Top Asian News 3:28 a.m. GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A powerful typhoon was heading for a Christmas Day collision with the central Philippines. Nock-Ten has intensified into a super typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers (108 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 215 kph (133 mph) and it heads for landfall over Cataduanes Island in the central Bicol region. It's then forecast to drag across the southern portion of the main Luzon island as it passes close to the capital, Manila, and begins to weaken. Heavy rainfall, damaging winds and battering waves are threatening heavily populated areas, where the Philippine weather bureau raised storm signals and warned that sea travel is risky along the eastern seaboard.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka unveiled a towering Christmas tree, claiming to have surpassed the world record despite constructions delays and a shorter-than-planned finished product. The 73-meter (238-foot) artificial tree in capital Colombo is 18 meters (59 feet) taller than the current record holder, organizers said. The tree's steel-and-wire frame is covered with a plastic net decorated with more than 1 million natural pine cones painted red, gold, green and silver, 600,000 LED bulbs and topped by a 6-meter (20-foot)-tall shining star. The tree costs $80,000 and was criticized by the Catholic Church as a "waste of money." The church suggested that the funds better be spent on helping the poor.

NEW DELHI (AP) — A woman and a teenager believed to be linked to a banned Islamist militant group blew themselves up during a police raid on a two-story house in Bangladesh's capital on Saturday, a government minister said. The woman died after detonating explosives attached to her body during the raid, while the teenage boy's bloodied body was found inside an apartment on the ground floor of the building in Dhaka's Ashkona area, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said. Both were tied to the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group, or JMB, he said. A 7-year-old girl sustained splinter injuries when the woman blew herself up and was being treated at a hospital in Dhaka, Khan said.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean special prosecutor on Saturday summoned the jailed friend of impeached President Park Geun-hye who allegedly exploited her connections with Park to extort money and favors from the country's largest companies and manipulate government affairs. In handcuffs, white prison clothes and a surgical mask, Choi Soon-sil was escorted into a southern Seoul office where investigators have been widening their inquiry into the scandal. Millions of protesters have taken to the streets before the country's opposition-controlled parliament on Dec. 9 voted to impeach Park. Lee Kyu Chul, an official from the investigation team led by special prosecutor Park Young-soo, said without elaborating that Choi would be "broadly" questioned on charges that were included in indictments and also on newer allegations.

CHICAGO (AP) — A teenage blogger from Singapore whose supporters say is seeking asylum is in custody after being detained last week at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, U.S. immigration officials said Saturday. Amos Yee, 18, was detained Dec. 16 and remains in custody "pending federal immigration court proceedings," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said in a written statement. Separately, Marilu Cabrera with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles some asylum requests, said the agency "cannot confirm or deny" details of any asylum case. The Human Rights Watch deputy director for Asia, Phil Robertson, called on the U.S.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Kem Ley, a poor rice farmer's son turned champion of Cambodia's have-nots, was sipping his usual iced latte in the same chair he had occupied most mornings for years. Eyewitnesses say a former soldier walked into the Caltex gas station cafe, fired a semi-automatic Glock pistol into his chest and head and casually walked away. Two weeks later, tens of thousands of mourners thronged Phnom Penh's streets to trail the glass casket bearing Kem Ley's body in the largest public rally Cambodia has witnessed in recent times. The funeral march reflected not only grief for the popular government critic, but also anger at a government that this year has decimated opponents through imprisonment, intimidation and, many believe, the still-unresolved killing of Kem Ley.

BEIJING (AP) — China's military says its first aircraft carrier group has carried out a series of fighter launch, recovery and air combat exercises in the Yellow Sea ahead of a scheduled voyage farther afield. The Defense Ministry announced late Friday that the Liaoning carrier group conducted the drills in the Yellow Sea in recent days, adding that the group "as a next step will conduct scheduled cross-sea training and tests." The ministry did not specify its destination, but its "cross-sea" wording has prompted speculation in the Chinese media that the warships could soon sail to the contested South China Sea.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan court on Saturday acquitted five suspects including three navy personnel who were accused in the shooting death of an outspoken ethnic Tamil lawmaker. Nadaraja Raviraj was shot dead in his car in 2006 during the country's long civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended in 2009. He was an advocate for greater self-rule for minority Tamils and had explained the Tamil perspective of the conflict in Sinhala, the language of the majority. The verdict was delivered by High Court Judge Manilal Waidyatilleke at 12:25 a.m. on Saturday, following the unanimous decision reached by the seven-member jury in the monthlong trial.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean airport official said Saturday that airport staff shot and killed a dog belonging to a Thai Airways passenger after it got loose before being boarded onto a plane and ran onto a busy runway. An official from Incheon Airport said that the response on Monday was standard procedure and inevitable because the dog could have threatened the safety of aircraft and passengers. The official said the dog belonged to a passenger who was boarding a flight from Seoul to Bangkok. He couldn't confirm whether the dog's owner filed a complaint with airport management.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — A spokesman for a Pakistani militant group says their chief has survived a gun attack while travelling in Afghanistan. Ali Bin Sufyan said the chief of the Lashker-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi group, Yousuf Mansoor Khurasani, came under attack by one of the group's members in Afghanistan's Zabul province Saturday. He said the attacker was killed by the retaliatory fire of Khurasani's bodyguard. The attack exposes cracks in the unity of the militant group, which in recent months has been involved in major attacks in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, such as those on the Quetta police training center and the Shah Noorani shrine which killed dozens.