Top Asian News 4:53 a.m. GMT

BEIJING (AP) — President Donald Trump has issued belated well-wishes to China for the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in the world's most populous nation, saying he hoped to work with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to build a "constructive relationship." Trump had been the only U.S. president in recent years not to have issued greetings when the holiday fell on Jan. 28, triggering speculation in China as to whether it was an oversight or an intentional slight. A statement from the White House late Wednesday said Trump wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping wishing the Chinese people greetings for the new year and the Lantern Festival that falls on Saturday.

BEIJING (AP) — When the smog descends over northern China, turning blue skies gray and thickening the air, Cai Fujian can feel his lungs tightening and he begins to cough. The 65-year-old retiree says he's too old to take steps to combat the heavy pollution like wearing a mask, but he does watch television news reports about the particles in the air that damage lung tissue and kill thousands of people each year. For weeks at a time, China's smog transforms cities across the industrial north into quiet, gray shells of their normal selves. The Associated Press visited several spots in Beijing during and after a December "red alert," the highest level in China's four-tiered smog warning system.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is charting its own course to deal with a radically different U.S. president, an approach that will be tested at the end of this week when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets Donald Trump in the White House and on the golf course in Florida. Some other leaders of America's closest neighbors and allies, from Mexico to the United Kingdom, have been singed by their encounters with Trump. Japanese officials are optimistic the invitation to visit Trump's "Winter White House," an exclusive club he owns in Palm Beach, signals a more positive outcome. "We hope that the two leaders can deepen relations and trust in Florida," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in announcing the trip.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and India seem like a natural fit in the Trump era: rambunctious democracies, led by populists, focused on economic growth and fighting radical Islam. It's a budding partnership that could be set back by a nuts-and-bolts dispute over employment visas. As President Donald Trump looks to help American workers, his administration is considering a broad review of a visa program used heavily by India's massive technology and outsourcing industries to send programmers and other computer specialists to the United States. Speculation about tougher rules on so-called H-1B visas sent tech stocks tumbling in India last week, and compounded concerns about the protectionist direction of U.S.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The Indonesian military says it has accepted an apology from Australia's army chief over a purported insult to Indonesia's state ideology that caused a spat between the two countries. An Indonesian military statement released late Wednesday after Australian army chief Lt. Gen. Angus Campbell met with Indonesian military chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said the Australian Defense Force would sanction personnel involved in the incident. Indonesia's military partially suspended cooperation with its Australian counterparts in early January. The rift developed after an Indonesian military officer raised concerns in November about teaching materials and remarks made at an army language training facility in western Australia.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — When Pyeongchang was awarded the 2018 Olympics six years ago, many South Koreans felt that the first Winter Games on home snow would herald their entry into the top tier of rich nations. One year before the Olympics, however, the country is in political disarray, and winter sports are the last thing on many people's minds. To say that South Koreans are distracted from what had been billed as a crowning sports achievement is an understatement. After protests that saw millions take to the streets, South Korea's president, toppled from power, languishes in her mountainside palace as a court ponders whether to approve her impeachment and trigger early elections.

GAUHATI, India (AP) — The greater adjutant stork used to be an object of revulsion in northeast India. It's not a pretty bird, with its large, dull-orange bill and gray, black and white plumage. A carnivore and scavenger, it left bits of dead animals in its nests. People thought it brought bad luck, so they destroyed nests and sometimes poisoned the birds. The fortunes of the species may turn on local pride. Local women took it upon themselves early last year to form a conservation movement for the bird in Assam state, one of only three homes the species has left.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Gay men in New Zealand who were convicted of homosexuality more than three decades ago when it was considered a crime will soon be able to have their records cleared. Justice Minister Amy Adams on Thursday announced a scheme to wipe clean the criminal records of people convicted of indecency, sodomy or providing a place for homosexual acts. She apologized to those who'd been convicted but said they would not receive any compensation. The scheme is broadly supported by lawmakers and is expected to be approved by the Parliament. Adams estimated about 1,000 gay men would be eligible to have their convictions quashed.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Participants at a Vatican conference on organ trafficking challenged China on Tuesday to allow independent scrutiny to ensure it is no longer using organs from executed prisoners, saying Chinese assurances aren't enough to prove the transplant program has been reformed. Sparks flew in the afternoon session of the meeting as China's former vice health minister, Dr. Huang Jiefu, sought to assure the international medical community that China was "mending its ways" after declaring an end to the prisoner harvesting program in 2015. "I am fully aware of the speculation about my participation in the summit," Huang told the conference, citing "continuing concerns about the transplant activities." He provided scant data to rebut critics, however, showing only two slides indicating an increased number of living and deceased donors in recent years and China's recent efforts to crack down on black market transplant activities.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — U.S. officials stopped screening refugees for potential resettlement in the United States this week but will return to the Pacific atoll of Nauru to continue working toward a deal that President Donald Trump has condemned as "dumb," an Australian minister said Thursday. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton would not say when U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials would return to Nauru to conduct what Trump describes as "extreme vetting." Trump made enhanced screening a condition for agreeing to honor an Obama administration deal to accept up to 1,250 refugees refused entry into Australia. Australia pays Nauru and Papua New Guinea to keep more than 2,000 asylum seekers — mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka — in conditions condemned by rights groups.