Top Asian News 1:30 a.m. GMT

YULONGXUESHAN, China (AP) — Millions of people each year are drawn to Baishui Glacier No. 1 and its cold beauty in a region of Central Asia with the world's third largest store of ice after Antarctica and Greenland. Now however, they frequently encounter rocks littered with oxygen tanks discarded by tourists, as scientists warn Baishui's dramatic melting is a sign of what's to come across the region. The glacier has lost 60 percent of its mass and shrunk 250 meters (820 feet) since 1982. According to a new report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Earth today is 1 degree Centigrade (1.8 Fahrenheit) hotter than pre-industrial levels because of climate change __ enough to melt 28 to 44 percent of glaciers worldwide.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's first parliamentary elections in eight years suffered from violence and chaos Saturday, with a multitude of attacks killing at least 36 people, key election workers failing to show up and many polling stations staying open hours later than scheduled to handle long lines of voters. Problems surrounding the elections — already three years overdue — threaten to compromise the credibility of polls which an independent monitoring group said were also marred by incidences of ballot stuffing and intimidation by armed men affiliated with candidates in 19 of the country's 32 provinces. Some areas have yet to vote, including Kandahar, where the provincial police chief was gunned down Thursday.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Thousands of pro-independence demonstrators gathered in Taiwan's capital on Saturday to express their disapproval with China's stance toward their island. China cut off contact with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's government shortly after her inauguration in 2016 and has been ratcheting up diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Taiwan in a bid to compel her to agree to Beijing's insistence that the self-governing island democracy is a part of China. "I want to loudly say no to China," said 43-year-old demonstrator Ping Cheng-wen, who is self-employed. "I just don't agree with China's rhetoric. We have our own sovereignty, and Taiwan is a country." Another demonstrator at the rally in Taipei, Kuo Jung-min, an 85-year-old Presbyterian church pastor and Hebrew language professor at Taiwan Theological College and Seminary, said pro-unification advocates should move to China if they think it is a better place to live.

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia's ruling coalition was forced into minority government on Saturday after a massive swing against its senior partner, the Liberal Party, in a by-election for the seat of the prime minister the party itself had dismissed. In a stinging backlash from the electorate after the fourth toppling of an Australian leader by internal party vote in just eight years, a swing of more than 20 percent against the sitting Liberals propelled independent candidate Kerryn Phelps to a decisive victory. The result cost the conservative Liberal-National party coalition its one-seat majority in the House of Representatives, forcing Prime Minister Scott Morrison to rely on deals with independent lawmakers to guarantee confidence in his government, enact legislation and ensure money supply.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Most of the casualties in a train disaster that killed dozens of people in northern India were migrant workers, a former state government official said Saturday. R.C. Yadav, former chairman of Punjab state's Workers Welfare Board, said that many of the 60 killed and dozens injured when a speeding train ran over a crowd celebrating the Hindu festival of Dussehra on Friday night had left their families in neighboring states to work in factories and shops in Punjab. Most "of those killed are these poor workers," Yadav said, adding that some earned as little as 7,000 rupees ($95) per month.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's military said that it will recall its commander leading a U.N. peacekeeping contingent in Mali after the world body asked him to be repatriated over his human rights background. Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said Saturday that it will comply with the U.N. request even though it doesn't believe Col. Kalana Amunupure is guilty of any human rights abuses in the last stages of Sri Lanka's civil war. "There may be allegations. But he has not done anything wrong. He has not committed any war crimes. We will appeal and send him back," Atapattu said.

TOKYO (AP) — European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit Saturday for a joint mission to Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. The European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft successfully separated and was sent into orbit from French Guiana as planned to begin a seven-year journey to Mercury. They said the spacecraft, named after Italian scientist Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo, was in the right orbit and has sent the first signal after the liftoff. ESA says the 1.3 billion-euro ($1.5 billion) mission is one of the most challenging in its history.

SYDNEY (AP) — Prince Harry paid tribute to Australian service members by opening a new wing of a war memorial on Saturday before opening the Invictus Games as he and wife Meghan continued their visit to Australia and the South Pacific. A thus-far joyous debut royal tour by the couple, buoyed by news that they are expecting their first baby, turned solemn as the Duke of Sussex opened a long-awaited extension to the Anzac Memorial in downtown Sydney's Hyde Park on Saturday morning. The former British army captain and his wife laid a wreath of Australian native flowers at the steps of the memorial, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison, other dignitaries, and service men and women looked on.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The assassination of Afghan leaders in Kandahar province won't lessen U.S. support for the war in Afghanistan or deter local security forces in the fight against the Taliban, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East said Saturday. Gen. Joseph Votel said the U.S. was "pretty confident that the Afghans will be able to maintain the situation down" in Kandahar. The Taliban said Thursday's attack, which killed an influential police chief, targeted the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. But U.S. military officials have said Army Gen. Scott Miller was not in the line of fire, and he escaped unharmed.

SINGAPORE (AP) — The United States and South Korea are scrapping another major military exercise this year, a Pentagon official said Friday, citing a push for diplomatic progress with North Korea. The top Pentagon spokeswoman, Dana W. White, said Washington and Seoul are suspending an air exercise known as Vigilant Ace "to give the diplomatic process every opportunity to continue." It was the latest move aimed at trying to nudge North Korea, which despises such U.S.-South Korean exercises, into negotiating about giving up its nuclear weapons in a way that can be verified. Vigilant Ace is an annual exercise last held in December 2017.