Top Asian News 4:20 a.m. GMT

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh's ruling alliance overwhelmingly won Sunday's election, official results confirmed early Monday, allowing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to govern for a third straight term despite allegations of intimidation and the opposition disputing the outcome. The Awami League-led alliance won 288 out of 300 seats, Election Commission Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said in finishing the delivery of results. The Jatiya Party led by former president H.M.Ershad won 20 seats, the opposition alliance led by prominent lawyer Kamal Hossain had only seven and others got three. The election of one seat was not held Sunday and results for another seat were halted by the commission.

TOKYO (AP) — Kim Jong Un will be keeping North Korea watchers busy on New Year's Day, when he is expected to give his annual address laying out the country's top priorities for the year ahead. The speech, which is normally broadcast on North Korea's state-run television network, is often the best gauge of what the North Korean leadership is focused on and what tone it will take in its dealings with the outside world. For 2019, it will be parsed carefully for clues about Kim's thinking on denuclearization talks with Washington and a second summit with President Donald Trump, relations with South Korea and Pyongyang's efforts to get out from under international sanctions as it tries to build up its domestic economy.

TOKYO (AP) — Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn will be detained at least through Jan. 11, the Tokyo District Court said Monday, as the once revered auto industry figure faces allegations that have marked a stunning downfall. Ghosn, who led Nissan Motor Co. for two decades and helped save the Japanese automaker from near bankruptcy, was arrested Nov. 19 on suspicion of falsifying financial reports. He also faces a breach of trust allegation, for which his detention had been approved previously through Jan. 1. The Tokyo District Court said in a statement that it had approved prosecutors' request for a 10-day extension.

BEIJING (AP) — It's not uncommon for individuals who speak out against the government to disappear in China, but the scope of the "disappeared" has expanded since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2013. Not only dissidents and activists, but also high-level officials, Marxists, foreigners and even a movie star — people who never publicly opposed the ruling Communist Party — have been whisked away by police to unknown destinations. The widening dragnet throws into stark relief the lengths to which Xi's administration is willing to go to maintain its control and authority. A look at some of the people who went missing in 2018 at the hands of the Chinese state: ___ FOREIGN PAWNS China threatened "grave consequences" if Canada did not release high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou, shortly after the Huawei chief financial officer was detained in Vancouver in December for possible extradition to the U.S.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says presidential polls, which were originally scheduled for April, will be held on July 20. The elections were postponed to allow time to fix technical problems that surfaced during October's parliamentary elections, deputy spokesman for the Independent Election Commission Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi said Sunday. More time is needed to verify voter lists and to train elections workers on a biometric identification system, aimed at reducing fraud. Parliamentary elections were overwhelmed by delays with some polling booths opening up five hours late, forcing a second day of voting. Several legal complaints have been filed challenging the results, with many polling results still not announced.

BRUSSELS (AP) — An international trade association says on-the-job slayings of journalists and news media staff rose again in 2018 following an overall decline during the past half-dozen years. The International Federation of Journalists said in an annual report set for release Monday that 94 journalists and media workers died in targeted killings, bomb attacks and conflict crossfire this year, 12 more than in 2017. Before the declines seen in five of the past six years, 121 people working for news organizations were slain in 2012. Since the federation started its annual count in 1990, the year with the most work-related killings, 155, was 2006.

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — A volcano on Indonesia's tourist island of Bali shot a new burst of hot ash into the air early Sunday in the latest of the country's several eruptions within a week. Mount Agung erupted for about three minutes, spewing white clouds of smoke and ash more than 700 meters (2,300 feet) into the air, the Volcanology and Geological Mitigation Agency said in a statement. The eruption of the 3,031-meter (9,940-foot) volcano didn't prompt evacuations, and its alert status remains at the second-highest level. The agency warned tourists to stay away from the danger zone in a 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) radius around the crater.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Sunday calling for more peace talks between the leaders in the new year following their active engagement in 2018, South Korea's presidential office said. Moon's office said Kim also expressed regret that he couldn't make a planned visit to Seoul, South Korea's capital, by the end of December as pledged by the leaders during their last summit in September in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. The Blue House didn't fully disclose Kim's letter. Moon later thanked Kim for his "warm" letter in a tweeted message and said without elaborating that Kim expressed strong willingness to carry out the agreements he made this year during a series of inter-Korean summits and a historic June meeting with President Donald Trump.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — When the founding leader of Bangladesh, father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was assassinated in 1975 after helping achieve independence from Pakistan, then-Foreign Minister Kamal Hossain abandoned a state visit in Europe to rush to her side. Now Hossain, 82, is helming a popular opposition against Hasina that aims to prevent his former Awami League party from maintaining its hold on Bangladesh in Sunday's parliamentary elections. "There should be a very decisive victory for the opposition if it's free and fair," Hossain said in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press. "If there is some kind of a decision in favor of the present government, I can assure you that it will not be a free and fair election." A respected Oxford-educated lawyer, Hossain emerged as an improbable opposition leader after a court disqualified Hasina's chief rival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, because she is serving a 17-year sentence for corruption.

BEIJING (AP) — A Canadian convicted of drug trafficking in China faces the possibility of more serious charges after a court on Saturday ordered a new trial amid tensions over Canada's arrest of a Chinese technology executive. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was tried in 2016. But his case has been publicized by the Chinese press following the Dec. 1 arrest of the chief financial officer of tech giant Huawei on U.S. charges related to trading with Iran. Since then, China has arrested two Canadians on charges of endangering national security in what appeared to be retaliation. A Canadian teacher was detained but released.