Top Asian News 4:50 a.m. GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — One day after a stunning breakdown in diplomatic ties, Malaysia said Wednesday that it wants to negotiate with Pyongyang despite an increasingly bitter dispute over the investigation into the killing of Kim Jong Nam, the long-exiled half brother of North Korea's ruler. Malaysia has said two female attackers wielding VX nerve agent killed Kim on Feb. 13 at a crowded airport in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia's investigation has infuriated North Korea, which has dismissed the inquiry as politically motivated. The dispute took a surprising turn on Tuesday, when North Korea announced that it was blocking all Malaysians from leaving the country until the dispute is resolved.

BEIJING (AP) — A senior Chinese diplomat said Wednesday that tensions on the Korean peninsula were like "two accelerating trains" headed for collision, saying the way to defuse the crisis required action from both sides. Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed that North Korea could suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for a halt in joint military drills conducted by the U.S. and South Korea. He described escalating tensions between the North and Washington and Seoul to "two accelerating trains, coming toward each other with neither side willing to give way." "The question is: Are the two sides really ready for a head-on collision?" Wang told reporters.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A series of catastrophic electrical and other failures may have led to the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 over the Indian Ocean, according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. on behalf of the families of 44 people on board the still missing plane. The lawsuit, filed Friday against Boeing in U.S. District Court in South Carolina, names seven malfunctions, from an electrical fire to depressurization of the plane's cabin, that could have led to the crew losing consciousness, the plane's transponder stopping its transmission and the plane flying undetected until it crashed after running out of fuel.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Two of the world's most intriguing mysteries are in the hands of Malaysian investigators. Will they ever find all the answers to either? One of them — the fatal poisoning of the half brother of North Korea's ruler with a banned nerve agent — happened long after the other — Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished three years ago Wednesday. Investigators have far more evidence in the death of Kim Jong Nam, including his body and two suspects in custody, than they do in the disappearance of the plane, whose 239 passengers and crew could be forever lost in the Indian Ocean.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday strongly condemned the latest North Korean missile launches, calling them "a grave violation" of its sanctions resolutions. The United Nations' most powerful body said it deplored all North Korean ballistic missile activity, which contributes to improving its missile delivery systems and increases tensions in the region and beyond. The tests risk a regional arms race, the council added. In press statement issued Tuesday night, the council also expressed serious concern over North Korea's "increasingly destabilizing behavior" and defiance of council resolutions. The council said its member nations would continue to closely monitor the situation and take further significant measures.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. missile launchers and other equipment needed to set up a controversial missile defense system have arrived in South Korea, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said Tuesday, a day after North Korea test-fired four ballistic missiles into the ocean near Japan. The plans to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, within this year have angered not only North Korea, but also China and Russia, which see the system's powerful radars as a security threat. China responded quickly, saying it will take "necessary measures" to protect itself and warning that the U.S. and South Korea should be prepared to bear the consequences.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Lee Jae-yong, the billionaire Samsung Group heir, will stand trial Thursday in a Seoul court. He is charged with, among other offenses, offering bribes to President Park Geun-hye and a close friend of hers to strengthen his control over Samsung, the conglomerate founded by his grandfather that is South Korea's largest and most successful business. Four other Samsung executives will also stand trial. Documents from special prosecutors detail allegations that Lee and his aides used Samsung corporate funds to purchase expensive horses for the equestrian daughter of Park's friend Choi Soon-sil. They also say the presidential office pressured the national pension fund to facilitate a father-to-son leadership succession at Samsung in exchange for 43.3 billion won ($38 million at current exchange rates) from Lee.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government minister in charge of the suspended seabed search for the Malaysia Airlines jet told victims' families and friends at an anniversary church service on Wednesday that he remained hopeful that Flight 370 would be found. Darren Chester, minister for infrastructure and transport, and Angus Houston, the former Australian defense chief who coordinated the early months of the search efforts, were among around 100 who attended the private ceremony at St. John's Anglican Cathedral in the east city of Brisbane to mark the third anniversary of the mysterious tragedy. Several victims and relatives of the 239 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 777 live in or near Brisbane.

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Police said Wednesday they had killed a man suspected of masterminding the bombing of a passenger train that injured eight people this week in India. An anti-terrorist police squad engaged the suspect in an 11-hour gunbattle overnight, after tracking him down at the home of a Muslim cleric in the city of Lucknow, according to senior police official A. Satish Ganesh in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Ganesh identified the slain suspect as Saifullah, and said he was wanted in connection with Tuesday's train blast near Bhopal in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Indian police on Tuesday arrested and questioned four suspects in Madhya Pradesh, leading to tips that drove police in Uttar Pradesh to arrest two more suspects in the city of Kanpur, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Lucknow.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As South Korea begins the deployment of an advanced U.S. anti-missile system that it says will allow it to better cope with North Korean threats, the reaction from its belligerent rival is hardly its only concern. The plan to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, this year has angered not only North Korea, but also China, South Korea's largest trade partner, which considers the system a security threat. Residents in a rural South Korean town where THAAD is planned to sit have furiously protested over rumored health hazards they link to the system's powerful radar, and some of the country's potential presidential candidates have vowed to walk back on the deal if they win office.