Top Asian News 4:32 a.m. GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea's development of banned long-range missiles is in "final stages," the country's leader Kim Jong Un was quoted as saying in his New Year's message. Kim also threatened to boost his country's military capability unless the U.S. ends war games with rival South Korea, according to Seoul's Yonhap news agency, which monitored Kim's address on Sunday. Under Kim, who rose to power following his father's death in 2011, North Korea has seen steady progress in its nuclear and missile programs, including two nuclear tests this year. It recently claimed a series of technical breakthroughs in its goal of developing a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental United States.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's acting leader, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, sought to bolster the armed forces in a New Year's message aimed as much at potential North Korean provocation as the morale of southern troops. Hwang, who is leading the country while a court decides on whether to accept the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye and remove her from office, knows that North Korea may be his biggest challenge. Last year Pyongyang staged a string of missile test-launches and two nuclear tests, and, with instability in Seoul and a new president set to take over this month in Washington, many expect more trouble from North Korea.

Revelers around the world have been welcoming 2017 with crackling fireworks displays and loud cheering, saying goodbye to a year filled with political surprises, prolonged conflicts and the deaths of several beloved performers. The people of Sydney were treated to a glittering display over their famed harbor and bridge that honored the singer David Bowie and actor Gene Wilder, who both passed away in 2016. The tone was more somber elsewhere, though, including Berlin, where some expressed worry about the political mood in Germany. It was also relatively quiet in China's two largest cities, Beijing and Shanghai. In New York City, meanwhile, people packed into Times Square hours before midnight to secure coveted spots to watch the annual ball drop.

As 2016 draws to a close, revelers around the world are bidding a weary adieu to a year filled with political surprises, prolonged conflicts, deadly attacks at gatherings and deaths of legendary celebrities. Here's a look at how people are ushering in the new year: ___ AUSTRALIA Sydney sent up a dazzling tribute to 2016's fallen icons with a New Year's Eve fireworks display honoring the late singer David Bowie and late actor Gene Wilder, becoming the first major city to bid a bittersweet adieu to a turbulent year. The glittering display over Sydney's harbor and bridge featured Saturn- and star-shaped fireworks set to "Space Oddity," the classic song by Bowie, among the seemingly endless parade of beloved entertainers who died in 2016.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's leader on Saturday urged China to engage in "calm and rational" dialogue to maintain peace, vowing not to give in to Beijing's recent moves to "threaten and intimidate" the self-ruled island. "As long as we can be calm, rational, and maintain a flexible attitude, I believe we should be able to find a solution that allows both sides to maintain peaceful and stable relations," President Tsai Ing-wen said in a year-end news conference. Tensions have grown since China suspended contacts with Tsai's administration in June over her refusal to endorse China's claim that Taiwan and the mainland are part of a single Chinese nation.

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.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday that his government would continue to focus on poverty alleviation at home and resolutely defending China's territorial rights on the foreign front. Xi made the televised remarks in his annual New Year's Eve address, in which he touted China's scientific accomplishments, highlighting its large new radio telescope and space missions, and the country's growing role as a leader in global affairs. Standing before a mural of the Great Wall, Xi said his administration successfully hosted a G-20 summit, pushed forward with China's "One Belt One Road" pan-Eurasian infrastructure project and established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

BEIJING (AP) — State broadcaster Central China Television has rebranded its international networks and digital presence under the name China Global Television Network as part of a push to consolidate its worldwide reach. CCTV on Friday unveiled several new mobile apps under the CGTN brand, and visitors to CCTV's non-Chinese language websites are directed to a new http://www.cgtn.com site. The broadcaster says it made the move to "integrate resources and to adapt to the trend of media convergence," with foreign language channels, video content and digital media falling under the new group. The broadcaster published a congratulatory letter from President Xi Jinping on Saturday urging the newly launched CGTN to "tell China's story well, spread China's voice well, let the world know a three-dimensional, colorful China, and showcase China's role as a builder of world peace." The government has long grumbled about the Western news media's hold on international discourse and has spent vast sums in recent years to enhance its own influence and shape global opinion, with CCTV as one of its spearheads.

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.