Top Asian News 4:36 a.m. GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his chief spokesman have declined to say if Abe nominated President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Abe noted while speaking in Parliament on Monday that the Nobel committee does not disclose the parties behind nominations for a half-century. He said, "I thus decline comment." The government's top spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters that Japan highly valued Trump's efforts on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, but he echoed Abe in refusing other comment. Trump said Friday that Abe had nominated him, sending him a "beautiful copy" of a letter sent to the committee.

BEIJING (AP) — Facing a future demographic crisis and aging society, China's leaders are desperately seeking to persuade couples to have more children. But bureaucrats don't seem to have gotten the message, fining a couple in a recent widely publicized case for having a third child against the strict letter of the law. The move has sparked public outrage as people vent their anger at population control officials who are hungry for revenue and have long persecuted couples for violating the now-scrapped "one-child policy." "The country is doing all it can to encourage childbirth but the local governments need money, so we end with this sort of madness," a columnist and political commentator who writes under the name Lianpeng said on China's Weibo microblogging service.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A "sophisticated state actor" was behind a cyberattack on the Australian Parliament's computing network that also affected the network of major political parties, the prime minister said Monday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not identify the state behind what he described as a "malicious intrusion" on Feb. 8. A joint statement from House of Representatives speaker Tony Smith and Senate president Scott Ryan said at the time there was no evidence that data had been accessed in the breach. But lawmakers were advised to change passwords. Morrison revealed on Monday that the computer networks of the government parties — the Liberal Party and the Nationals — as well as the opposition Labor Party had also been affected.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's presidential candidates debated some of the most pressing issues facing the world's third-largest democracy: dilapidated infrastructure, struggling farmers, forest fires — and unicorns. When President Joko Widodo, who is seeking a second term, asked challenger Prabowo Subianto about his policies for supporting Indonesian unicorns a look of bafflement passed across the former general's face. Wondering aloud, he replied: "What are unicorns? You mean those online things?" Widodo sagely nodded in the affirmative before Subianto explained he supports online businesses. Subianto was probably not alone in his ignorance, but social media in Indonesia gleefully seized on Sunday night's exchange as proof of his lack of qualification to be president.

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 developments in the South China Sea, the location of several territorial conflicts in the region. ___ ASEAN-CHINA TALKS SLATED FOR END OF THE MONTH Singapore's defense minister says the latest round of South China Sea conduct talks between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be held later this month.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say militants in two attacks on security forces killed six paramilitary troops in the southwestern Baluchistan bordering Iran. Local police officer Hidayat Ullah said Monday that four troops were killed Sunday when gunmen opened fire on security forces in the town of Turbat. Two troops were killed in the southwestern town of Loralai a day earlier. No one immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on militants and the Islamic State group, which emerged as a major force behind violence in the region in recent years. Sunday's two attacks on Pakistani troops came days after an attack on Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard killed 27.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began his four-day regional visit on Sunday, arriving in Pakistan where Saudi officials signed agreements worth $20 billion to help the Islamic nation overcome its financial crisis. Prime Minister Imran Khan and top government and military officials greeted him at Islamabad's airport, where he received a 21-gun salute. Earlier, Pakistan Air Force jets escorted Prince Mohammad's flight when he entered the country's airspace. At the airport, a young boy and girl in traditional Pakistani dress handed the prince flowers. He was greeted by a host of Pakistani Cabinet ministers and the country's powerful army chief, Gen.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban has postponed an unscheduled round of peace talks with the United States set for Monday in Pakistan saying "most" members of their negotiating team are unable to travel because they're on the U.S. and United Nations' blacklists. The statement Sunday offered no other details. It did not explain how several members previously were able to travel to meetings in the United Arab Emirates and Moscow. The Taliban maintain a political office in Qatar, where members of the negotiating team reside. The Islamabad talks were seen as significant, coinciding with the visit of the Saudi crown prince to Pakistan.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A devastating blaze raced through a crammed slum in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, killing at least nine people and injuring several others, a fire official said. The fire broke out early in the morning in the Chaktai area of Chittagong city while the slum dwellers were asleep, said the official, Jasim Uddin. At least 200 shanty homes were gutted before firefighters brought the blaze under control, Uddin said, adding that four of the dead were from a single family. He said the cause of the fire was not yet known and that an investigation was ordered. Chittagong is 216 kilometers (134 miles) southeast of the capital, Dhaka.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's parliament speaker said Sunday that an attack that killed 27 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard was "planned and carried out from inside Pakistan," which he said should answer for it. Ali Larijani's remarks, carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, came after Iranian officials initially accused Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of being behind the attack. The Gulf Arab states are deeply suspicious of Tehran and at war with Iran-aligned rebels in Yemen. Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Pakistan's ambassador on Sunday to protest the attack. Pakistan condemned Wednesday's attack and its foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, spoke with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, by phone on Sunday to assure him that Pakistan would fully cooperate in the investigation, according to two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief media.