Top Asian News at 11:01 p.m. GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Piracy and pilot suicide are among the scenarios under study as investigators grow increasingly certain the missing Malaysian Airlines jet changed course and headed west after its last radio contact with air traffic controllers. The latest evidence suggests the plane didn't experience a catastrophic incident over the South China Sea as was initially suspected. Some experts theorize that one of the pilots, or someone else with flying experience, hijacked the plane or committed suicide by plunging the jet into the sea.

As the search continues for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, a key unanswered question is what happened to the Boeing 777's transponder. Transponders emit electronic signals containing information that shows up on air traffic controllers' screens. The information includes the plane's unique identifying code and its direction, speed and altitude.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — One was passionate enough about flying to build his own flight simulator in his home. The other was a 27-year-old contemplating marriage after having just graduated to the cockpit of a Boeing 777. As speculation intensified Friday that the missing Malaysia Airlines plane might have been commandeered by someone with aviation skills, a picture began to emerge of the two pilots.

BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday urged Malaysia's government to release any information it has regarding the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner to help narrow the search area. The Foreign Ministry's appeal reflected growing frustration among Chinese officials over conflicting information about the plane, which vanished last Saturday with 239 people aboard, including 154 Chinese passengers.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India used heat sensors on flights over hundreds of uninhabited Andaman Sea islands Friday and will expand its search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet farther west into the Bay of Bengal, officials said. Two Indian air force reconnaissance planes flew over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after they and two naval ships and two coast guard vessels scoured the surrounding seas without finding evidence of the plane, according to spokesman Col. Harmit Singh of India's Tri-Services Command on the territory.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States supports U.N. Security Council discussion of allegations North Korea committed crimes against humanity, a senior official said Friday. But he questioned whether the council had time to take up the issue. A U.N. commission of inquiry issued a report last month that detailed systematic executions, torture, rape and mass starvation by North Korea's authoritarian government. The commission, led by a retired Australian judge, called for the Security Council to consider the report and refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers pushed the Obama administration Friday to strengthen relations with Taiwan and voiced concern that U.S. defense budget cuts will affect planned upgrades to the self-governing island's fleet of F-16s. Both Republicans and Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee accused the administration of prioritizing U.S. relations with China over those with Taiwan, particularly when it comes to defense sales.

NEW YORK (AP) — An Indian diplomat was re-indicted Friday on U.S. visa fraud charges that touched off an international stir after she was arrested and strip-searched last year. The new indictment, filed Friday, essentially just reinstates recently dismissed charges against the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade — charges that now arrive with her out of the United States.

BEIJING (AP) — A fight between two food stall owners at a market in southern China on Friday left five people hacked to death and one person fatally shot by police, authorities said. A man named Hebir Turdi slashed and killed another man, Memet Abla, at the market in Changsha, the official Xinhua News Agency said. As he ran away, Turdi stabbed four more people before he was shot dead by police, it said.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The political party of former Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri nominated the capital's popular governor as its presidential candidate on Friday, a move aimed at bolstering the party's prospects in upcoming legislative elections. Since being elected governor of Jakarta in 2012, Joko Widodo, known as "Jokowi," has topped polls as the most electable candidate to replace President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who cannot run for re-election because he is already in his second term.

TOKYO (AP) — Police on Friday arrested a man for allegedly tearing pages out of books related to Anne Frank at a Tokyo library. More than 300 books related to the Holocaust victim, including "The Diary of a Young Girl," have been found vandalized recently at libraries across Japan's capital.

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A police officer in Pakistan says a woman who set herself on fire outside a police station after reporting men tried to rape her has died. Police Chief Usman Akran Gondal of Muzaffargarh district says the woman died Friday after setting herself on fire Thursday in the village of Beit Mir Hazar Khan.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan court on Friday ordered the detention and questioning of a woman who has been searching for a 15-year-old son who is among the country's war missing, a rights activist said. Her 13-year-old daughter was referred to child care officials. Human rights activists say the arrest of Balendran Jeyakumari and her daughter Vithushaini on Thursday is part of the government's continuing efforts to intimidate families of the country's civil war-missing into silence.

MUMBAI, India (AP) — An old, seven-story residential building collapsed Friday in a Mumbai suburb, killing at least seven people and injuring another eight, police said. The building had already been condemned as unsafe when it crashed down into a huge pile of concrete slabs, rubble and dust, Disaster Response Force commander Alok Awasthi said.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday his government is not considering a revision of the country's 1993 apology for forcing South Korean and other women to have sex with Japanese soldiers during World War II. Answering questions in parliament, Abe reiterated Friday what his government's top spokesman said earlier this week about the 1993 statement on the so-called comfort women system.