Top Asian News 2:51 a.m. GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Impeached President Park Geun-hye's surname is "Park," right? Nope. In Korean it's closer to "Bahk." Park's allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like "Chwey" than the way it's rendered in English. And Samsung's ailing chairman, Lee Kun-hee? That English "Lee" is more like "Yi" or "Ii" in Korean. There is a gulf, often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their names in English and the way they actually sound. Even the ubiquitous "Kim" — the moniker of beloved South Korean Olympic figure skating champion Yuna Kim and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un — belies: It's pronounced "Ghim" in Korean.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Even on New Year's Eve, large crowds of South Koreans were expected to join another rally demanding the ouster of impeached President Park Geun-hye, who's determined to restore her powers through a court trial. Hundreds of thousands were expected to participate in the evening marches near Seoul's presidential palace and the Constitutional Court. Park's supporters are planning their own rallies in nearby streets. The court has up to six months to decide whether Park should permanently step down over a corruption scandal or be reinstated. The judges said on Friday that Park cannot be forced to testify in the impeachment trial as it enters its argument phase next week.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Sixty people were injured at an Australian music festival in the crush of a crowd trying to leave a performance, police said Saturday. None of the injuries at the Falls Music and Arts Festival in Victoria state were life-threatening, but 19 people were taken to the hospital with serious injuries, Victoria police said in a statement. The incident began on Friday night when fans were trying to leave a performance by the Australian band DMA's. Several people at the front of the crowd then lost their footing and fell, police said. Paramedics assessed around 60 people hurt in the ensuing crush, Ambulance Victoria state health commander Paul Holman said.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — China says it plans to shut down its ivory trade by the end of 2017 in a move designed to curb the mass slaughter of African elephants. The Chinese government will end the processing and selling of ivory and ivory products by the end of March as it phases out the legal trade, according to a statement released on Friday. China had previously announced it planned to shut down the commercial trade, which conservationists described as significant because China's vast, increasingly affluent consumer market drives much of the elephant poaching across Africa. "This is a game changer for Africa's elephants," said Aili Kang, the Asia director for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

HONOLULU (AP) — A U.S. citizen detained in Honolulu and facing extradition to Tonga where he's accused of beating his wife to death has asked the U.S. government to return cash he had amassed from other countries including Canada and New Zealand. A public defender for Dean Jay Fletcher filed a motion Thursday saying the government is illegally keeping the currency. The various denominations of currency from Tonga, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United States are the "only means that Mr. Fletcher has to hire an attorney and mount any meaningful defense to the charges in Tonga," Assistant Federal Defender Melinda Yamaga said in the motion.

JAMPUR, Pakistan (AP) — Mohammad Ramzan can neither hear nor speak, and he has a childlike mind. But he knew his wife, Saima, was too young when she was given to him as a bride. The 36-year-old Ramzan smiles, eager to please, as he uses his fingers to count out her age when they married. One, two, three . . . until 13, and then he stops and looks at her, points and nods several times. The girl's father, Wazir Ahmed, says she was 14, not 13, but her age was beside the point. It mattered only that she had reached puberty when he arranged her marriage as an exchange: his daughter for Ramzan's sister, whom he wanted to take as a second wife.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Fifty days ago, India yanked most of its currency from circulation without warning, jolting the economy and leaving most citizens scrambling for cash. As the deadline for exchanging the devalued 500- and 1,000-rupee notes for new ones hit on Friday, many Indians were still stuck waiting in long bank lines. Empty ATMs and ever-changing rules prevented people from withdrawing money, and many small, cash-reliant businesses from cinemas to neighborhood grocery stores suffered huge losses or went under. Despite those problems, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his Nov. 8 demonetization decree succeeded in uncovering tax evasion and cracking down on graft.

PATNA, India (AP) — A coal mine collapse in eastern India killed at least 10 workers and 13 others may be trapped by the mound of fallen earth, police said Friday. The collapse happened late Thursday but heavy smog prevented rescue workers from entering the open coal mine until early Friday morning, said S.K. Singh, the general manager of the Rajmahal Open Cast Mines in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. The rescue work was to stop at nightfall. Jharkhand police spokesman R.K. Malik said 23 workers were reported missing after the accident, and that after 10 bodies were recovered 13 remain unaccounted for.

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government said Friday it will ease restrictions on foreign investment in sectors ranging from banking and internet services to rail equipment and motorcycles, in response to mounting complaints from foreign business groups and governments. An official with China's National Development and Reform Commission, the economic planning agency, said service sectors such as accounting and auditing, architectural design and ratings services will be open to foreign investment. In manufacturing, barriers to foreign investment will be lowered in sectors such as rail transportation, motorcycles and ethanol fuels, according to an official transcript of a briefing by Ning Jizhe, vice-chairman of the commission.

BEIJING (AP) — One of China's top leaders told Chinese Catholics that they need to operate "independently" of outside forces and promote socialism and patriotism through religion. Yu Zhengsheng's Thursday speech came at the end of a meeting of China's official Catholic church that was being closely watched by the Holy See. Yu is one of seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision-making body. His speech could be a measure of how much Beijing is willing to yield in potential dialogue with the Holy See. State media reported that Yu called on Catholic churches to adhere to "socialism with Chinese characteristics," — a term that describes China's model of development, which for decades has favored economic liberalization but not political reform.