Top Asian News 3:27 a.m. GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Officials in Beijing are creating a new environmental police squad in the latest effort to fight China's persistent problems with heavy smog. According to state media, Beijing's acting mayor said Saturday that the new police force will focus on open-air barbecues, garbage incineration and the burning of wood and other biomass. Beijing and dozens of cities in China spend many winter days under a thick, gray haze, caused chiefly by thousands of coal-burning factories and a surplus of older, inefficient vehicles. Government-issued "red alerts" on the worst days come with emergency measures that can include shutting down highways, restricting vehicles, or ordering factories to curtail production.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean Buddhist monk is in critical condition after setting himself on fire to protest the country's settlement with Japan on compensation for wartime sex slaves, officials said Sunday. The 64-year-old monk suffered third-degree burns across his body and serious damage to vital organs. He's unconscious and unable to breathe on his own, said an official from the Seoul National University Hospital, who didn't want to be named citing office rules. The man set himself ablaze late Saturday during a large rally in Seoul calling for the ouster of impeached President Park Geun-hye, police said.

BEIJING (AP) — An official with President-elect Donald Trump's transition team said Saturday that neither Trump nor transition officials would be meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who stopped in the U.S. during her trip to the Americas. Still, Tsai's trip will be scrutinized by Beijing for any signs that Trump's team will risk its ire by further engaging with the self-ruled island that China considers its territory. Tsai, who departed Taipei on Saturday, pledged to bolster Taiwan's international profile as she set off on a trip to reinforce relations with diplomatic allies in Central America, a task that has taken on new urgency as Beijing ramps up efforts to diplomatically isolate Taipei.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Lobster lovers are used to adjusting to high prices, but this winter, they're shelling out even more for the cherished crustaceans because of a lack of catch off of New England and Canada and heavy exports to China. Winter is typically a slow season for U.S. lobster fishermen and an active one off Atlantic Canada. But catch is slow in both countries this year, in part because of bad weather, industry sources said. And the winter months are also an important time for exports to lobster-crazy China, which celebrates its New Year holiday Jan. 28. It's increasingly popular to celebrate the Chinese New Year with American lobster.

AMBALANTOTA, Sri Lanka (AP) — At least 21 people were injured Saturday in violent clashes between Sri Lankan government supporters and villagers marching against what they say is a plan to take over private land for an industrial zone in which China will have a major stake. Police used tear gas and water cannons to try to break up the clashes, which took place as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was attending an opening ceremony for the industrial zone, located near the port city of Hambantota, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) southeast of the capital, Colombo. The clashes began when government supporters started throwing rocks at villagers who were marching to the ceremony site.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A lawyer for South Korea's disgraced president has compared her impeachment to the deaths of Jesus Christ and the ancient Greek thinker Socrates. While that may be over the top, the impeachment trial of President Park Geun-hye is of critical importance for the world's 11th largest economy as the government tries to boost jobs, restore confidence among furious citizens and navigate relations with a new administration in its close ally, the United States, as well as its always belligerent archrival, nuclear-armed North Korea. A caretaker prime minister now tries to steer the country while the Constitutional Court decides whether Park — who spends her days, powerless, in the presidential palace — should permanently step down over a corruption scandal or be reinstated.

ACH SEH ISLAND, Cambodia (AP) — A 7-inch creature with a head resembling a horse and a monkey-like tail glides gracefully out of a dark coral crevice off the Cambodian coast. Master of camouflage, unrivaled as a hunter and a much-loved figure of ancient myths and legends, the seahorse may be spiraling toward annihilation after surviving beneath the waves for some 40 million years. Taking photographs and detailed notes, two divers swim through turbid water to spot the male in the crevice and a nearby female, both hanging on in a once-pristine habitat turned to withered coral beds and ragged remnants of seagrass meadows.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan announced Friday that it would recall its ambassador to South Korea and suspend economic talks in response to the placing of a "comfort woman" statue representing wartime sex slaves in front of its consulate in the Korean port city of Busan. Both Ambassador Yasumasa Nagamine in Seoul and the consul-general in Busan will be temporarily recalled, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. Many Korean and other women in Asia were forced into sexual slavery in front-line brothels for the Japanese military during World War II in what was called the "comfort woman" system.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte toured one of the two Russian warships docked in Manila on Friday in another gesture of warming ties with Moscow as he shifts his country's foreign policy away from long-time ally, the United States. Rear Adm. Eduard Mikhailov, deputy commander of Russia's Pacific Fleet, and Russian Ambassador Igor Khovaev and escorted Duterte and several cabinet members around the anti-submarine ship Admiral Tributs. At one point during the hourlong visit, Duterte looked out from the ship's deck and pumped his fist in the air. He was also shown equipment and weapons on board the ship and peered from binoculars from a chair.

SHANGHAI (AP) — In a sign of improving cooperation between the U.S. and China to fight the global drug trade, the Drug Enforcement Administration will open a new office there and its top chief will visit next week for the first time in more than a decade. The DEA said acting administrator Chuck Rosenberg will visit Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong Monday through Thursday, at the invitation of China's Ministry of Public Security. The last time the head of the DEA visited the country was 2005. The planned new office in the city of Guangzhou will likely be staffed with two special agents, pending final approvals, said Russell Baer, a DEA special agent in Washington.