Top Asian News 3:23 a.m. GMT

BEIJING (AP) — A 13-year-old girl has died after being flung out of a fast-turning ride at an amusement park in southwest China. China's product safety regulator said in a statement late Saturday that an initial investigation showed her seatbelt had broken and a passenger safety bar did not fit tightly enough at the Chaohua Park in Fengdu county, which comes under Chongqing municipality. Cellphone footage carried by state media showed the girl flying out of the "Travel Through Space" ride on Friday afternoon as seats repeatedly spun round 360 degrees. Media reports say she fell on to iron railings and was taken to a hospital, where she died.

TOKYO (AP) — In his debut abroad as the first retired general to lead the Pentagon in more than half a century, Jim Mattis found that in Japan and South Korea his experience in uniform is seen as an asset. Not everyone who knows Mattis well in the U.S. shares that view, but he clearly was an instant hit in northeast Asia. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was effusive in his endorsement as the two shook hands Friday before a phalanx of Japanese and international news reporters and cameras. "I was very encouraged," Abe said, "to see someone like you who has substantial experience, both in the military and in security, defense and diplomacy, taking this office." Mattis won easy confirmation by the U.S.

TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday the U.S. cannot afford to ignore destabilizing moves by Iran, but has no plans to respond by increasing American military forces in the Middle East. Mattis spoke at a joint news conference in Tokyo with his Japanese counterpart, Tomomi Inada. Mattis held a series of high-level meetings in Seoul and Tokyo this week on his first overseas trip as Pentagon chief. He was returning to Washington Saturday. Asked about U.S. concern about China's militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea, Mattis was critical of China's moves but said U.S.

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. is putting regional stability in East Asia at risk, a Chinese spokesman said, following remarks by President Donald Trump's defense secretary that a U.S. commitment to defend Japanese territory applies to an island group that China claims. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Saturday called on the U.S. to avoid discussion of the issue and reasserted China's claim of sovereignty over the tiny uninhabited islands, known in Japanese as the Senkaku and Chinese as Diaoyu. The 1960 U.S.-Japan treaty is "a product of the Cold War, which should not impair China's territorial sovereignty and legitimate rights," Lu was quoted as saying in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Nearly three years ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a sweeping national election victory with promises to develop the economy and root out corruption. But with a series of key state elections beginning Saturday, Modi's popularity — and his surprise currency decree that sparked months of financial uproar — is now being tested. India is just emerging from the fallout of a November decision that withdrew India's two largest currency notes from circulation and caused weeks of chaos as people waited to get their money back in new bills. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party hailed the move as a way to curb tax fraud and corruption and push India toward more digital spending.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian and Filipino students on Saturday protested President Donald Trump's immigration policy outside the U.S. embassies in their capitals. In Jakarta, dozens of students and activists from several rights groups called on the Indonesian government and the international community to help stop Trump's order that temporarily banned travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries. They do not include Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, and the Philippines, a key U.S. ally. However, Indonesia is home to nearly 14,000 refugees seeking resettlement in third countries, and Trump's ban will significantly impact their chances of going to the U.S., said rights activist Veronica Koman, who organized the protest.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday he would scrap peace talks with communist rebels and asked several rebel leaders who were freed for the negotiations to return to prison or face arrests in the latest blow to efforts to peacefully settle one of Asia's longest-running rebellions. Duterte said at a late-night news conference in southern Davao city that he would ask government negotiators not to participate in talks with the Maoist guerrillas scheduled to resume this month in Norway, repeating that "peace with the communists might not come in this generation." Duterte made his remarks a day after he lifted the government's 6-month-old cease-fire with the rebels and ordered troops to prepare for new fighting after the guerrillas abandoned their own truce and killed six soldiers in fresh violence.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The United Nations has removed the name of a former Afghan warlord from its Islamic State group and al-Qaida sanctions list. According to a statement posted Friday by the Security Council, a U.N. committee removed Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's name from the sanctions list. The statement said Hekmatyar, leader of Islamist organization Hezb-i-Islami, would no longer have his assets frozen, be subject to a travel ban or to an arms embargo. Amin Karim, the group's chief negotiator told reporters on Saturday "The removal of sanctions proved that the solution is Afghan-owned negotiations inside the country and coming to a national consensus.

CHICAGO (AP) — A Singapore teen seeking asylum after blog posts mocking his government landed him jail will remain in U.S. custody until a Chicago immigration court hearing next month. Amos Yee's attorneys said Friday that immigration authorities denied a request for his release. He's been detained since Dec. 16 when he was taken into custody at O'Hare International Airport. His hearing is March 7. Attorney Sandra Grossman submitted his asylum application this week, saying it was unclear whether he'd be released from an Illinois jail during the proceedings. She says he'll be imprisoned longer in the U.S. than he was in Singapore.

GENEVA (AP) — Myanmar security forces are "very likely" to have committed crimes against humanity against Rohingya Muslims in recent months, U.N. human rights investigators said Friday, citing an unprecedented upsurge in violence such as gang rape and brutal killings of children as young as 8 months old, at times before the eyes of their own mothers. U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein commissioned a "flash report " that was released Friday based on scores of interviews last month and indicates that violence against the long-persecuted Rohingya has reached a new level. Zeid urged the government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar — which has generally ignored international appeals to take action — to "immediately halt these grave human rights violations." The report, which will raise pressure on the governing party of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Aung San Suu Kyi, is based on harrowing accounts from over 200 people among an estimated 66,000 Rohingya who have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since October, when Myanmar's military began a crackdown following attacks on border posts.