Top Asian News 2:49 a.m. GMT

TOKYO (AP) — When President Donald Trump visits Japan, he'll be able to point to Tokyo's streets to drive home a sore point in trade relations between the allies: the absence of made-in-USA vehicles. The $70 billion Japanese trade surplus with the U.S. is dwarfed by China's $379 billion surplus, and the trade tensions between Washington and Tokyo are far less contentious than the tariffs war with Beijing. But the disputes between Japan and the U.S. are longstanding and also intractable: the bilateral agreement with Tokyo that Trump has been seeking since pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement two years ago is still far down the road, say analysts and politicians on both sides.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under the threat of potentially devastating U.S. tariffs on autos, Japan is ready to roll out the newest phase of its charm offensive targeting President Donald Trump as it welcomes him on a state visit tailor-made to his whims and ego. Offering high honors, golf and the chance to present a "Trump Cup" at a sumo wrestling championship, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, arguably Trump's closest friend on the world stage, will continue a years-long campaign that so far appears to have spared Japan from far more debilitating U.S. actions. The stakes are high. U.S. tariffs could cripple Japan's auto industry, while North Korea remains a destabilizing threat in the region.

TOKYO (AP) — U.S. national security adviser John Bolton has called a series of short-range missile tests by North Korea last month a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and says sanctions must be kept in place. Bolton said Saturday in Tokyo that the U.S. position on the North's denuclearization is consistent and that a repeated pattern of failures to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons should be stopped. His comment comes a day after North Korea's official media said nuclear negotiations with Washington won't resume unless the US. abandons what Pyongyang describes as unilateral disarmament demands. President Donald Trump arrives in Tokyo later Saturday for a four-day visit largely highlighting close ties with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan said Saturday it is changing the name of its de-facto embassy in the U.S. amid the strongest relations between the sides in decades. The foreign ministry tweeted that the Coordination Council for North American Affairs was being renamed the Taiwan Council for U.S. Affairs. The addition of the word Taiwan will likely be seen as highly significant, since it appears to drop the pretense that the council is non-diplomatic or political in nature. While the U.S. severed formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979 in favor of Beijing, the sides retain close unofficial relations that have grown ever-closer in recent years, including stepped-up military-to-military contacts.

NEW DELHI (AP) — At least 19 teenage students were killed in a fire that broke out Friday in a tutoring center in the western Indian city of Surat, a top state official said. More than a dozen students were hospitalized with burns or suffering from suffocation, police officer Praveen Chaudhary said. The students were attending a class when the fire broke out in the four-story building, Chaudhary said. He said all of the students had been accounted for. Gujarat state's top elected official, Vijay Rupani, said 19 youngsters died in the fire. "I'm told these youngsters were trapped in the building as the fire destroyed the staircase.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi described his first term as "filling in potholes" — shorthand for addressing the country's basic needs. In a campaign speech in April, he pledged his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in the next five years would "try to address people's aspirations and take the country to new heights." Modi claimed a decisive victory in India's elections, the vote count showing his BJP winning a commanding majority in the lower house of Parliament allowing it to form a form a government on its own. The victory signals that millions of Indians believe that Modi's leadership is what the country needs to become a modern, developed and prosperous nation, while raising questions over how he and his party use such hefty political capital to advance their Hindu-first ideology and development agenda.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An American climber who fulfilled his dream of climbing the highest mountains on each of the seven continents died of probable altitude sickness on the way down from Mount Everest, mountaineering officials said. Don Cash became ill at the summit and was treated there by his two Sherpa guides, Pasang Tenje Sherpa, head of Pioneer Adventure, which provided the guides, said Friday. "When he was on the top he just fell. The two Sherpas who were with him gave CPR and massages," he said. "After that he woke up, then near Hillary Step he fell down again in the same manner, which means he got high altitude sickness." Altitude sickness is caused by low amounts of oxygen at high elevation and can cause headaches, vomiting, shortness of breath and mental confusion.

SYDNEY (AP) — A lawyer for a woman wanted in Chile on kidnapping charges dating back to the country's 1973-1990 military dictatorship denied in a Sydney court on Friday that she was involved in the disappearances of seven people and argued she was working in a mundane secretarial job at the time. Adriana Rivas, 66, has been in custody since her arrest in Sydney in February on a Chilean Supreme Court extradition request. She applied for release on bail on Friday in a Sydney Central local Court hearing that will continue on Monday. Her lawyer, Frank Santisi, told the court she denied being a "co-perpetrator" and had never seen the alleged victims.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's leader summoned the German consul on Friday to complain about Germany granting political asylum to two Hong Kong political activists, in a rare case of diplomatic intervention by the government of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Carrie Lam called the pair bail jumpers who were facing charges including rioting and assaulting police over a violent incident in February 2016. She said Hong Kong courts would have granted the two a fair trial and Germany had "unjustifiably undermined Hong Kong's international reputation in the rule of law and judicial independence." Lam asked David Schmidt to convey "deep regrets and strong objections" to the German authorities.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with leaders of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday following his thunderous victory in national elections. Modi met with his outgoing Cabinet ministers and later presented his resignation along with theirs to President Ram Nath Kovind. The president asked the officials to continue to serve until the new government assumes office. Media reports say Modi is likely to be sworn in for his second term next Thursday. The Election Commission announced that the BJP won 303 out of 542 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, after the official vote count finished Friday.