Top Asian News 3:40 a.m. GMT

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — A mass burial of earthquake and tsunami victims was being prepared in a hard-hit city Monday as the need for heavy equipment to dig for survivors of the disaster that struck a central Indonesian island three days ago grows desperate. The toll of more than 800 dead is largely from the city of Palu and is expected to rise as areas cut off by the damage are reached. The magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck at dusk Friday and spawned a tsunami said to have been as high as 6 meters (20 feet) in places. The grave being dug in Palu for 300 victims will be 10 meters by 100 meters (33 feet by 330 feet) and can be enlarged if needed, said Willem Rampangilei, chief of Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

Indonesia's president has authorized for the country to accept international help for the earthquake and tsunami disaster on the central island of Sulawesi. Thomas Lembong, chair of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board, tweeted Monday morning that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo made the authorization. It wasn't immediately clear what type of help was being authorized. The toll of 800 dead in Friday's disaster is expected to grow as areas inaccessible since the disaster are reached. The quake and tsunami damaged airports, hospitals and other crucial infrastructure.

BANGKOK (AP) — A recent string of natural disasters, the latest a deadly earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, have exacted a severe toll both in economic damage and human lives throughout Asia. The U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, or UNISDR, says up to 1.6 million people could be affected by the magnitude 7.5 earthquake and the tsunami it created Friday in a central region of Sulawesi island. Such disasters tend to hurt the poorest people in the poorest countries most severely, even if the economic toll can be highest in more affluent countries like Japan. Annual losses from disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons average $250 billion to $300 billion, according to UNISDR, with the largest share in Asia.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has begun removing mines at two sites inside its heavily fortified border with North Korea, which is expected to do the same as part of their recent deals to ease decades-long military tensions. They will likely end up pulling out a very small portion of an estimated 2 million mines littered inside and near the 248-kilometer (155-mile) -long, 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) -wide Demilitarized Zone. But it would be the rivals' first joint demining work in more than a decade and comes amid international diplomacy aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons. A look at the mine clearing:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea began clearing mines from two sites inside the heavily fortified border with North Korea on Monday under tension-reducing agreements reached this year. Seoul says North Korea is expected to do the same. The development comes amid renewed international diplomacy on North Korea's nuclear weapons program after weeks of stalemated negotiations. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to visit Pyongyang this month to try to set up a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. South Korean troops entered the Demilitarized Zone on Monday morning to remove mines around the border village of Panmunjom and another frontline area where the rivals plan their first joint searches with North Korea for soldiers during the 1950-53 Korean War, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.

WHEELING, W. Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump told a cheering crowd at a campaign rally that there was once tough talk "back and forth" between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "and then we fell in love." Trump said at the Saturday night rally in West Virginia: "He wrote me beautiful letters and they're great letters. We fell in love." He joked about criticism he would get from the news media for making a comment some would consider "unpresidential" and for being so positive about the North Korean leader. "Why has President Trump given up so much?" Trump said in his mock "news anchor" voice.

TOKYO (AP) — Denny Tamaki, who campaigned criticizing the American military presence on the southwestern Japanese islands of Okinawa, won the election for governor Sunday, defeating a ruling party-backed candidate pushing the status quo. The race was to choose a successor to Takeshi Onaga, who died in August of pancreatic cancer. He wanted the bases off Okinawa. Tamaki, a legislator who had pledged to continue with Onaga's "spirit," thanked his supporters as his campaign office broke into a cheer and later began dancing Okinawa-style, after several major Japanese media polls, including Kyodo news service, declared him the winner. "The strong feelings of Takeshi Onaga, risking his life to stop the construction of any more bases, helped bring this victory," Tamaki told reporters.

MAKASSAR, Indonesia (AP) — An early warning system that might have prevented some deaths in the tsunami that hit an Indonesian island on Friday has been stalled in the testing phase for years. The high-tech system of seafloor sensors, data-laden sound waves and fiber-optic cable was meant to replace a system set up after an earthquake and tsunami killed nearly 250,000 people in the region in 2004. But inter-agency wrangling and delays in getting just 1 billion rupiah ($69,000) to complete the project mean the system hasn't moved beyond a prototype developed with $3 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The sun had just slipped behind the mountains, leaving a soft pink glow as the blue sea melted into the darkening horizon. It could have been a video postcard from a tropical paradise, except for the long white wave stretching the width of the bay — getting larger and closer with each passing second. By the time the fast-moving wall of frothing water slammed into the city of Palu off Indonesia's Sulawesi island on Friday, it was 3 meters (10 feet) high. The tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, destroyed the idyllic scene in seconds, leaving hundreds dead.

BEIJING (AP) — China's export orders shrank in September as a tariff battle with Washington over technology escalated, adding to downward pressure on the world's No. 2 economy, two surveys showed Sunday. The reports add to signs Chinese trade, which had held up despite U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff hikes, might be weakening. That adds to pressure on an economy that already was forecast to cool due to slowing global consumer demand and lending controls imposed to rein in a debt boom. The official China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing's monthly measure of new export orders fell to 48 from August's 49.4 on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 show activity shrinking.