Top Asian News 3:50 a.m. GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Mangkhut weakened from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it moved deeper into southern China on Monday, leaving death and destruction from Hong Kong to the Philippines. The storm was still affecting southern China's coast and the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan and rain and strong winds were expected to continue through Tuesday. Hong Kong residents were told to stay away from the coastline and be on alert for occasional gales. Bus, ferry and rail services were suspended and almost 900 flights were canceled at the city's airport, one of the world's busiest. The South China Morning Post said Hong Kong's hospitals had to use backup power due to outages caused by the storm.

Philippine and Chinese authorities say the death toll from a typhoon has risen to at least 69 with dozens missing. Mangkhut weakened to a tropical storm Monday morning as it moved deeper into southern China, where rain and strong winds were expected to continue through Tuesday. A Philippine national police report said the death toll as of Monday midday was 65, with 43 people missing and 64 injured. Chinese authorities reported four deaths from falling trees and building materials in Guangdong, China's manufacturing hub. Many of the missing in the Philippines are gold miners and their families feared buried in a landslide after seeking shelter in a bunkhouse-turned-chapel in a village in Benguet province.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Reunification Highway runs all the way from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to the Demilitarized Zone that divides the North from South Korea, 170 kilometers (100 miles) away. It starts under a giant concrete arch depicting two women in traditional gowns reaching out to each other and holding up a map of a unified Korea. Road signs along the way show the distance to Seoul, though it's impossible to actually drive there. The highway is one of the best in North Korea. It's paved — a rarity in the North. It's broad and visibility is generally good.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A senior South Korean official is playing down the chance that this week's inter-Korean summit could produce major progress in efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear program. Presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok told reporters Monday that he still expects the summit to produce unspecified "meaningful" agreements on ways to ease a military standoff between the rivals. South Korean President Moon Jae-in is to fly to Pyongyang on Tuesday for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year. Im said the Korean leaders plan to meet twice during Moon's three-day trip.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Muslim militants have freed three Indonesian men they kidnapped at sea early last year off Malaysia then brought them to their jungle hideouts in the southern Philippines, officials said Sunday. The Indonesians were freed Friday with the help of the Moro National Liberation Front, a rebel group that signed a peace deal with the Philippine government, in Indanan town in Sulu province, police said. The released hostages, Hamdam Salim, Subandi Sattuh and Sudarlan Samansung, were to be handed to the Indonesian ambassador in southern Zamboanga city later Sunday, the military said. While cruising on board a speedboat, the three were taken at gunpoint by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants off Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island in January last year.

HONG KONG (AP) — Typhoon Mangkhut wreaked havoc on the northern Philippines and southern China, leaving dozens of people dead and forcing millions to evacuate. The massive storm made landfall on Saturday on the northeastern tip of Luzon island in the Philippines with sustained winds of 205 kilometers (127 miles) per hour and gusts of 255 kph (158 mph). It then moved on to Hong Kong and elsewhere in southern China. Chinese state media cited the Guangdong provincial meteorological station as saying that by Sunday evening, more than 2.4 million people had been relocated and nearly 50,000 fishing boats called back to port.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nature expresses its fury in sundry ways. Two deadly storms — Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut — roared ashore on the same day, half a world apart, but the way they spread devastation was as different as water and wind. Storms in the western Pacific generally hit with much higher winds and the people who live in their way are often poorer and more vulnerable, Princeton University hurricane and climate scientist Gabriel Vecchi said Saturday. That will likely determine the type of destruction. Mangkhut made landfall Friday on the northeastern tip of Luzon island in the Philippines with top-of-the-scale Category 5 winds of 165 mph.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The shine is starting to come off South Korean President Moon Jae-in's engagement strategy with the North. The liberal politician, who reversed nearly a decade of conservative hard-line policy toward North Korea after his election last year, is preparing for a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid growing public skepticism about his approach. Moon, who goes to Pyongyang on Tuesday, has seen his approval rating fall to 49 percent in a recent Gallup Korea survey, the first time it dipped below 50 percent since he took office in May 2017 promising better ties with North Korea and political reform.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani government official says the roof of a mud and brick house collapsed amid heavy rain in northwestern Pakistan killing four members of a family and injuring another. Fahad Khan, a district official in Hangu, said Sunday that a couple and their two minor children were buried under the debris when the roof collapsed the previous night amid heavy rains in the region. Khan said rescue workers recovered the bodies in the morning and transported an injured boy to the area's main hospital. The official said there are reports of damage to other mud houses but no other immediate reports of injuries or fatalities.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The first inter-Korean summit of 2018, a sunny spectacle in late April, reduced war fears on the peninsula. The second, an emergency one in May, helped ensure a historic meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump came off. Now, at his third summit with Kim next week in Pyongyang, South Korean President Moon Jae-in faces his toughest challenge yet: delivering something substantive that goes beyond previous vague statements on denuclearization and helps get U.S.-North Korea talks back on track. Negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have sputtered in recent weeks, raising doubts about whether Kim is truly willing to relinquish his nuclear arsenal and putting pressure on Moon to broker progress once again.