Top Asian News 10:26 a.m. GMT

Suu Kyi's party expected to win second term in Myanmar polls

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s citizens go to the polls Sunday in an effort to sustain the fledgling democracy they helped install just five years ago. There are about 37 million registered voters, though turnout is expected to suffer because of a recent surge in coronavirus cases. In 2015, excitement was high over the opportunity to end more than five decades of army-directed rule. The National League of Democracy party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi roared to a landslide election victory, and she became her country’s leader after many hard years at the forefront of a non-violent struggle against military dictatorships that won international admiration.

Asia Today: Court upholds state border closings in Australia

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s highest court on Friday upheld the closure of a state’s border and dismissed billionaire businessman Clive Palmer’s argument that the pandemic measure was unconstitutional. The seven High Court judges ruled that Western Australia’s state border closure to non-essential travel applied during “a hazard in the nature of a plague or epidemic” complied with the constitution. All Australian states and territories have used border restrictions to curb infections and a court ruling against Western Australia could have impacted their pandemic responses. The state shut its border to the rest of Australia on April 5 and has not recorded any cases of COVID-19 community transmission since April 11.

Indonesians collect old phones to help students get online

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — When a garbage collector came to Ghina Ghaliya’s house in the Indonesian capital and asked if she had an old mobile phone his children could use to access the internet, it sparked an idea for a broader campaign to help students stuck at home by the coronavirus. “He said it does not matter if it is the ugly one, as long as his children can use it for learning from home," said Ghaliya, a journalist at a national newspaper. “I thought there must be many people who need second hand mobile phones out there.” Shortly after the pandemic hit Indonesia, Ghaliya and 11 other journalists in Jakarta organized a group to provide food and money to people in need.

Australia inquiry says police should guard hotel quarantine

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Overseas travelers should be quarantined in hotels guarded by police, an inquiry into an Australian city’s bungled quarantine program reported on Friday. The Victoria state government’s decision to use private security firms instead of police and the military to enforce quarantine in Melbourne hotels has been widely blamed for lax infection controls that led to Australia’s worst virus resurgence in its second-largest city. An inquiry into that quarantine program recommended in an interim report “a 24/7 police presence on-site at each quarantine facility.” The government closed Melbourne Airport to international arrivals in July before commissioning retired judge Jennifer Coate to investigate what went wrong in hotel quarantine, which has been blamed for virtually all COVID-19 community transmission in Victoria.

Final votes confirm New Zealand won't legalize marijuana

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand won't be legalizing marijuana after the final votes counted Friday in a referendum failed to overturn the result from election night — although it got close. The referendum to legalize the drug ended up with 48% in support and 51% opposed, a tightening from the election night split of 46% in favor and 53% against. The special votes tallied after the Oct. 17 election included those cast overseas and accounted for about 17% of the total vote. The special votes also slightly increased the majority of liberal Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party, which ended up with just over 50% of the total vote, and 65 of Parliament's 120 seats.

Lam says next US president should not interfere in Hong Kong

BEIJING (AP) — Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Friday that whoever wins the U.S. presidential election should end U.S. interference in the internal affairs of her city and China overall. She accused the Trump administration of repeatedly interfering over the past year, citing U.S. sanctions on officials including herself and the suspension of special trading conditions previously granted to Hong Kong. “That is totally unreasonable,” she said at a news conference wrapping up a four-day visit to Beijing. “I hope that they will come back to normalcy and accept that the relationship has to be built on mutual respect and cooperation.” The U.S.

Evacuation begins as Indonesia's most active volcano rumbles

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities began evacuating people living on the volatile Mount Merapi volcano’s fertile slopes on Friday following an increase in volcanic activity. The head of Yogyakarta’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center, Hanik Humaida, warned that Merapi, Indonesia's most active volcano, could erupt at any time, possibly sending hot gas clouds down its slopes up to 5 kilometers (3 miles). Edy Susanto, a local disaster mitigation agency official, said about 300 people from two villages, mostly the elderly, pregnant women and children, were taken to emergency shelters in Central Java’s Magelang district. Susanto said emergency measures to evacuate people living within 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) of the crater’s mouth were being prepared as local administrations in Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces closely monitor the situation.

Australia accuses head of Chinese group of foreign meddling

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The leader of a Chinese community organization has become the first person to be charged under Australia’s foreign interference laws that were passed two years ago, police said Thursday. Di Sanh Duong, 65, has a relationship with a foreign intelligence agency, an Australian Federal Police statement said. Police would not name the country or detail the allegation, but the legislation largely targets China’s growing influence. The charge comes amid growing discord between the two nations. This week, China stepped up trade restrictions against Australia. Duong was charged Thursday in the Melbourne Magistrates Court with preparing for a foreign interference offense, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

China opens import expo under anti-disease controls

SHANGHAI (AP) — Chinese leaders are conducting an import fair under intensive anti-coronavirus controls in their latest effort to revive the world's No. 2 economy while the United States and Europe struggle with a renewed surge of infections. Few exhibitors came from abroad for the third China International Import Expo. Most were represented by Chinese employees or managers who work in China. Beijing has eased curbs that barred foreign visitors to China, but new arrivals are required to undergo a 14-day quarantine. China, where the pandemic began in December, became the first major economy to begin the struggle to restore normal activity after the ruling Communist Party declared victory over the virus in March.

Pandemic puts Indonesia into recession; 1st time in 20 years

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s economy has fallen into recession for the first time since the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago as the country struggles to control the coronavirus pandemic. Statistics Indonesia, the central statistics agency, said Thursday that Southeast Asia’s largest economy contracted at a 3.5% annual pace in July-September, the second consecutive quarterly contraction. The economy shrank at a 5.32% pace in the previous quarter and grew 2.9% in January-March, its slowest rate in almost two decades. Indonesia has reported more than 425,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the largest in Southeast Asia and second in Asia only to India’s 8.3 million confirmed cases.