Top Asian News 3:53 a.m. GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's disgraced former President Park Geun-hye was arrested and jailed Friday over high-profile corruption allegations that have already ended her tumultuous four-year rule and prompted an election to find a successor. A convoy of vehicles, including a black sedan carrying Park, entered a detention facility near Seoul before dawn after the Seoul Central District Court granted a prosecutors' request to arrest her. Many Park supporters waved national flags and shouted "president" as Park's car entered the facility. An opponent held up a mock congratulatory ribbon with flowers that read "Park Geun-hye, congratulations for entering prison.

A liberal politician opinion polls show as the favorite to become South Korea's next president says the arrest of Park Geun-hye took the country a step toward restoring "justice and common sense." The camp of Moon Jae-in said in a statement Friday that the nation should now "turn the page on painful history" and focus on creating a fair and clean country. His Democratic Party, the largest in parliament, drove the efforts to impeach Park in December. Her arrest came three week after the Constitutional Court formally stripped her of office. Moon lost the 2012 presidential race to Park. Park's conservative party described her arrest as "pitiful." "We wish that the sad history of a former president getting arrested never repeats in the Republic of Korea," the Liberty Korea Party said in a statement, using South Korea's formal name.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean presidencies have a history of ending badly — the latest is that of Park Geun-hye, arrested Friday in a corruption case that could send her to prison. Nearly all the country's former presidents, or their family members and top aides, have become entangled in scandals near the end of their terms or after leaving office. Besides corruption, there have been coups, an assassination and a suicide: ___ SYNGMAN RHEE (1948-1960) The U.S.-educated Rhee, who fought for Korean liberation from Japanese colonial rule, became South Korea's founding president in 1948 with help from the United States.

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time on April 6-7 at Trump's Florida resort, China's Foreign Ministry announced Thursday, amid a range of pressing issues including trade, North Korea and territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Trump predicted "a very difficult" meeting in a tweet just hours after both governments announced the summit. He wrote in part: "We can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses. American companies must be prepared to look at other alternatives." China's immediate response to Trump's tweet was diplomatic, with Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang telling reporters Friday morning that "both sides look forward to a successful meeting so that a correct direction can be set for the growth of bilateral relations." "China will continue to work with the United States to think creatively and keeping pushing for greater balance in China-U.S.

TOKYO (AP) — An aid group says a child diagnosed with thyroid cancer after the Fukushima nuclear accident is missing from government checkup records. Japanese authorities have said that among the 184 confirmed and suspected cases of thyroid cancer in Fukushima, no one was under age 5 at the time of the 2011 meltdowns. They've said that suggests the cases are not related to nuclear-plant radiation, as many were after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The 3.11 Fund for Children With Thyroid Cancer, however, said Friday that one child who was 4 when the meltdowns occurred has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States wants China to prove it is really seeking to stop North Korea's nuclear testing with actions and President Donald Trump will be pressing Chinese President Xi Jinping on that when they meet in Florida next week, the U.S. ambassador to the United States said Thursday. Ambassador Nikki Haley said the Trump administration has "no patience" for the "cat and mouse situation" in which North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile tests and other provocations are met only with U.N. Security Council resolutions that Pyongyang ignores. She said the U.S. can't change the way North Korea thinks but "China can." That will be the focus of the president's April 6-7 meeting with Xi at his Florida resort, she said.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The arrest of South Korea's first female president marks a stunning fall for the scion of a powerful general who himself ruled the country during her teenage years and into her 20s. Park Geun-hye was jailed Friday, three weeks after the Constitutional Court stripped her of office over a corruption scandal. Prosecutors accuse her of colluding with a jailed confidante to amass an illicit fortune and allowing the friend to manipulate state affairs. The memories of December 2012, when she convincingly won the presidency thanks to older voters who remembered her father as a hero who lifted a nation from war-torn poverty, couldn't feel more remote.

SYDNEY (AP) — Communities along Australia's east coast have been evacuated as floodwaters sparked by the remnants of a powerful cyclone poured into roads and threatened to inundate homes across the region. Officials told thousands of residents of low-lying communities in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales to move to higher ground on Friday as floodwaters from rain-swollen rivers swamped the area. The region has been subjected to days of drenching rains after Cyclone Debbie slammed into the Queensland coast on Tuesday with winds up to 260 kilometers (160 miles) an hour. The storm quickly weakened as it moved inland, but continued to dump rain across Queensland and New South Wales through Thursday.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government said Thursday it had found no evidence that any of its donations to the Christian charity World Vision had been siphoned to Islamic militant group Hamas. But Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said its World Vision funding in Gaza would remain suspended while Israeli charges against the global aid agency's Gaza manager Mohammed el-Halabi remain unresolved. "DFAT has reviewed the management of its funding to World Vision in the Palestinian Territories. The review uncovered nothing to suggest any diversion of government funds." the department said in a statement. "Australia's funding to World Vision in the Palestinian Territories remains suspended until we have considered the outcomes of the court case against Mr.

SYDNEY (AP) — A powerful cyclone that tore through northeast Australia has left the ground littered with battered trees, ripped-up roofs — and one very unlucky shark. Paramedic Lisa Smith said she was assessing the extent of flooding on Thursday on Rita Island, a coastal community near the town of Ayr in Queensland state that was lashed by Cyclone Debbie earlier this week. As she was approaching the edge of some receding floodwaters, she saw something strange and grey lying on the ground. At first, she thought it might be a dolphin and moved in for a closer look. "Then I saw the fins," she said.