Top Asian News 4:47 a.m. GMT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Two men each claim to be the prime minister. Lawmakers are exchanging blows in Parliament. A former finance minister says the country is on the brink of an "economic anarchy." Welcome to Sri Lanka, where the political crisis is getting worse by the week. The trouble started when President Maithripala Sirisena, fed up with disagreements with his prime minister over money, an alleged conspiracy plot and unresolved issues of wartime crimes against civilians, fired Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet and replaced them with a government headed by a popular former strongman, Mahinda Rajapaksa. But lawmakers balked and twice passed a no-confidence motion.

HOTAN UNITY NEW VILLAGE, China (AP) — In this corner of China's far west, rows of identical white concrete houses with red metal roofs rise abruptly above the sand dunes of the harsh Taklamakan Desert. A Chinese flag flutters above the settlement, and a billboard at the entrance says, "Welcome to the Hotan Unity New Village." This is a Communist Party showcase for its efforts to tame the Xinjiang region, the heartland of China's often restive Uighur Muslim minority and an unforgiving terrain. The free or low-cost houses are assigned alternately to Uighurs and Han Chinese, who work side-by-side in greenhouses and send their children to school together.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. won, Russia lost and Interpol narrowly escaped disaster — that's the upshot of an unusually high-drama vote for the international police agency's president, dominated by fears that Russia wants to turn Interpol into a tool to hunt down its enemies. While rights groups and Kremlin critics celebrated the surprise victory of South Korean candidate Kim Jong Yang over his Russian rival, the vote exposed flaws within Interpol that won't vanish overnight. Now the pressure is on Kim and Interpol's day-to-day boss, Secretary-General Juergen Stock, to fix them. The White House came out publicly against the candidacy of Kim's Russian rival, Alexander Prokopchuk.

HOUSTON (AP) — Forced into exile in the U.S., Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh is without her homeland but not without hope. Quynh and her family are beginning their lives anew in Houston after she was released last month from prison in Vietnam on the condition that she left the country. She had been serving a 10-year sentence for documenting various human rights abuses in Vietnam, including civilian deaths in police custody and environmental disasters. Quynh says her eyesight was affected by months in solitary confinement, with her cell kept in darkness during the day and flooded with blinding light at night.

NEW DELHI (AP) — The first time American John Allen Chau visited the isolated island in the seas between India and Southeast Asia, he came bearing gifts that included a football and fish. He interacted with some of the tribesmen — who survive by hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants and are known for attacking anyone who comes near with bows and arrows and spears — until they became angry and shot an arrow at him. It struck a book Chau was carrying, which an acquaintance said was a Bible. The 26-year-old adventurer and Christian missionary then swam back to a boat of fishermen that was waiting at a safe distance.

SEATTLE (AP) — John Allen Chau spent summers alone in a California cabin as a wilderness emergency responder, led backpacking expeditions in the Northwest's Cascade Mountains, almost lost his leg to a rattlesnake bite, and coached soccer for poor children in Iraq and South Africa. But kayaking to a remote Indian island, home to a tribe known for attacking outsiders with bows and arrows, proved an adventure too far for the avid outdoorsman and Christian missionary. Police said Wednesday that he had been killed , and authorities were working with anthropologists to try to recover his body from North Sentinel, in the Andaman Islands.

BEIJING (AP) — The Italian luxury fashion house Dolce&Gabbana apologized Wednesday for insulting remarks about China it allegedly made in exchanges on Instagram but claimed its accounts had been hacked. Chinese celebrities reacted angrily after screenshots of the conversations were posted on social media and several said they would boycott a Dolce&Gabbana show scheduled for Wednesday night. The company later said the show, an extravaganza meant as a tribute to China with Asian stars invited to take front-row seats, had been called off. The screenshots appear to show co-founder Stefano Gabbana referring to China with crude terms and emoji as he defends promotional videos that had sparked controversy earlier.

BANGLI, Indonesia (AP) — A teary and largely silent convicted Australian drug mule returned to her hometown on Thursday hours after she was deported from the Indonesian tourist island of Bali where she had served nearly 14 years in prison for smuggling heroin. Renae Lawrence was the only woman among nine Australians who were arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms (18.3 pounds) of heroin from Bali to Australia. Lawrence, 41, wearing black sunglasses and a black T-shirt, was escorted Wednesday afternoon through a crush of reporters outside Bangli prison on Bali into a waiting car. She made no comment.

TOKYO (AP) — Nissan's board will meet Thursday to decide whether to dismiss its chairman Carlos Ghosn following his arrest on suspicion of underreporting his income. Earlier this week, alliance partner Renault voted to keep him as its chief executive but appointed an interim chief. Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa appears determined to oust Ghosn, who is suspected of under-reporting $44.6 million in income from 2011 to 2015. Nissan's board consists of nine members, including Ghosn and a representative director named Greg Kelly, who also was arrested Monday on suspicion he collaborated with Ghosn in false financial reporting. Ghosn is being held at a detention center in Tokyo.

BEIJING (AP) — A U.S. government report ahead of a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping accuses China of stepping up hacking aimed at stealing American technology as a tariff dispute escalated. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer's report reflects U.S. skepticism and a possible source of new acrimony ahead of the meeting in Buenos Aires aimed at defusing the dispute companies worry will chill global economic growth. The two sides have raised import duties on billions of dollars of each other's goods in the fight over U.S. complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Chinese hacking efforts aimed at stealing American technology and trade secrets have "increased in frequency and sophistication" this year, said Lighthizer's report, issued Tuesday in Washington.