Top Asian News 1:16 a.m. GMT

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea is vowing tough counteraction to any military moves that might follow the U.S. move to send the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group to waters off the Korean Peninsula. The statement from Pyongyang comes as tensions on the divided peninsula are high because of U.S.-South Korea wargames now underway and recent ballistic missile launches by the North. Pyongyang sees the annual maneuvers as a dress rehearsal for invasion, while the North's missile launches violate U.N. resolutions. "We will hold the U.S. wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions," a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the state-run Korean Central News Agency late Monday.

BEIJING (AP) — China's use of the death penalty remains shrouded in secrecy and still outpaces the rest of the world combined, even after the nation's execution rate fell sharply over the past decade, human rights activists said Tuesday. Amnesty International reported 1,032 state-sponsored executions worldwide in 2016, excluding China, where the true number is unknown because the government considers it a state secret. The group said it believes China executed thousands, but it didn't offer a more precise estimate due to a lack of accurate information. The human rights group Dui Hua estimates about 2,000 executions took place in China last year, down from a 6,500 a decade ago, said the group's executive director, John Kamm.

HEFEI, China (AP) — The flood of angry anti-Muslim rhetoric on social media was the first sign of how fiercely the suburban middle-class homeowners in this central China city opposed a planned mosque in their neighborhood. It quickly escalated into something more sinister. Soon a pig's head was buried in the ground at the future Nangang mosque, the culmination of a rally in which dozens of residents hoisted banners and circled the planned building site. Then the mosque's imam received a text message carrying a death threat: "In case someone in your family dies, I have a coffin for you — and more than one, if necessary."

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The wife of a Taiwanese pro-democracy activist detained in China said Monday that she was prevented from flying to the mainland to seek a visit with her husband, whose case has inflamed tensions between the sides that have already sunk to their lowest level in years. Lee Ching-yu said airline staff told her when she tried to check in for her flight that Beijing authorities had canceled her Chinese-issued travel permit. Li was hoping to fly to China to demand information about her husband, Lee Ming-che, who has not been heard from since March 19. A Chinese official said last week that Lee was under investigation on suspicion of endangering Chinese national security and was in "good physical condition," but offered no additional information.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippines appeals court on Monday affirmed a regional trial court's conviction of a U.S. Marine and his sentence of up to 10 years in jail for killing a transgender Filipino, whose heirs he was also ordered to compensate. The Court of Appeals decision seen Monday did not accept Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton's claim of self-defense in killing Jennifer Laude inside a motel room in northwestern Olongapo city after they met in a disco bar in October 2014. The killing sparked anger in the Philippines and reignited calls by left-wing groups and nationalists for an end to U.S.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's military sentenced an Indian naval officer to death Monday on charges of espionage and sabotage, officials said. Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March 2016, had been convicted by a military tribunal, the Pakistani army said in a statement. Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, the head of Pakistan's armed forces, signed off on the sentence. Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif alleged that the spy had official Indian government backing. "Anyone who patronizes our killers will be met with iron hands," he told the local Geo TV channel. "We have no mercy for them." Islamabad alleges that Jadhav was an Indian intelligence official who aided and financed terrorist activities in the southwestern province of Baluchistan and the southern port city of Karachi.

The Dalai Lama consecrated a Buddhist monastery in India's remote northeast, amid Chinese warnings that the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's visit to a disputed border region would damage bilateral relations with India. Nearly 10,000 people, some of them from neighboring Bhutan, greeted the Dalai Lama at the religious site. In other images from the Asia-Pacific region last week, North Korea and South Korea's women's ice hockey and soccer teams faced off in matches in the South Korean city of Gangneung and the North Korean capitol of Pyongyang. Cherry blossoms were in full bloom at the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in Tokyo.

BEIJING (AP) _ China's navy says its forces rescued a freighter from attack by pirates in the Gulf of Aden over the weekend. Missing from the report was any mention of the participation of the Indian navy, which says it dispatched four ships and a helicopter to provide cover for the action. The omission was likely no accident. Deep distrust persists between the two nuclear-armed Asian giants, and in recent days, China has angrily denounced New Delhi over a visit by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to an Indian border area that China claims as its own territory.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Norway's prime minister on Monday as the two countries sought to move beyond a six-year rift following the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to an imprisoned Chinese dissident. Meeting in Beijing, Xi commended Prime Minister Erna Solberg for her "hard work" in helping normalize ties between the countries. It was the first visit from a Norwegian prime minister to China in 10 years. "Your visit this time holds a lot of significance," Xi said. "This is the first high-level visit since the normalization of China-Norway relations in December." China suspended its bilateral trade deal with Norway and restricted imports of Norwegian salmon when the peace prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo in 2010.

BEIJING (AP) — A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves: ___ EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at the latest developments in the South China Sea, home to several territorial conflicts that have raised tensions in the region. ___ The Pentagon says A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group is departing the South China Sea to provide a physical presence near the Korean Peninsula. The U.S.