Top Asian News 3:11 a.m. GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — A beaming Duke and Duchess of Sussex started the first day of official engagements of a royal tour of Australia on Tuesday with the public focus on the former Meghan Markle's newly announced pregnancy. Meghan wore a tight-fitting cream dress by Australian designer Karen Gee that barely revealed a royal bump as they were welcomed at an event at the Sydney Harbor-side mansion where the couple are staying. The news of the pregnancy was announced after Prince Harry and the American former actress arrived in Sydney on Monday and 15 hours before their first public appearance. Among those taken by surprise were their Sydney hosts, Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Lynne Cosgrove.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's prime minister said Tuesday that he was open to shifting the Australian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in line with President Donald Trump's decision to recognize the contested holy city as Israel's capital. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the idea was suggested to him by a former ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma, who is a candidate for Morrison's conservative Liberal Party in a crucial by-election Saturday in a Sydney electorate with a large Jewish population. Morrison said Australia remained committed to finding a two-state solution to Israel's conflict with the Palestinians. "When sensible suggestions are put forward that are consistent with your policy positioning and in this case pursuing a two-state solution, Australia should be open-minded to this and I am open-minded to this and our government is open-minded to this," Morrison told reporters.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The rival Koreas and the U.S.-led United Nations Command were meeting Tuesday to discuss efforts to disarm a military zone the rivals control within their shared border under a peace agreement between the Koreas. South Korea's Defense Ministry said the talks at the Panmunjom border village mark the first meeting between the Koreas and the U.N. Command to discuss ways to demilitarize the village's Joint Security Area. The Korean militaries in past weeks have been clearing mines from the area following a broad agreement meant to reduce military tensions that was forged between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in their summit last month.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's conservative opposition party was in turmoil Tuesday after one of its own lawmakers accused leader Simon Bridges of corruption for hiding a donation from a wealthy Chinese businessman. Jami-Lee Ross made the allegation and then said he was resigning from Parliament. Ross said he regretted his own complicity in a scheme to split the party donation into a series of smaller amounts to avoid it being publicly disclosed. Ross said he planned to provide evidence to police and to release a phone conversation with Bridges that he'd secretly taped. "I believe Simon Bridges is a corrupt politician," Ross said.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military installations or other federal properties to open the way for more U.S. fossil fuel exports to Asia in the name of national security and despite opposition from coastal states. The proposal was described to The Associated Press by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and two Republican lawmakers. "I respect the state of Washington and Oregon and California," Zinke said in an interview with AP. "But also, it's in our interest for national security and our allies to make sure that they have access to affordable energy commodities." Accomplishing that, Zinke said, may require the use of "some of our naval facilities, some of our federal facilities on the West Coast." He only identified one prospect, a mostly abandoned Alaska military base.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian Prime Minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim said he felt "vindicated" after taking his oath as a lawmaker Monday, marking his return to active politics three years after he was imprisoned for sodomy in a charge that critics said was politically motivated. The swearing-in ceremony in parliament followed Anwar's landslide win in a by-election Saturday in the southern coastal town of Port Dickson in which he defeated six other candidates. The seat was vacated after a lawmaker from his party quit, paving the way for Anwar's political comeback. Anwar, 71, joins his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail — currently Malaysia's deputy prime minister — and his eldest daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar, in parliament.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration's envoy for North Korea is traveling to Russia, France and Belgium for talks with counterparts there as the U.S. prepares for a second leadership summit with the North. The State Department says envoy Stephen Biegun will hold "working level" meetings in Moscow, Paris and Brussels. It provided no further details and said it had no meetings to announce with North Korean officials. According to Interfax news agency, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov will meet Biegun in Moscow on Tuesday. The Kremlin said last week that it is working on its own plans to host North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Moscow.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Rescuers hampered by difficult, remote terrain took two days to recover the bodies of nine climbers, including one of the world's best, who hoped to map a new route to a Himalayan peak in Nepal that hasn't been scaled in eight years. Local police chief Bir Bahadur Budamagar said a group of villagers reached the climbers' devastated campsite on Saturday on Gurja Himal, a less-popular but pristine mountain in the shadow of Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh-highest peak and a day's walk from the nearest village. The climbers included Kim Chang-ho, the first South Korean to summit all 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000 meters (26,250 feet) without using supplemental oxygen, who was leading the expedition with four other South Koreans and four Nepalese guides.

PARIS (AP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in has met with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss inter-Korean talks and bilateral issues. Moon, on a state visit to France, said he considers France, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, as a key partner in efforts toward peace with North Korea. Moon, who is on a European trip which also includes Italy, Belgium and Denmark, aims to seek support for inter-Korean rapprochement amid widespread international skepticism that North Korea will disarm. Macron said France is looking for a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and is not going to ease sanctions on North Korea or establish diplomatic relations with North Korea at this stage.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's foreign minister said on Monday her country's alliance with the United States had never been more vital in an era of escalating challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. In her first major policy speech since she took over the foreign ministry in August, Marise Payne told an Australian Institute of International Affairs conference that Australia needed to defend its interests in "a period of strategic uncertainty." The former defense minister's staunch declaration of support for the United States, a treaty defense partner since 1951, came after the Chinese Communist Party-owned newspaper China Daily accused Australia and Japan in an editorial last week of "jumping on the U.S.