Top Asian News 4:56 a.m. GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia performed a second autopsy on the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader because the first procedure was inconclusive, piling on the intrigue surrounding what appeared to be a well-executed assassination at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, an official said Saturday. Police arrested a fourth suspect, identified as a North Korean man. The second autopsy clearly enraged North Korea, which has vowed to reject the results of any post-mortem and demanded that Malaysia turn over the body immediately. Speaking to reporters outside the morgue late Friday, Pyongyang's ambassador said Malaysian officials may be "trying to conceal something" and "colluding with hostile forces."

Malaysian police have announced the arrest of a fourth suspect, a North Korean, in the death of the half brother of the North Korean leader. A police statement says the man identified as Ri Jong Chol was arrested on Friday in Selangor near Kuala Lumpur. It gave no other details. Two women, one of them Indonesian and the other traveling on a Vietnamese passport, and a boyfriend of one of them, have been arrested earlier on suspicion of involvement in the death of Kim Jong Nam. South Korea has accused its enemies in North Korea of dispatching a hit squad to kill Kim Jong Nam at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, saying two female assassins poisoned him and then fled in a taxi.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As Malaysian police continue their inquiry into the death of Kim Jong Nam, the outcast half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, there's plenty of speculation surrounding what seems one of the stranger killings the world has recently seen. North Korea killed Kim Jong Nam because he planned to create an exile government around defectors, says one rumor. Kim Jong Un was furious after learning about secret Chinese plans to enthrone his estranged sibling in Pyongyang if something happens to him, says another. Or maybe Pyongyang wasn't involved at all. Perhaps, Kim Jong Nam, known for his carefree lifestyle and gambling habits, angered crime organizations over money problems and that got him killed, say some online arguments.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — A man was critically injured when he was attacked by a shark on Saturday while spear fishing on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, an official said. The 26-year-old was bitten repeatedly on a leg as he dived near Hinchinbrook Island off the coast of Queensland state, Queensland Ambulance Service Supervisor Ange Timmins said. His friends brought him by boat to the town of Cardwell where ambulance officers stopped his bleeding and stabilized his condition, Timmins said. He was flown by helicopter in a critical condition 150 kilometers (90 miles) north to the Cairns Base Hospital, she said. His friends thought the man was attacked by a bull or tiger shark, Timmins said.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A brutal attack on a beloved Sufi shrine that killed 88 people raised fears that the Islamic State group has become emboldened in Pakistan, aided by an army of homegrown militants benefiting from hideouts in neighboring Afghanistan, analysts and officials said Friday. Pakistani security forces have carried out sweeping country-wide raids following Thursday's bombing of the shrine in Pakistan's southern Sindh province that also wounded 343 people. The military's public relations wing reported on its official twitter account that more than 100 suspected "terrorists" were killed in the raids, while government officials lashed out at Kabul accusing the Afghan government of ignoring earlier pleas to crackdown on militant hideouts.

MILAN (AP) — Italian media says the Bank of China has agreed to pay a 600,000-euro ($640,000) fine as part of a plea deal in a 4.5-billion-euro money laundering probe. The news agency ANSA reported that at a preliminary hearing on Friday, a judge also convicted four bank officials of money-laundering, while dropping an aggravating charge of employing Mafia methods, and handed down suspended two-year sentences. The judge also ordered the seizure of 980,000 euros, ANSA said, a sum equal to what prosecutors say were the bank's profits in the scheme. The Bank of China said the plea deal was aimed at "avoiding a long trial and allowing the Milan branch to concentrate on developing its own business." It said the Milan branch had respected national and international laws.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A desolate but lovely volcano on the North Korea-China border could be the key to unraveling the sudden, mysterious death of an exiled scion of North Korean royalty. South Korea's spy agency believes that Kim Jong Nam was assassinated this week in a Malaysian airport as part of a five-year plot by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. If this is right, the motive likely has more to do with their shared bloodlines — and that volcano — than any specific transgression. Here's why: The volcano — Mount Paektu, which is topped with a deep crater lake — is at the heart of North Korea's foundation myth, and is used to legitimize the Kim family's three generations of power.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Islamic State group launched an attack on Afghan security posts killing 17 soldiers, an Afghan official said Friday. Ahmad Ali Hazrat, chief of the provincial council in the province, said the attack Thursday night took place in the Dih Bala district in eastern Nangarhar province. Hazrat said IS fighters attacked Army security posts from three directions and after several hours of heavy fighting, 17 army soldiers were dead. General Doulat Waziri , spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said soldiers killed 21 IS fighters. Also on Friday, an Afghan provincial official said Taliban forces stormed several Afghan security posts in eastern Kunar province, killing five police officers.

Pakistan's highest ranking foreign ministry official says neighbor Afghanistan has ignored repeated demands to take action against militants targeting Pakistan from sanctuaries on its soil following a horrific attack on a shrine that killed dozens. The Islamic State took responsibility and on Friday and Sartaj Aziz called Afghanistan's National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar to complain of inaction against Pakistani insurgents operating on its territory. Meanwhile, Pakistan says its paramilitary Frontier Corps came under fire by militants in Afghanistan and they retaliated with heavy artillery fire. Afghan officials say the artillery barrage wounded two children and forced scores of families to flee their homes.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Militant attacks in Pakistan have killed hundreds of people over the past three years, including many women and children. On Friday, security forces carried out sweeping raids, gunning down and arresting dozens, a day after a massive suicide bombing killed 88 worshippers at a Sufi shrine in the country's south. The attack, claimed by an Islamic State affiliate in Pakistan, raised questions about the ability of the authorities to rein in militant groups despite several recent offensives targeting insurgents. Here are some of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan in the last three years: 2017: __Feb. 16: An Islamic State suicide bomber strikes inside a famed Sufi shrine in southern Sindh province, killing 88 worshippers as they were performing a devotional dance known as "dhamal." __Feb.