Top Asian News 3:49 a.m. GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for accountability for the "horrendous persecution" of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar on Tuesday, and Sweden and the Netherlands urged the Security Council to refer the crimes to the International Criminal Court. But China, which has close ties to Myanmar's government, said the international community should stop putting pressure on Myanmar and let its government work out the repatriation of Rohingya refugees as soon as possible with Bangladesh, where nearly one million have fled. The council meeting, commemorating the one-year anniversary of Myanmar's latest violent crackdown that led about 700,000 Rohingya to flee, reflected the deep division over addressing the Rohingya crisis.

BEIJING (AP) — More than a dozen human rights groups have sent a letter to Google urging the company not to offer censored internet search in China, amid reports it is planning to again begin offering the service in the giant Asian market. The joint letter dated Tuesday calls on CEO Sundar Pichai to explain what Google is doing to safeguard users from the Chinese government's censorship and surveillance. It describes the censored search engine app, codenamed "Dragonfly", as representing "an alarming capitulation by Google on human rights. "The Chinese government extensively violates the rights to freedom of expression and privacy; by accommodating the Chinese authorities' repression of dissent, Google would be actively participating in those violations for millions of internet users in China," said the letter That follows a letter earlier this month signed by more than a thousand Google employees protesting the company's secretive plan to build a search engine that would comply with Chinese censorship.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A bomber who killed two people and wounded 35 at a town festival in the southern Philippines offered fruit to people in hopes of evading suspicion when he abandoned the bag that also contained the bomb, a Philippine military commander said Wednesday. Wary residents still alerted police when the man hurriedly left the bag under a parked motorcycle near a night market, Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana told The Associated Press by telephone. Troops chased the man when villagers pointed to him but he fled on a motorcycle that had its engine already running in the chaos caused by the explosion Tuesday night in Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat province

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Malaysia to quash a caning sentence for a lesbian couple, calling the punishment cruel and unjust. Two unidentified ethnic Malay women, aged 22 and 32, had pleaded guilty for attempting to have sexual intercourse and were sentenced to six strokes of a cane and fined by a Shariah court earlier this month. The caning in northeast Terengganu state was due Tuesday but reportedly postponed to Sept. 3 due to technical reasons. Court officials couldn't be immediately reached for comment. Amnesty's Malaysian director Gwen Lee welcomed the deferment but said a delay was insufficient.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley says the Trump administration expects to see two Reuters journalists accused by Myanmar's government of illegally possessing official documents acquitted of all charges next week. A Myanmar judge postponed the verdict in the case of Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone on Monday, saying it will be announced on Sept. 3. The two reporters have pleaded not guilty to violating Myanmar's colonial-era Official Secrets Act. They contend they were framed by police while reporting on Myanmar's brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims. Haley told the Security Council Tuesday that "a free and responsible press is critical for any democracy." U.N.

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's military junta announced Tuesday it will ease some restrictions on political parties to let them conduct basic functions and prepare for elections set for early next year, but campaigning will still be forbidden. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said after a junta meeting that the new rules would allow political parties to hold meetings, make adjustments to regulations, appoint managers and accept new members ahead of polls loosely scheduled for February. He said the restrictions would be eased "soon" via a special executive order. Political gatherings of five or more people were banned by the military junta after it seized power from an elected government in a May 2014 coup.

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese man released by North Korea after being accused of an unspecified crime arrived back in Japan on Tuesday, officials and reports said. Tomoyuki Sugimoto, who was arrested in early August, had been in North Korean custody during an investigation into the alleged crime. The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday that the country decided to be lenient and expel him for humanitarian reasons. Reports said Sugimoto arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday night on a flight from Beijing. A crowd of reporters waiting in the arrival area was unable to see him, apparently because he was escorted out through a different exit.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's former foreign minister on Tuesday described the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines flight over Ukraine in 2014 as the most emotional time of her life. Julie Bishop was reflecting on her five years as Australia's first woman foreign minister after she quit the Cabinet following an unsuccessful bid last week to become prime minister. Most of new Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Cabinet was sworn in on Tuesday, including new Foreign Minister Marise Payne. Bishop said she remained in contact with the families of the 38 Australian citizens and residents who were among the 298 people killed when a missile brought down Flight 17 on July 17, 2014.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Fourteen Cambodian opposition activists were freed Tuesday from long prison terms, their pardons coming as the latest in a series of releases engineered by Prime Minister Hun Sen after his party's election sweep last month. The 14 former members of the now-disbanded opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party were convicted of insurrection in connection with a street protest four years ago that turned violent. By many accounts, the violence was started by pro-government agitators, and the arrests of the opposition members were seen as political persecution. Those freed Tuesday were serving prison terms ranging from seven to 20 years, the longer sentences given to those seen as leaders of the July 15, 2014, protest in Phnom Penh.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Relatives of several people slain in the Philippine president's anti-drug campaign asked the International Criminal Court on Tuesday to prosecute him for alleged crimes against humanity, in the second such request for a ruling on thousands of deaths that have occurred during the crackdown. Lawyer Edre Olalia said a 50-page complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte was sent to an ICC prosecutor by email. Olalia said it accuses Duterte of ordering, inciting or tolerating the drug killings from the start of his presidency in mid-2016 to this month. The Duterte administration said it expects the effort to fail.