Top Asian News Stories

NEW DELHI (AP) – A fire ripped through a popular nightclub in India’s Goa state, killing 25 people, including tourists, the state’s chief minister said Sunday. The blaze occurred just past midnight in Arpora village in North Goa, a party hub, some 25 kilometers (15-miles) from the state capital, Panaji. Goa’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said most of the dead were the club’s kitchen workers, as well as three to four tourists. Six people were injured and are in stable condition, he said. All the bodies have been recovered. The fire was caused by a gas cylinder blast and has been extinguished, the Press Trust of India news agency reported, quoting local police.

HONG KONG (AP) – Hong Kong voters are casting ballots Sunday in their second legislative election since a 2021 overhaul of the system eliminated the pro-democracy opposition in the Chinese territory. The poll, coming less than two weeks after an apartment fire that killed at least 159 people, is a possible test of public sentiment about the government’s handling of the tragedy. The focus is on voter turnout, which fell to about 30% in the last election in 2021, after the overhaul dampened interest. Some analysts believe mounting public anger over government accountability in the blaze could suppress turnout further. Turnout stood at about 20% of eligible voters at 3:30 p.m.

TOKYO (AP) – Japan and Australia urged calm on Sunday after Chinese military aircraft locked radar on Japanese fighter jets, a month after the Japanese leader’s recent remarks on Taiwan that stirred tensions between Tokyo and Beijing. Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Japan formally protested the incident, calling it “an extremely regrettable” act and “a dangerous” one that “exceeded the scope necessary for safe aircraft operations.” “We have lodged a strong protest with the Chinese side and demanded strict preventive measures,” Koizumi said. Japan’s Defense Ministry said China’s military aircraft J-15 took off from the Chinese carrier Liaoning near the southern island of Okinawa on Saturday and “intermittently” latched its radar on Japanese F-15 fighter jets on two occasions Saturday, for about three minutes in the late afternoon and for about 30 minutes in the evening.

TANGAIL, Bangladesh (AP) – The weavers’ neighborhood near Dhaka echoes with the constant clatter of the looms with rhythmic hand movements as the artisans use colorful silk and cotton threads to weave the iconic Tangail saree. The handloom saree is named after a central Bangladesh district that is home to hundreds of weaver families. The garment is seen as the country’s cultural symbol, showcased during festivals and wedding celebrations across the Indian subcontinent. The centuries-old traditional saree weaving art was nominated for inclusion in UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity this year. Every garment is crafted with a fusion of tradition and craftsmanship, with aesthetic designs and intricate motifs rooted in local culture.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – A zoo on Java island released photos of Indonesia’s first locally-born giant panda cub, and said the male cub was showing signs of being in good health. The mother, 15-year-old Hu Chun, gave birth to Satrio Wiratama – nicknamed Rio – on November 27 at the zoo’s facility in Cisarua, West Java province. The name symbolizes the hope, resilience, and shared commitment of Indonesia and China in protecting endangered species, Taman Safari Indonesia said in a statement Sunday. “This birth is the result of a long-term international cooperation program that has been ongoing for a decade, since the arrival of giant pandas Hu Chun and Cai Tao to Indonesia in 2017 as part of a 10-year conservation partnership with China,” said the statement.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) – An overnight exchange of fire between Afghan forces and Pakistani troops along the two countries’ tense border killed five Afghan civilians and wounded five others, while three civilians were also wounded on the Pakistani side, officials from the two countries said Saturday. Each side has blamed the other for triggering the clash in violation of a tenuous two-month ceasefire. Those killed in the border area near the Afghan city of Spin Boldak, in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, included three children and one woman, said Ali Mohammad Haqmal, the head of information of Spin Boldak District. Pakistani police and a hospital official in the Pakistani city of Chaman, Mohammad Awais, said three people, including a woman, were wounded in the shooting and shelling that came from the Afghan side.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) – Chinese forces fired three flares from an island toward a Philippine plane undertaking a routine patrol Saturday in the disputed South China Sea, but the incident did not cause any problem and the aircraft proceeded with its surveillance mission, the Philippine coast guard said. It was not immediately clear how far the flares that Filipino officials said were fired from the Chinese-occupied Subi Reef were from the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft of the Philippine fisheries bureau. Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the incident, Beijing has claimed virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route, and has vowed to staunchly defend its sovereignty.

TOKYO (AP) – Prominent American playwright and actor, Jeremy O. Harris, known for his Tony-nominated “Slave Play,” was arrested in Japan on suspicion of smuggling the psychedelic drug ecstasy, officials said Saturday. Officers at Naha Airport on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa arrested Harris on Nov. 16 for an alleged violation of customs law for having 0.78 grams (0.0275 ounces ) of the crystalized drug, also known as MDMA, in a container in a tote bag he was carrying, according to Okinawa Regional Customs spokesperson Tatsunori Fukuda. Harris, 36, had left London’s Heathrow Airport two days earlier and transited in Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport before arriving in Naha for sightseeing, Fukuda said.

HONG KONG (AP) – Hong Kong’s national security police arrested a man on Saturday in the first publicly confirmed arrest relating to criticism of authorities over a high-rise apartment blaze that killed at least 159 people. Police said he had been accused of posting “information with seditious intention” on social media. “That mainly included (materials intending to) incite hatred among (others) toward the Hong Kong government and the central government,” Steve Li, chief superintendent of the police National Security Department, told reporters. “For example, he pointed to the Hong Kong and the central governments as instigators of exploiting the tragedy to cause chaos and turmoil,” he said.

HONG KONG (AP) – The deadliest fire in Hong Kong in decades is piling pressure on Beijing’s “patriots-only” governance system, casting a shadow on elections widely seen as a further step to tighten control over the city’s legislature. Sunday’s vote to elect new lawmakers to Hong Kong’s 90-member Legislative Council comes just 11 days after a massive fire engulfed seven towers in a high-rise apartment complex, killing at least 159 people in the financial hub’s worst blaze since 1948. With many voters in the city grown politically apathetic since China’s crackdown shut out the pro-democracy camp in recent years, Sunday’s turnout rate will be a key barometer of public sentiment toward the government and its handling of the fire.