Top Asian News 8:03 a.m. GMT

Asia-Pacific trade ministers mull pandemic, recovery

BANGKOK (AP) — Trade ministers from the Pacific Rim were discussing ways to build back better from the pandemic in an online meeting Saturday hosted by New Zealand. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum has long focused on dismantling trade barriers. The meeting of its trade ministers was convened virtually, given the travel restrictions prevailing in the region as coronavirus outbreaks flare in many countries still struggling to obtain and deploy enough COVID-19 vaccines. On the agenda was a statement on aiding the movement of essential goods needed to fight the pandemic, in line with global trade rules that have been strained in recent years, especially during the administration of President Donald Trump who favored striking trade deals with individual countries.

Hundreds gather near Hong Kong park despite vigil ban

HONG KONG (AP) — Hundreds of people gathered near a Hong Kong park Friday despite a ban on an annual candlelight vigil to remember China's deadly crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and the arrest earlier in the day of an organizer of previous vigils. Hong Kong police banned the vigil for a second straight year, citing coronavirus social distancing restrictions, although there have been no local cases in the semi-autonomous Chinese city for about six weeks. Police closed off parts of Victoria Park — the venue of past vigils — in the city's Causeway Bay shopping district and warned people not to participate in unauthorized assemblies, which is illegal with punishment of of up to five years imprisonment.

Amid brutal case surge, Afghanistan hit by a vaccine delay

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan is battling a brutal surge in COVID-19 infections as health officials plead for vaccines, only to be told by the World Health Organization that the 3 million doses the country expected to receive by April won’t be delivered until August. “We are in the middle of a crisis,” Health Ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastigir Nazari said this week, expressing deep frustration at the global vaccine distribution that has left poor countries scrambling to find supplies for their people. Nazari has knocked on the door of several embassies, and so far, “I’ve gotten diplomatic answers” but no vaccine doses, he said.

ASEAN envoys meet Myanmar junta leader to press for dialogue

BANGKOK (AP) — Representatives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met with Myanmar’s junta leader on Friday, six weeks after an emergency regional summit on the coup in the country drew promises of progress toward a solution but produced no tangible results. State broadcaster MRTV showed Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing meeting with Brunei Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof and ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi, but provided only a broad outline of their discussions. Earlier this week, an Indonesian diplomat said the delegation’s purpose was to seek Myanmar’s approval of an ASEAN special envoy for the crisis, who is yet to be named.

NKorean leader calls for meeting to review battered economy

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has presided over a meeting of his ruling party in his first public appearance in about a month, and called for a larger political conference to discuss efforts to salvage a decaying economy. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday that Kim expressed appreciation that a lot of works were being sped up thanks to the “ideological enthusiasm and fighting spirit of self-reliance” demonstrated by the party and his people. But he also said there was a need to correct “deflective matters” and called for a plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee to review overall state affairs for the first half of 2021.

Mine-sniffing rat Magawa ends years of hard work in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — After five years of sniffing out land mines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia, Magawa is retiring. The African giant pouched rat has been the most successful rodent trained and overseen by a Belgian nonprofit, APOPO, to find land mines and alert its human handlers so the explosives can be safely removed. Magawa has cleared more than 141,000 square meters (1.5 million square feet) of land, the equivalent of some 20 soccer fields, sniffing out 71 land mines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance, according to APOPO. And for the first time, it won a British charity’s top civilian award for animal bravery last year, an honor so far exclusively reserved for dogs.

AP PHOTOS: Hong Kong's June 4 candlelit vigil over the years

HONG KONG (AP) — No one attended an annual candlelight vigil inside Hong Kong’s Victoria Park on Friday, but hundreds gathered on streets outside to remember China's deadly crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 as Hong Kong police cordoned off much of the park to prevent gatherings. Police arrested an organizer of the vigil earlier in the day and warned people not to attend the banned event as authorities mute China’s last pro-democracy voices. For decades, Hong Kong has been one of just two cities in China allowed to mark the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. In 1989, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in the square calling for democracy, less censorship and greater freedom of speech.

Fishermen feeling the impact of Sri Lanka ship disaster

KEPUMGODA, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's fishermen are already feeling the impact of an unfolding environmental disaster caused by the slow sinking of a fire-ravaged cargo ship that had been loaded with chemicals. Fishing remained banned Friday along about 80 kilometers (50 miles) of coastline, as debris from the Singapore-flagged MV X-Press Pearl — including tons of plastic pellets and burned fiberglass — continued to wash ashore. Authorities were also on guard for the possible leak of oil and chemicals from the ship, which started sinking off the country's main port on Wednesday, a day after a fire that raged on the vessel for 12 days was extinguished.

Floods and mudslides kill 4, another 7 missing in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Flash floods and mudslides triggered by heavy rains in Sri Lanka have killed at least four people and left seven missing, while more than 5,000 are displaced, officials said Saturday. Rains have been pounding six districts of the Indian Ocean island nation since Thursday night, and many houses, paddy fields and roads have been inundated, blocking traffic. Two people died in floods while another two lost their lives in mudslides, according to the government's Disaster Management Center. Another seven people are missing in floods and mudslides. A mound of earth crashed onto a house and buried four members of the same family — parents and two children — in Kegalle district, about 85 kilometers (53 miles) east of the capital Colombo on Saturday, officials and local media said.

UN: Unprecedented Taliban violence in 2020 carries into 2021

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Taliban insurgents show no sign of reducing the level of violence in Afghanistan to facilitate peace negotiations with the government, and appear to be trying to strengthen their military position as leverage, with the “unprecedented violence" of 2020 carrying into 2021, U.N. experts said in a new report circulated Friday. The panel of experts said the Taliban are reported to be responsible for the great majority of assassinations that have become a feature of the violence in Afghanistan, targeting government officials, women, human rights defenders and journalists among others. These attacks “appear to be undertaken with the objective of weakening the capacity of the government and intimidating civil society,”it said.