Top Asian News 3:46 a.m. GMT

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Vladivostok for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Thursday's summit reflects Russia's effort to position itself as an essential player in the North Korean nuclear standoff. Kim's first trip to Russia comes about two months after his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, which failed because of disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on the North. Putin and Kim are set to have one-on-one meeting at the Far Eastern State University on the Russky Island across a bridge from Vladivostok. The meeting will be followed by broader talks involving officials from both sides.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an intriguing twist to the global diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea, which appeared to hit a wall after a summit between Kim and President Donald Trump collapsed in February. It also adds a chapter to the storied but often-strained friendship between Pyongyang and Moscow, which was forged in war and weathered by the Soviet collapse and tensions surrounding the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons. A look at relations between the two sides since the 1950-53 Korean War: ___ KOREAN CONFLICT The old Soviet Union was directly involved in the founding of North Korea after the end of World War II, which ended Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula but resulted in a division between the Soviet-backed North and U.S.-controlled South.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's prime minister on Thursday played down any potential link between the arrest of a suspected Islamic State group member in Turkey and a World War I battle commemoration attended by hundreds of Australians and New Zealanders at the Gallipoli peninsula. A Syrian national was detained in Tekirdag province before the annual gathering for a dawn service at ANZAC Cove to mark the April 25, 1915, landing of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps troops in an ill-fated campaign to take the Dardanelles Straits, according to media reports. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the arrest took place three driving hours from of the Gallipoli service and no changes to security had been made as a result.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's soon-to-be-anointed new emperor is a musician and historian, both mild-mannered and quietly tenacious, a team player and a loyal husband and friend who will bring an unusually global perspective to an ancient institution when he ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1. Because Naruhito, 59, will be more distanced from the World War II shadows that his 85-year-old father, Akihito, labored under, he may also enjoy greater liberty in shaping the contours of his reign. Japan's constitution gives the emperor only symbolic status, and Naruhito is likely to emulate his father, who has embraced his role as national symbol.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's most trusted policy adviser has been removed from one of his posts, a South Korean lawmaker said Wednesday, a reshuffle that if confirmed may be related to the breakdown of the North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi in February. The head of parliament's intelligence committee, Lee Hye-hoon, cited South Korea's main spy agency as saying that Kim Yong Chol lost his Workers' Party post in charge of relations with South Korea earlier this month. He was replaced by little-known Jang Kum Chol as director of the party's United Front Department, Lee said.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's president shook up the country's top security establishment after officials failed to act on intelligence reports warning of possible attacks before the Easter bombings that killed over 350 people, his office said Wednesday. The capital of Colombo, meanwhile, remained rattled by reports that police were continuing to conduct controlled detonations of suspicious items three days after the attacks on churches and luxury hotels, and the U.S. ambassador said that Washington believes "the terrorist plotting is ongoing." During a televised speech to the nation Tuesday night, President Maithripala Sirisena said he would change the head of the defense forces within 24 hours, and on Wednesday he asked for the resignations of the defense secretary and national police chief in a dramatic internal shake-up.

NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Before the undertakers could move in, Anusha Kumari wrested herself away from her sisters and flung herself on the three coffins, wailing. In an instant, she was left childless and a widow when suicide bombers attacked churches and luxury hotels in and near Sri Lanka's capital of Colombo. The toll was highest at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo. Of the more than 350 people killed by the suicide bombings that the government blamed on Muslim extremists, about a third of them died at the church in the seaside fishing town while attending Easter Mass. And perhaps no one lost more relatives than 43-year-old Kumari, whose daughter, son, husband, sister-in-law and two nieces were killed.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Attacks against mosques, shrines and followers of Sufi sheikhs in Sri Lanka more than a decade ago point to early warning signs of fundamentalism taking root among a sliver of the country's Muslims. The Easter attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people in churches and hotels showed how the warnings went largely unheeded. It also exposed how a legacy of civil war, marginalization, political disarray and security lapses cultivated fertile ground for the militants to carry out their attacks. The Islamic State group, which has lost all the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria, claims it was behind the bombings.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan and international forces were responsible for more civilian deaths in the first three months of 2019 than the Taliban and other militants, a new U.N. report said Wednesday. It marks the first time in recent years that civilian deaths attributed to government forces and their allies exceeded those blamed on their enemies. The statistics reflects what many say is a growing problem in Afghanistan's brutal war, in which civilians die not only in suicide bombings and insurgent attacks but also in the cross-fire as Afghan forces and international allies pursue militants. The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reported Wednesday that 581 civilians were killed between Jan.

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court approved on Thursday the release of detained Nissan ex-chair Carlos Ghosn on 500 million yen, or $4.5 million, bail. Prosecutors can appeal the decision by the Tokyo District Court, while his lawyers will be pushing for his release. Ghosn was arrested in November, released on bail in March but re-arrested in April on new allegations and taken to the Tokyo Detention House. He has been charged with under-reporting his post-retirement compensation and breach of trust in diverting Nissan money and allegedly having it shoulder his personal investment losses. Ghosn, 65, a Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese ancestry, says he is innocent.