Top Asian News 3:46 a.m. GMT

LYON, France (AP) — The call came at night and was chilling. "You listen, but you don't speak," the man on the other end said. "We've come in two work teams, two work teams just for you." In her first one-on-one interview since her husband's disappearance in China, the wife of the former head of Interpol described the threatening phone call that prompted authorities in the French city where the international law enforcement agency is headquartered to place her under police protection. French authorities are still trying to determine whether China did indeed, as the mysterious caller menaced, dispatch agents to get to Grace Meng, the wife of Meng Hongwei.

KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh (AP) — At an age when many young Rohingya women have children, Rahima Akter has other plans. From the refugee camp in southern Bangladesh where she was born, Akter, a 19-year-old with a confident smile who goes by the name Khushi, says she aspires to become the most educated Rohingya woman in the world. Akter was born and has lived her whole life in the camp, a makeshift settlement of bamboo and tarpaulin huts spread out over rolling hills that were once protected forestland. Her parents were among a wave of 250,000 Rohingya Muslims who escaped forced labor, religious persecution and violent attacks from Buddhist mobs in Myanmar during the early 1990s.

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — The Muslim call to prayer had just started echoing across the Indonesian city of Palu when Musrifah's home began to shake violently. Family photos fell from the walls. Dishes and glasses crashed to the floor. A television smashed onto the white tiles of their living room, prompting Musrifah to scoop her 2-year-old son into her arms. Seconds later, the concrete sides of their one-story house cracked, then crumbled, filling the air inside with pale clouds of dust. "Mommy!" the terrified boy cried, his body trembling as his hands pressed into her back. "Don't worry," she told him.

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia plans to halt the search this week for victims of an earthquake and tsunami that have left more than 2,000 dead and thousands feared missing. Authorities will hold prayers Thursday to mark the end of the search effort in neighborhoods of Sulawesi island's Palu city where the quake caused loose soil to swallow houses and bury residents. The announcement was made Tuesday as the death toll from the Sept. 28 disasters officially climbed past 2,000. ___ This gallery was curated by Associated Press photo editor Wally Santana in Bangkok.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea is supplying water in the North Korean border town of Kaesong using a facility in a now-shuttered factory park that had been jointly operated by the rivals. The water is being supplied to a liaison office between the countries that opened in Kaesong last month and has been provided to the town's residents as well, South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said Wednesday. He said the resumption of water supply does not violate international sanctions against the North over its nuclear weapons and missile program. Using the facility that draws from a reservoir near the park, South Korea has been pumping 1,000 to 2,000 tons to the liaison office and about 15,000 tons to the rest of the city every day, Baik said.

TOKYO (AP) — The price tag keeps soaring for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics despite local organizers and the International Olympic Committee saying that spending is being cut. A report just released by the national government's Board of Audit shows Japan is likely to spend $25 billion to prepare the games, and the final number could go even higher. This is nearly a four-fold increase over Tokyo's winning bid in 2013, which the report said projected costs of 829 billion yen, or $7.3 billion at the current exchange rate of 113 yen to the dollar. Tracking Tokyo costs is getting more difficult as work speeds up, deadlines near, and disputes arise about what are — and what are not — Olympic expenses.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Myanmar's leader Tuesday that a credible investigation into alleged human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims is key to resolving tensions in the country's Rakhine state. Abe told a joint news conference after holding talks with Aung San Suu Kyi that Japan will support efforts by Myanmar to accommodate Rohingya who return home from refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. "This problem is complicated and serious, and Japan will think with Myanmar and support its effort in resolving the problem," Abe said. "A credible investigation by the independent panel is particularly important." Buddhist-majority Myanmar's military is accused of widespread rights violations, including rape, murder, torture and burning villages, which sent about 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh since August last year.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that medical tests show he doesn't have cancer, but added that he won't release a detailed report on his health. "I'm not yet cancerous so do not be afraid to go near me. I will not contaminate you," the 73-year-old leader told a journalist in jest during a news conference. When asked if tissue samples taken from him tested negative for cancer, the president nodded. Interior officer in charge Eduardo Ano earlier told reporters that Duterte announced his test results in a Cabinet meeting Monday night, eliciting applause from top officials.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Has Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star-turned pal of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, been benched for Chinese hoop legend Yao Ming? The former Houston Rockets center and eight-time NBA all-star took center court in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, on Tuesday as Chinese and North Korean basketball players held a friendly match, part of a high-profile sports exchange between the two countries intended to help thaw ties that had been growing chilly over the past year. Senior ruling party officials turned up for the game, but Kim, who was famously serenaded with the birthday song by Rodman in Pyongyang in January 2014, didn't attend.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — A whale calf has been freed after becoming tangled in a shark net off the Australian east coast. Experts from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and Sea World Gold Coast worked for almost two hours on Tuesday morning to untangle the humpback calf from a net about 500 meters (yards) off Greenmount Beach at Gold Coast city. The nets are suspended from buoys to protect swimmers at Gold Coast beaches from shark attack. "The calf had some superficial wounds form the entanglement, but nothing life threatening, and swam away with its mother when released," Sea World Gold Coast said in a statement.