Top Asian News 4:06 a.m. GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Scientists and bioethics experts reacted with shock, anger and alarm Monday to a Chinese researcher's claim that he helped make the world's first genetically edited babies. He Jiankui of Southern University of Science and Technology of China said he altered the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month to try to help them resist possible future infection with the AIDS virus — a dubious goal, ethically and scientifically. There is no independent confirmation of what He says he did, and it has not been published in a journal where other experts could review it. He revealed it Monday in Hong Kong where a gene editing conference is getting underway, and previously in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press.

HONG KONG (AP) — A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world's first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life. If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics. A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes. Many mainstream scientists think it's too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation.

PARIS (AP) — A trailblazer and visionary in the auto industry, Carlos Ghosn is also a highflyer prone to excesses that may have helped bring on his surprise downfall as head of the world's best-selling auto group. Ghosn turned around France's Renault SA and then Japan's Nissan Motor Co., eventually linking them in an alliance with Mitsubishi Motor Corp. in their top-selling venture. But while renowned as an industry cost cutter, he spent lavishly on himself, thanks to multi-million-dollar salaries from the three companies. Ghosn's October 2016 wedding to his second wife at the Grand Trianon in Versailles, once favored by Marie Antoinette, featured actors in 18th century attire, a towering wedding cake and mounds of treats.

MUMBAI, India (AP) — As Mumbai marked the 10th anniversary of attacks that killed 166 in India's financial capital on Monday, the United States made a new reward offer for information on the 2008 siege. The Pakistani gunmen who waged the attack were killed or captured. But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that those who planned the attack had not been convicted. He called on Pakistan to implement sanctions against those responsible and said the U.S. was offering a new $5 million reward and was committed to seeing those responsible face justice. On Nov. 26, 2008, gunmen staged coordinated attacks in the heart of Mumbai.

TOKYO (AP) — The arrest of Nissan's former chief executive Carlos Ghosn has raised doubts over the future of the alliance among automakers Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi Motors that he helped to forge. Such partnerships wax and wane over time, but have grown in importance as companies develop electric vehicles, net connectivity and artificial intelligence for autos. Ghosn was arrested Nov. 19 in Tokyo on suspicion of under-reporting his income and other financial misconduct. The boards of Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motor Corp. voted unanimously to oust him as chairman, while Renault SA of France has kept him while seeking more information about his case.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A member of the Uighur minority on Monday detailed torture and abuse she says she experienced in one of the internment camps where the Chinese government has detained hundreds of thousands of religious minorities. Mihrigul Tursun, speaking to reporters in Washington, said she was interrogated for four days in a row without sleep, had her hair shaved and was subjected to an intrusive medical examination following her second arrest in China in 2017. After she was arrested a third time, the treatment grew worse. "I thought that I would rather die than go through this torture and begged them to kill me," Tursun, 29, told reporters at a meeting at the National Press Club.

BEIJING (AP) — A strong showing by Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party in local elections over the weekend presents a major challenge to independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen as she grapples with growing economic, political and military pressure from rival China. While Saturday's polls were largely decided by local concerns, Beijing cast a heavy shadow after two years of unrelenting efforts to restrict Taiwan's participation in international society and advertise its threat to use force to bring the island under its control. Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party lost power in its southern stronghold of Kaohsiung, while the Nationalists notched up 15 wins in the 22 major races being contested.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Divided for about seven decades, North and South Korea together won their first international recognition of Korean traditional wrestling as one of the world's cultural treasures on Monday. The Koreas had earlier pushed separate bids for the sport's UNESCO recognition before merging their applications amid an easing of tensions this year. Local media reports said South Korea had first proposed the joint bid after a leaders' summit at a Korean border village in April. On Monday, UNESCO said Korean wrestling was added to a list of "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" on the basis of an application by the two Koreas.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Conservation workers and volunteers in New Zealand managed to refloat six surviving stranded whales on Tuesday and were hoping the animals would soon swim away into deeper water. Ten pygmy killer whales were initially found stranded Sunday at Ninety Mile Beach on the North Island. Two whales later died there. On Monday evening, crews transported the remaining animals on hay-lined trailers to Rarawa Beach on the opposite coast of the peninsula, where the sea conditions were calmer. The trip took about an hour, said Department of Conservation ranger Jamie Werner. Werner said the whales were then placed in a tidal stream to relieve the pressure on their bodies.

NEW YORK (AP) — Greed motivated a Hong Kong businessman to line the pockets of government officials in two African nations — bribes intended to land lucrative business deals and oil rights for a Chinese energy conglomerate, federal prosecutors told a jury Monday. But a defense attorney for Dr. Chi Ping Patrick Ho argued that the multimillion-dollar payments were both charitable and aboveboard, and that the conglomerate received "nothing in return." "This is a bribery case with no bribe," the attorney, Benjamin Rosenberg, said in his opening statement. The payments Ho made to government officials, including the president of Chad and the Ugandan foreign minister, were intended only to generate goodwill and long-term relationships, he said.