Top Asian News 3:54 a.m. GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China's trade surplus with the United States widened to a record $34.1 billion in September as exports to the U.S. market rose by 13 percent over a year earlier despite a worsening tariff war. Customs data on Friday showed growth in Chinese imports of U.S. goods decelerated to 9 percent over a year earlier. Washington and Beijing have raised tariffs on billions of dollars of each other's goods in a fight over American complaints about Chinese technology policy. Overall, China's global exports rose 14.5 percent over a year earlier, up from August's 12.2 percent growth. Imports grew 14.3 percent, down from 20.9 percent.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian President Joko Widodo has taken aim at tensions between big economies like the U.S. and China, saying trade wars are an invitation to destruction. Widodo said sparring between big powers was causing turmoil in financial markets at a time when attention should be focused on slowing growth and disruptions from new technologies. He spoke Friday at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Bali, Indonesia, that comes amid an unnerving spate of turmoil in world financial markets. In an allusion to the popular TV series "Game of Thrones," Widodo said victory is pointless in a "sinking world." Finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 industrial nations were due to issue a statement on their talks later Friday.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian actresses and writers are flooding social media with allegations of sexual harassment and assault, releasing pent-up frustration with a law that was lauded internationally but that critics say has done little to change the status quo in the world's largest democracy. "People using social media to articulate their complaints should be recognized in the context of failure. The system has in effect failed us, has failed women," T.K. Rajalakshmi, the president of the Indian Women's Press Corps, said in a panel discussion Thursday in New Delhi. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act of 2013 holds Indian workplaces liable for sexual harassment, and prescribes a system for investigating and redressing complaints.

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — The rebuilding of an Indonesian city shattered by an earthquake and tsunami will take two years, a disaster official said Thursday, as the search for victims buried in obliterated neighborhoods neared its end. The national disaster agency's spokesman, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, told a news conference that the official search and rescue effort was extended by a day and would end Friday. "Because of the demands of the residents to lengthen the search for victims, we have extended the search and evacuation process for one day," he said. Officials plan prayers in areas such as Balaroa, Petobo and Jono Oge where the force of the Sept.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has reassigned several employees based in Asia amid allegations of misconduct. The agency released a statement in response to a Wall Street Journal report Thursday that the Justice Department's inspector general was investigating allegations against FBI employees in some half a dozen cities, including locations in East and Southeast Asia. Details of the allegations were unclear. The Journal report cites anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The FBI says, "Upon learning of these allegations of misconduct, action was taken to reassign certain personnel to non-operational roles while the allegations are reviewed." The statement issued late Thursday says, "All FBI employees are held to the highest standards of conduct, and allegations against any employee are taken very seriously."

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's new government said it will abolish the death penalty for all crimes and halt all pending executions, a rare move against capital punishment in Asia that human rights groups hailed Thursday as a major advance. More than 1,200 people are on death row in Malaysia, which mandates hanging as punishment for a wide range of crimes including murder, drug trafficking, treason, kidnapping and acts of terror. Law Minister Liew Vui Keong announced Wednesday that the Cabinet had agreed to abolish the death penalty and that amendments to laws with capital punishment were expected to be presented when Parliament resumes Monday, local media reported.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A Kashmiri scholar-turned rebel leader and his colleague were killed Thursday in a gunbattle with Indian troops, police and residents said, sparking violent anti-India protests by residents in the disputed region. The incident could spark more unrest in a region that in recent years has witnessed renewed rebel attacks and public resistance against Indian rule. Indian troops laid siege to a village in northwestern Handwara area early Thursday on a tip that militants were hiding there, police said. As counterinsurgency police and soldiers launched a search operation, a gunfight erupted in which two rebels were killed. Authorities shut down internet service on mobile phones and ordered the closure of schools in several places in the region fearing student protests.

Over the course of 12 months, the U.S. Army discharged more than 500 immigrant enlistees who were recruited across the globe for their language or medical skills and promised a fast track to citizenship in exchange for their service, The Associated Press has found. The decade-old Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest recruiting program was put on hold in 2016 amid concerns that immigrant recruits were not being screened sufficiently. The Army began booting out those enlistees last year without explanation . The AP has interviewed more than a dozen recruits from countries such as Brazil, Pakistan, Iran, China and Mongolia who all said they were devastated by their unexpected discharges or canceled contracts.

People whose relatives were lost in the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami waited for word on the searches and grieved when bodies were recovered from the rubble and mud. The 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on Sept. 28 killed more than 2,000 people, most of them in the city of Palu. Many of the hundreds and perhaps thousands who are still missing may be buried in the mud that acted like quicksand during the shaking and swallowed whole neighborhoods. The tsunami that leveled swathes of the coast also swept numerous ships and boats ashore in central Sulawesi. In other images from the Asia-Pacific region this week, Tokyo's famous fish market reopened at a new location, Toyosu, but kept the traditions of its opening activity: the tuna auction.

CAIRO (AP) — As the world marks the International Day of the Girl Child, women's rights activists point to progress on a wide array of issues but say more needs to be done to protect girls from child marriage, sexual assault and other forms of exploitation. Experts say girls in their first decade are better positioned for success than their mothers and grandmothers were, thanks to advances in health care and nutrition, and wider access to education. But they say more must be done to keep adolescent and teenage girls in school, and to protect them from violence, unintended pregnancies and forced marriage, which remains common in much of the developing world.