Top Asian News 3:24 a.m. GMT

LA TRINIDAD, Philippines (AP) — Philippine police say at least 14 people have died when the brakes of an overloaded passenger van failed while cruising a winding road, sending it down a ravine in a northern mountain province. Police Chief Superintendent Rolando Nana says 24 other passengers, including the driver, were injured Tuesday afternoon in Balbalan town in Kalinga province. Some of the dead were poor elderly villagers returning home after collecting government cash dole-outs from a bank. Police say 13 passengers were pinned to death while one other died on the way to a hospital after being retrieved from the 80-meter (262-foot) deep ravine.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says that two Korean War dead have been identified from remains turned over to the U.S. in July by North Korea. Mattis tells Pentagon reporters Tuesday that experts moved swiftly on analyzing those two sets of remains, as they thought they had a good chance of identifying them because of where they were located and other information. He didn't publicly identify them. North Korea turned over 55 boxes of remains to U.S. officials at Wonsan, North Korea, on July 27. The Defense Department laboratory in Hawaii is working to identify them. Last month, the department identified one service member whose dog tag was returned.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's president on Tuesday urged both North Korea and the United States to "make bold decisions" to break a deepening diplomatic impasse over the North's nuclear ambitions, saying he'll continue to act as mediator. President Moon Jae-in's comments come days before he's to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the third time this year to discuss how to achieve denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula. Moon said the summit must lead to another "big step" toward denuclearization. The talks come at a crucial moment in the overall diplomacy, which is currently stuck amid recriminations between Washington and Pyongyang on how to follow through on vows made at a summit in June between Kim and President Donald Trump to rid the North of its nuclear weapons.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan rights workers warned Tuesday that a blistering U.S. attack on the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes allegations will strengthen a climate of impunity in Afghanistan, prolong the war and embolden those committing acts of violence. In a speech Monday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said Washington would not cooperate with The Hague-based court and threatened it with sanctions, saying it put U.S. sovereignty and national security at risk. The CIA and U.S. forces have been accused of committing war crimes in Afghanistan. "It's very unfortunate because delivering justice to victims will help to facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan," said Sima Samar, head of Afghanistan's Human Rights Commission.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-filled vest among a group of people protesting a local police commander in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing 32 and wounding about 130, a provincial official said. Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor said the all 32 people killed in the attack were innocent civilians gathered for a protest. A number of wounded people are in critical condition, he said. "Around four hundred people gathered for the protest and the bomber detonated his vest full of explosive among the crowd," said Capt. Qais Saifi, an official at Nangarhar province police headquarters.

CHITA, Russia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands Russian troops swept across Siberia on Tuesday in the nation's largest ever war games also joined by China — a powerful show of burgeoning military ties between Moscow and Beijing amid their tensions with the U.S. Moscow said the weeklong Vostok (East) 2018 maneuvers will span vast expanses of Siberia and the Far East, the Arctic and the Pacific Oceans and involve nearly 300,000 Russian troops — nearly one-third of the country's 1-million-strong military. They will feature more than 1,000 aircraft, about 36,000 tanks and other military vehicles and 80 warships. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has described the drills as even bigger than the country's largest Cold War-era exercise called Zapad 1981 that put NATO allies on edge.

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has treated Chinese President Xi Jinping to Russian pancakes in a show of warm personal ties between the two leaders. The two leaders ate pancakes with caviar and had shots of vodka at an exhibition at the sidelines of an economic forum in the far eastern port of Vladivostok. Beijing and Moscow have developed a "strategic partnership" reflecting their shared opposition to the "unipolar" world, the term they use to describe perceived U.S. global domination. The rapprochement has been driven by a strong personal relationship between Putin and Xi, seen as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

HYDERABAD, India (AP) — A bus carrying pilgrims from a Hindu temple in the hills of south India plunged off a road Tuesday, killing at least 55 people including four children, officials said. At least 33 others were injured. The driver lost control as he hit a speed bump on a road leading from the popular Anjaneya Swamy temple in Telangana state, about 190 kilometers (118 miles) from Hyderabad, the state capital, Transport Minister P. Maneder Reddy said. The overcrowded bus pitched into a gorge. Crowds often throng the temple on Tuesdays. The temple is dedicated to the Hindu god Hanuman, and Tuesdays are seen as auspicious for offering prayers to him.

BEIJING (AP) — China is eliminating a trio of agencies responsible for enforcing family planning policies in a further sign the government may be planning to scrap long-standing limits on the number of children its citizens can have. The move was part of a reorganization of the National Health Commission announced Monday that creates a new single department called the Division of Population Monitoring and Family Development responsible for "establishing and perfecting a specialized system for supporting families." Expectations of an end to birth limits were also raised by the appearance of a postage stamp last month featuring smiling mother and father pigs with three piglets.

BEIJING (AP) — China is rolling out new rules on religious activity on the internet amid an ongoing crackdown on churches, mosques and other institutions by the officially atheist Communist Party. Anyone wishing to provide religious instruction or similar services online must apply by name and be judged morally fit and politically reliable, according to draft regulations posted online late Monday by the State Administration for Religious Affairs. Organizations and schools that receive licenses can operate only on their internal networks that require users to be registered and are barred from seeking converts or distributing texts or other religious materials, the rules said.