Top Asian News 3:55 a.m. GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Emperor Akihito began his abdication rituals at a Shinto shrine Tuesday morning as Japan embraces the end of his reign with reminiscence and hope for a new era. Television images showed Akihito in a traditional robe entering the main Shrine of Kashikodokoro to report his retirement to the gods. The shine is where the goddess Amaterasu, said to be the direct ancestress of the imperial family, is enshrined. Only part of Akihito's shrine ritual was released to the public. In a palace ceremony later in the day, Akihito will announce his retirement before other members of the royal family and top government officials.

When Crown Prince Naruhito on Wednesday becomes, by official Japanese count, the 126th person to occupy the Chrysanthemum Throne since 660 B.C., he will be ceremonially armed with the glittering, ancient imperial regalia of sword and jewel. Beyond the material trappings that accompany what the Japanese claim to be the world's oldest continuous hereditary monarchy, however, the new emperor will also receive a much more important, though less dazzling, inheritance: The deep and abiding respect his father, abdicating Emperor Akihito, has accumulated over his three-decade reign. Replicating this bequest on his own will be Naruhito's greatest challenge. The love many in Japan feel for 85-year-old Akihito was on full display when he made his last official visit to the winter sumo tournament earlier this year.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's 85-year-old Emperor Akihito ends his three-decade reign on Tuesday and his son Crown Prince Naruhito will ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne on Wednesday. Some key questions and answers about the abdication and ascension: ___ Q. Why is Akihito abdicating, and how is it different from usual successions? A. Akihito in August 2016 expressed his wish to abdicate while he is still well and capable. As a constitutionally defined symbol with no political power, Akihito sought understanding in a message to his people, and immediately won overwhelming public support, paving the way for the government's approval. With Japan's Imperial House Law lacking a provision on abdication by a reigning emperor and virtually allowing only posthumous succession, the government enacted a one-time law to allow Akihito's abdication.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's imperial family is relatively small and will shrink further in the coming years. Only one of Emperor Akihito's four grandchildren is a male who can ascend to the throne. The three princesses likely will lose their royal status eventually, since they are required to do so if they marry commoners. Akihito's daughter lost her imperial status after marrying a local government official. A look at the imperial family as Akihito abdicates on Tuesday and Crown Prince Naruhito ascends on Wednesday: ___ EMPRESS MICHIKO, 84 Akihito's wife, born Michiko Shoda, is the daughter of a wealthy businessman who led the Nissin Flour Milling Co.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese police on Monday arrested a man linked to knives found on the school desk of Emperor Akihito's 12-year-old grandson. The incident occurred last Friday as Japan was preparing for Akihito's abdication on Tuesday. Prince Hisahito will become second in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne when his uncle, Crown Prince Naruhito, ascends the throne on Wednesday. Police said they arrested a man in his 50s, Kaoru Hasegawa, on suspicion of trespassing after spotting him in videos from security cameras in the neighborhood of Ochanomizu University Junior High School. Media reports said the man entered the school posing a maintenance worker and placed two knives on the desk.

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka (AP) — The leader of the Islamic State group praised the Easter suicide bombings that killed more than 250 people in Sri Lanka in a video released Monday, calling on militants to be a "thorn" against their enemies in his first filmed appearance in nearly five years. The video of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to whom the suicide bombers in last week's attack apparently pledged their loyalty, came as the top official in the Catholic Church urged Sri Lanka to crack down on Islamic extremists "as if on war footing." Meanwhile, a government ban on niqab face covering took effect as soldiers and police officers conducted raids in eastern Sri Lanka, the home of the alleged mastermind of the attacks.

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (AP) — As Sri Lanka's long civil war ended in this once-contested region along its eastern coast, Muslim women eager to show their piousness began wearing the black niqab veil to hide their faces. Now in the wake of Easter suicide attacks launched by Islamic State group-linked militants that killed more than 250 people, Sri Lanka's president has used his emergency powers to ban the practice previously unheard of in the island nation off the southern coast of India. The ban, which took effect Monday, has been touted as a security measure. However, it criminalizes a practice more associated with an ultraconservative form of Islam previously unknown on the island, one that more closely adheres to the strict beliefs more common in Saudi Arabia.

KALMUNAI, Sri Lanka (AP) — Suicide bombings at a militants' safe house have shaken the simple homes of this east Sri Lankan town as well as the rest of this idyllic coast, as the investigation into the Islamic State-claimed Easter bombings has spread here. Police and military checkpoints dot the coastal roads, with people emptying out of buses to present their identity papers. On streets lined with shuttered shops, police officers with assault rifles look warily at passers-by. Whispers persist about the leader of the IS-pledged militant group, which preached the promise of heaven through the killing of others both here and online.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's president opened a grand council on Monday of more than 3,200 Afghans seeking to agree on a common approach to peace talks with the Taliban, but the gathering may further aggravate divisions within the U.S.-backed government. President Ashraf Ghani hopes to showcase unity at the four-day meeting — known as Loya Jirga — that brings together politicians, tribal elders, many prominent figures and others. But Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, his partner in a unity government brokered by the United States after a bitterly disputed election in 2014, heads a list of no-shows. Former President Hamid Karzai, who also is not attending, told The Associated Press on Monday that holding the council at this time risks "delaying and causing an impediment to the peace process." He also voiced concern that by sidelining his chief executive, Ghani could trigger suspicion that personal ambitions may have partly driven him to hold the Loya Jirga now.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's decades-long discussion about building a new capital has inched forward after President Joko Widodo on Monday approved a long-term plan for the government to abandon overcrowded, sinking and polluted Jakarta. Widodo decided at a special Cabinet meeting to move the capital outside of Indonesia's most populous island, Java, said Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro. It was one of three options discussed. The other alternatives were moving to a location near Jakarta or staying put and relocating all government buildings to a special zone around the presidential palace. The site for a possible new capital hasn't been announced, but Palangkaraya on the island of Borneo has often been rumored as the location.