands on Wednesday in the South Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiances from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomons’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy will be weighing on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters will have their say across 50 national seats on Wednesday. For the first time, the national vote also coincides with elections for eight of the 10 local governments.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Raj Sud, 94, has voted in almost every election held in independent India, bearing witness to the eventful journey of a diverse, and now the world’s most populous, democracy over the last 76 years. Nearly 970 million people are eligible to vote in India’s 6-week national election starting Friday, and the elderly homemaker has a clear favorite in the race. Most polls have predicted a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for a third straight five-year term. “I like Modi very much. Modi is working honestly. And he is doing very good work and wants to make the whole country absolutely beautiful,” said Sud.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Tuesday police seized the largest haul of methamphetamine in the country in years without anybody being killed, in a subtle criticism of his predecessor’s notoriously deadly crackdown on illegal drugs. Police seized nearly 1,630 kilograms (1.8 tons) of methamphetamine Monday from a van and arrested its driver at a checkpoint in Alitagtag town in Batangas province south of Manila. Intelligence operations were underway to arrest other suspects, officials said without elaborating. Locally known as shabu, the powerful stimulant had a street value of more than 13 billion pesos ($228 million), officials said.
SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will stay on in the government as senior minister after he steps down next month, his successor said Tuesday. Lee, 72, announced Monday that he will end his 20-year rule and hand over to his deputy Lawrence Wong on May 15. Lee is the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister who built the resource-poor city-state into one of the world’s richest nations during 31 years in office. Wong will be Singapore’s fourth leader since independence in 1965. The transition has been carefully crafted in the wealthy city-state known for its tight government control, media censorship and use of oppressive laws against dissidents.
TOKYO (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Japan urged Tokyo on Tuesday to take a greater role in developing, producing and supplying weapons “to enhance our collective security” amid conflict in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere. The United States alone can no longer supply all democracies, Ambassador Rahm Emanuel said during a visit to a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ F-35 fighter jet factory. He stressed the importance of stronger defense industry cooperation between the allies. The visit came after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s trip to Washington, where he met with President Joe Biden and highlighted Japan’s commitment to do more as a reliable partner, especially in defense cooperation.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea is putting surveillance cameras in schools and workplaces and collecting fingerprints, photographs and other biometric information from its citizens in a technology-driven push to monitor its population even more closely, a report said Tuesday. The state’s growing use of digital surveillance tools, which combine equipment imported from China with domestically developed software, threatens to erase many of the small spaces North Koreans have left to engage in private business activities, access foreign media and secretly criticize their government, the researchers wrote. But the isolated country’s digital ambitions have to contend with poor electricity supplies and low network connectivity.
SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s prime minister said Tuesday a French construction worker who confronted a man who stabbed six people to death in a Sydney shopping mall is welcome to stay in the country as long as he likes. Damien Guerot was nicknamed “Bollard Man” on social media after security camera footage showed him standing at the top of an escalator on Saturday and menacing Joel Cauchi with a plastic bollard — or barrier post — as he approached. 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.