Top Asian News from AP

Top Asian News

| 25 January 2016

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam's pro-business prime minister, who last week appeared to have lost a power struggle in the ruling Communist Party, has made a last-minute comeback and will know Monday if he can re-enter the contest for the top job in the country. Using a loophole in party rules, supporters of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Sunday proposed that his name be added to the list of candidates who can contest for membership to the Central Committee, one of the two pillars of the ruling establishment. If Dung makes it, he will stand a good chance to be elected to the committee, and then would be in a position to challenge his rival, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, for his job.

BEIJING (AP) — Two Chinese citizens have been killed and one injured in a suspected bomb attack in Laos, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. The bombing took place about 8:00 a.m. on Sunday in the remote mountainous province of Xaysomboun when the victims, one of whom was employed by a Chinese mining company, were riding in a vehicle, Xinhua reported. Chinese diplomats have visited the survivor, identified by the surname Zhou, and have requested a swift investigation into the incident, Xinhua said. China is a major investor in Laos' rich abundance of minerals and other natural materials and shares its one-party form of authoritarian communist government.

BEIJING (AP) — Divided opinions within Vietnam's Communist Party on how to relate to giant neighbor and one-time ally China are among key factors in play at an eight-day congress to choose new leadership. A look at the countries' shared history and some of the most recent ups and downs in relations. ___ LONGTIME RIVALS Vietnam and China have a complex relationship going back more than 2,000 years, including several periods of Chinese imperial occupation that were ended by Vietnamese uprisings. Despite its early support for the Vietnamese Communist Party, China invaded in 1979 in retaliation for Hanoi's [invasion of Cambodia] overthrow[ing] of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam is holding an eight-day congress to choose new set of leaders who will govern for the next five years. Only about 4.5 million of Vietnam's 93 million people are party members, but the party has the constitutional right to rule, and its leaders are chosen in a secretive process in which the general public have no say. A selection of views on what people expect from the new leaders: ___ "I'm scared of police more than my parents beating me when I did something wrong when I was a kid. I don't care about who will be the new leaders, but I just hope that the new leaders will help people like me to find a job so that I don't have to sell fruits on the streets." — Tran Thi Nhan, 35, fruit seller.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — An unusually cold weather front that caused sudden drops in temperatures has been blamed for killing as many as 57 people in Taiwan's greater Taipei area.

The Taipei government said the cold wave that pushed temperatures to a 16-year record low of 4 degrees Celsius (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the capital was suspected in the deaths of 40 people in the capital from Friday through Sunday. A city official says the sudden drop in temperatures caused heart troubles and shortness of breath for the mostly elderly people who died in Taipei. Neighboring New Taipei City, where temperatures were slightly lower, reported that another 17 people had died because of the cold weather.

BANGKOK (AP) — A large chunk of metal that could be from an aircraft washed ashore in southern Thailand, but Malaysian authorities have cautioned against speculation of a link to a Malaysia Airlines flight missing almost two years. The location on the eastern side of Thailand where the debris was found also means it is highly unlikely that the material is from the missing plane. Flight 370 lost communications and made a sharp turn away from its Beijing destination before disappearing in March 2014. It is presumed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, and only one piece of debris has been identified as coming from the plane, a slab of wing that washed ashore on Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean last July.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's leader has defended strict security laws to fight terrorism as the Islamic State group warned of revenge over a crackdown on its members. Prime Minister Najib Razak says the terrorism threat is "very real" and that the laws are crucial to ensure Malaysia is not open to infiltration. Opening a two-day counter-terrorism conference, Najib said Monday that "the best way to uphold civil liberties is to ensure the safety of the nation." Human rights activists have slammed a law implemented last year that revives detention without trial, and another law approved last month that gives sweeping powers to a council led by the prime minister.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian police have detained seven men suspected of being an Islamic State militant cell that was plotting attacks, authorities said Sunday. The seven Malaysians were detained over the past three days in a follow-up operation after the Jan. 15 detention of a man who was planning a suicide attack in Kuala Lumpur, national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said. Among the items seized were 30 types of bullets, jihad books and Islamic State flags and videos, he said. "All the suspects are members of the same (terror) cell, which is responsible for planning to launch terror attacks in strategic locations across Malaysia," Khalid said in a statement.

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is pressing for peaceful resolutions to increasingly tense maritime disputes in Asia and urging China to take a firmer stand on North Korea's nuclear program after its recent bomb test. Kerry arrived in the Laotian capital Sunday, with later stops planned for Cambodia and China, extending an around-the-world diplomatic mission that began with a heavy emphasis on the Middle East, particularly Iran and efforts to bring an end to Syria's civil war. Laos is the current head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose members are becoming more vocal in complaints about China's growing assertiveness over competing claims in the South China Sea.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Afghan Taliban said Sunday that its "political office" in Qatar is the only entity authorized to carry out negotiations on its behalf, reinforcing the authority of the man who took control of the group amid a tussle over command following the death of longtime leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. The Taliban made the declaration in a summary emailed by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid of a statement it made during unofficial, closed-door talks taking place in the Qatari capital, Doha. Calling itself the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," the group also laid out a series of demands including the release of an unspecified number of prisoners and the removal of senior members from a U.N.