Top Asian News 1:55 p.m. GMT

Philippine military plane crashes, 31 dead, 50 rescued

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine air force C-130 aircraft carrying combat troops crashed in a southern province while landing Sunday, killing at least 29 army soldiers on board and two civilians on the ground, while at least 50 were rescued from the burning wreckage, officials said. Some soldiers were seen jumping off the aircraft before it crashed and exploded around noon in the periphery of the Jolo airport in Sulu province, military officials said. Two of six villagers who were hit on the ground have died. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said rescue and recovery efforts were ongoing. The aircraft had 96 people on board, including three pilots and five crew and the rest were army personnel, the military said, adding 17 soldiers remained unaccounted for by nightfall.

Some Chinese shun grueling careers for 'low-desire life'

BEIJING (AP) — Fed up with work stress, Guo Jianlong quit a newspaper job in Beijing and moved to China’s mountain southwest to “lie flat.” Guo joined a small but visible handful of Chinese urban professionals who are rattling the ruling Communist Party by rejecting grueling careers for a “low-desire life." That is clashing with the party's message of success and consumerism as its celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding. Guo, 44, became a freelance writer in Dali, a town in Yunnan province known for its traditional architecture and picturesque scenery. He married a woman he met there. “Work was OK, but I didn’t like it much,” Guo said.

Japan's leader pushes rescue after deadly mudslide hits town

ATAMI, Japan (AP) — More than 1,000 soldiers, firefighters and police on Sunday waded through a giant mudslide that ripped through a Japanese resort town southwest of Tokyo a day earlier, killing at least two people and leaving about 20 missing as it swept away houses and cars. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters 19 people had been rescued, and 130 homes and other buildings were damaged in Atami. Two people were dead but more were feared missing, he said, speaking after an emergency Cabinet meeting. Earlier, disaster officials said about 20 were unaccounted for, but warned the number may rise.

Indonesia hospital: 33 COVID patients die amid oxygen outage

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Dozens of coronavirus patients died after a public hospital on Indonesia’s main island of Java ran out of liquid oxygen amid a nationwide surge in COVID-19 cases, a hospital official said Sunday. At least 33 patients with severe coronavirus infections died after the central supply of liquid medical oxygen ran out late Saturday at Dr. Sardjito General Hospital in Yogyakarta city due to delays from suppliers over the weekend, said hospital spokesman Banu Hermawan. The oxygen shortage in the city’s largest hospital was due to an increase in patients arriving in deteriorating condition, Hermawan said. At least 63 virus patients died during treatment for COVID-19 in the hospital since Saturday — 33 of them during the period when the central liquid oxygen supply ran out — even though the hospital switched to using oxygen cylinders during the outage, he said.

Tokyo elects assembly amid pandemic fears over Olympics

TOKYO (AP) — Voters in Japan’s capital are electing the Tokyo city assembly amid worries about health risks during the Olympics, opening in three weeks, as coronavirus cases continue to rise. In Sunday’s balloting, 271 candidates are vying for 127 seats. Eligible voters total 9.8 million people in the megacity with a population of nearly 14 million. Public opinion surveys show about 60% of respondents want the Games canceled or postponed again. Behind the fears is the lagging vaccination rollout, with only about 10% of the population fully vaccinated. Exit polls by public broadcaster NHK TV showed a tight race between Tokyo Gov.

Chinese astronauts make first spacewalk outside new station

BEIJING (AP) — Two astronauts on Sunday made the first spacewalk outside China’s new orbital station to set up cameras and other equipment using a 15-meter-long (50-foot-long) robotic arm. Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo were shown by state TV climbing out of the airlock as Earth rolled past below them. The third crew member, commander Nie Haisheng, stayed inside. Liu and Tang spent nearly seven hours outside the station, the Chinese space agency said. The astronauts arrived June 17 for a three-month mission aboard China’s third orbital station, part of an ambitious space program that landed a robot rover on Mars in May.

Taliban take districts in NE Afghanistan from fleeing troops

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban's march through northern Afghanistan gained momentum overnight with the capture of several districts from fleeing Afghan forces, several hundred of whom fled across the border into Tajikistan, officials said Sunday. More than 300 Afghan military personnel crossed from Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province as Taliban fighters advanced toward the border, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said in a statement. The Afghan troops crossed over at about 6:30 p.m. local time Saturday “Guided by the principles of humanism and good neighborliness,” the Tajik authorities allowed the retreating Afghan National Defense and Security Forces to cross into Tajikistan, said the statement Since mid-April, when U.S.

Chinese ride service Didi told to take app off online stores

BEIJING (AP) — Ride-hailing service Didi Global Inc., which made its U.S. stock market debut last week, was ordered Sunday by Chinese regulators to remove its app from online stores while the company overhauls its handling of customer data. Dozens of social media and e-commerce companies have been told to handle customer information more carefully as the Communist Party tightens control over their influential industries. Some have been told to collect less information. An investigation found “serious violations” in how Didi collected and used personal information, the Cyberspace Administration of China announced. A statement said the company was told to “rectify problems” but gave no details.

Indians plant millions of saplings amid mass campaign

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — More than a million people on Sunday began planting 250 million saplings in India’s most populous state, part of an annual mass tree planting campaign to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of global climate change. Lawmakers, government officials and volunteers from social organizations swarmed riverbanks, farms, forests, schools and government buildings, planting saplings at designated spots. The effort spans 68,000 villages and 83,000 forest sites in northern Uttar Pradesh state. India has pledged to keep a third of its total land area under forest and tree cover, but a growing population and increasing demand for industrial projects has placed greater stress on the land.

Indonesia caught between surge and slow vaccine rollout

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Sri Dewi stood in the graveyard with her family, waiting their turn to bury her brother. He suffered a stroke and needed oxygen, but there wasn't any in a hospital overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. “We took him to this hospital, but there was no room for him,” said Dewi. “The hospital was out of oxygen.” The family finally bought an oxygen tank at a shop and brought the brother home, but he died later that evening. After a slow vaccination rollout, Indonesia is now racing to inoculate as many people as possible as it battles an explosion of COVID-19 cases that have strained its health care.