Top Asian News 4:11 a.m. GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's Constitutional Court on Thursday began to hear oral arguments in the impeachment trial of President Park Geun-hye, who lawmakers voted to remove over a corruption scandal that saw millions of people protest over the last several months. Park's lawyers and lawmakers, who serve as prosecutors in the trial, traded pointed arguments Thursday on the validity of accusations that she colluded with a confidante to extort money and favors from companies and allowed the friend to unlawfully interfere with government affairs. Lawmaker Kweon Seong Dong, the chief prosecutor in the trial, said Park betrayed the trust people put in her by "broadly and gravely" violating the constitution and criminal laws.

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia scrambled to calm tensions with Indonesia on Thursday, promising that an investigation was nearly complete into an alleged insult of Indonesian state ideology that prompted Indonesia to suspend military cooperation with its neighbor. The exact cause of the rift between the two allies remained slightly murky one day after Indonesia's announcement of the suspension took officials in Canberra by surprise. Military ties between the two nations have been relatively warm in recent years, having improved since Indonesia downgraded its relations with Australia in 2013 over the alleged bugging of phones belonging to Indonesia's then-president. Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said Thursday that the current issue began in November, after an Indonesian military officer raised concerns about some teaching materials and remarks made at an Army language training facility in western Australia.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A leader of suspected sympathizers of the Islamic State group was killed Thursday in a clash with Philippine police after resisting arrest at a beach resort in the south, officials said. Senior Supt. Leonardo Suan said Jaafar Maguid, leader of a small armed group called Ansar Al Khilafah Philippines, died in the shootout in southern Sarangani Province's Kiamba town. Three of Maguid's followers were arrested in the shooting that happened after police went to check reports from civilians about the presence of armed men, said Suan, deputy director for operations of the regional police. Officials said Maguid's group is believed to be behind a string of attacks including a grenade blast hat killed a police officer and wounded dozens of people.

KIDAPAWAN, Philippines (AP) — More than 100 suspected Muslim rebels stormed a jail in the southern Philippines before dawn Wednesday, allowing 158 inmates to escape in what officials said was the biggest jailbreak in the country. Six of the inmates were killed in firefights with pursuing police and army troops, while eight others have been caught and were being returned to the facility, said Senior Inspector Xavier Solda, spokesman for the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. Solda said the heavily armed gunmen emerged from a forest and attacked the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan under the cover of darkness.

BEIJING (AP) — Taiwan has protested Vietnam sending four of its nationals accused of fraud to China, saying they were denied visits by Taiwanese diplomats and forcibly sent to the mainland under pressure from Beijing. Scores of Taiwanese have been arrested around the world in the past year in connection with vast telecoms fraud scams targeting Chinese. Countries including Malaysia, Cambodia and Kenya have deported Taiwanese suspects to China, in deference to Beijing's claim to sovereignty over the self-governing island. Taiwan has vigorously protested the deportations, saying it should be allowed to prosecute its own citizens. But it lacks diplomatic relations with many of the countries, which have close diplomatic and economic ties to Beijing.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A judge in Denmark said Wednesday she is strongly considering taking legal steps against South Korean journalists for violating Danish law by filming inside a courtroom the daughter of the impeached South Korean president's confidante during a detention hearing. Malene Urup says South Korean reporters filmed and spoke to Yoora Chung on Sunday, hours after her arrest on an international warrant. The interviews eventually were posted on South Korean news media's websites. Urup told The Associated Press on Wednesday that reporters were informed in Danish and English "several times" about the ban and asked to delete the videos.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — People who lost their homes in the devastating earthquake that hit Nepal nearly two years ago are tired of waiting for help to rebuild. The slow pace of distributing government grant money for rebuilding has left many people to spend their second winter without a home. Nhuchhe Laxmi Prajapati and Shiva Prajapati, who are not related, are building their houses now, by taking out loans with high interest rates. Their homes and hundreds of others were damaged during the April 25, 2015, earthquake in the town of Bhaktapur, which is known for brick paved roads, old palaces and artistic Hindu temples.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia said Wednesday that it has suspended military cooperation with Australia over an alleged insult of Indonesian state ideology. Indonesian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wuryanto said that cooperation has been suspended indefinitely, and that the decision was made after considering many matters. Although Wuryanto, who like many Indonesians uses one name, declined to give the exact reason for the decision, he said among the factors were reports of an Indonesian instructor saying that a "laminated paper" displayed at the Australian Special Forces base where he worked was insulting. "This is not a protest ... we would like to establish a useful cooperation for the two nations based on mutual respect," Wuryanto told The Associated Press.

BEIJING (AP) — A vengeful man stabbed 12 children with a kitchen knife at a kindergarten in southern China on Wednesday, seriously injuring five of them, local authorities said. The attacker "sneaked into" the school in the afternoon and stabbed children in his child's class while the students were eating, according to a statement from the Pingxiang city government's information office, citing police. Two teachers fought back with plastic chairs, and police called to the school in the largely rural region of Guangxi managed to detain him. None of the children has life-threatening injuries, the statement said. The government said the suspect was Qin Peng'an, a man from Nanshan village that is under the jurisdiction of Pingxiang city.

BEIJING (AP) — An official allegedly shot and injured two leaders of a city in southwestern China on Wednesday as the pair held a meeting in a conference center, and later killed himself, local authorities said. The suspect entered the venue where the Communist Party chief and mayor of Panzhihua city in Sichuan province were meeting and shot continuously before running off, according to a statement from the city's information office. The statement said that the suspect, identified as the city's land and resources chief, Chen Zhongshu, was found dead on a basement floor in the conference center. It said he had committed suicide.