Top Asian News 4:41 a.m. GMT

TOKYO (AP) — North Korea will be casting a dark — and nuclear — shadow over U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' first foray abroad. When Mattis calls on South Korea and Japan from Wednesday he will be visiting Washington's two staunchest allies in Asia. Both host tens of thousands of American troops and both will be looking for reassurances the new administration in the U.S. is not going to drop the ball on North Korea. North Korea, racing ever closer to having a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the U.S. mainland, is without doubt already one of the biggest security challenges on new President Donald Trump's plate.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A sixth person died in hospital 10 days after a man with a history of mental health and drug issues drove a car through a lunch-time crowd in a pedestrian-only street in Australia's second largest city, police said on Monday. A 33-year-old woman died on Monday night and nine victims remained in hospital after a stolen sedan caused havoc in downtown Melbourne on Jan. 20, a police statement said. One of the patients was in a critical condition. The driver, Dimitrious Gargasoulas, 26, has been charged with five counts of murder and faces a life prison sentence if convicted.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Thousands of Myanmar politicians, activists and others shocked by the assassination of a longtime adviser to leader Aung San Suu Kyi gathered Monday at a cemetery for an emotional funeral ceremony, while police investigated the motive for the killing. Ko Ni, a prominent lawyer and member of Myanmar's Muslim minority, was shot in the head at close range as he walked out of the Yangon airport Sunday. The suspected shooter was apprehended while trying to escape. A statement issued late Monday by the office of President Htin Kyaw said that according to an initial interrogation, the shooting was intended "to threaten the country's stability." It said the authorities would step up security measures, and urged people not to be frightened and refrain from agitation involving race or religion.

An Iraqi man is bracing for a long absence from family in the United States after President Donald Trump suspended refugee arrivals and ordered that visas no longer be issued to Iraqis. Luey Rabban said Monday from Baghdad that he was granted refugee status about eight months ago and was just waiting for a slot to join a brother and mother in the San Diego area and a sister in Michigan. The 47-year-old chef says he prepared meals for the U.S. military from 2003 to 2007 at the Baghdad airport and that a U.S. Army official got him started on his refugee application.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, says President Donald Trump's ban on citizens of seven Muslim countries from entering the U.S. could hurt the global fight against terrorism. Foreign Ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir said Monday that the policy is the sovereign right of the U.S. but Indonesia, which is not one of the directly affected countries, "deeply regrets" it and believes it will have a "negative impact on global efforts to fight terrorism" and the handling of refugees. "It is wrong to associate radicalism and terrorism with a particular religion," Nasir said in a statement. "Efforts to combat terrorism must be carried out by promoting international cooperation, including in addressing the root causes of terrorism." Trump on Friday signed an executive order placing a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A Dutch tourist aboard a cruise ship near Antarctica who suffered a suspected stroke was successfully evacuated Tuesday to a U.S. base on the frozen continent. New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre said the 66-year-old woman was flown by the ship's helicopter to McMurdo Station and is due fly to New Zealand on Wednesday where she will receive further medical treatment. Chris Henshaw, a senior search and rescue officer, said the inhospitable conditions make medical rescues in Antarctica complex and challenging. "It's a long way from anywhere," he said. "There's not a lot of support out there." He said the woman was cared for by a doctor aboard the cruise ship Ortelius, which sailed 670 kilometers (416 miles) off its normal route to get close to the base.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — President Donald Trump had agreed to keep an Obama administration promise to resettle refugees languishing in Pacific island camps despite the U.S. toughening its stance on Muslim immigration, the Australian prime minister said Monday. Trump had agreed that during a 25-minute telephone conversation on Sunday to accept an unspecified number of refugees as promised in the final months of the previous administration, ending weeks of uncertainty, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said. "I thank President Trump for his commitment to honor that existing agreement," Turnbull told reporters. He declined to say how many refugees might be resettled in the United States.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The White House had assured Australia that its passport holders won't be affected by President Donald Trump's executive order suspending immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, the Australian prime minister said Tuesday as he resisted pressure to join other Western leaders in publicly denouncing the travel ban. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made the announcement after 15-year-old Pouya Ghadirian said the U.S. Consulate in Melbourne refused him a visa Monday to go on a school trip to the United States because he had an Iranian passport as well as an Australian passport. "Our ambassador has just called me to say that he's had assurances, confirmation from the White House, that Australian passport-holders — regardless of their place of birth or whether they are dual nationals or whether they hold another passport — will remain welcome to come and go to the United States in the usual way," Turnbull told Sky News television.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian authorities expanded the search for four Chinese tourists and a crew member still missing at sea Monday two days after their boat sank off Borneo island. Police detained the boat's owner and the surviving captain and crew member to assist the investigation. Three Chinese died but 22 people were rescued, most of them after huddling together in the rough waters, wearing life vests and forming human chains, finally being saved by fishermen after more than 10 hours adrift. Malaysia's Maritime Enforcement Agency said in a statement that the search area has been expanded by about four times to 1,500 square nautical miles of the South China Sea off Sabah state.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine police chief stopped the use of the national police force in anti-drug operations Monday and disbanded all police anti-narcotics units after the president's brutal crackdown was used as a cover by rogue officers to kidnap and kill a South Korean man for money. Police Director-General Ronald Dela Rosa told police officers he would use the indefinite halt of anti-drug operations to launch a massive purge of police involved in crimes. A counter-intelligence force would be formed to catch rogue officers and records of those previously implicated in crimes would be reviewed. "No more drug operations now," Dela Rosa told police officers at the main police camp, without indicating how long the ban would last.