Top Asian News 3:55 a.m. GMT

WANI, Indonesia (AP) — The captain and crew sailing the Sabuk Nusantara ferry to new owners on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi got the task done and then some. The hulking red and yellow ship was bounced like a basketball as a massive earthquake rocked the region and it landed in front of a row of houses in the village of Wani, dumped by tsunami waves that the crew say were a towering 15 meters (50 feet) or higher. A week after the magnitude 7.5 quake and tsunami hit central Sulawesi, the captain and 20 crew of the ferry remain on board, waiting for an assessment team to arrive and decide if the ship, its propeller jutting over the waterfront, can be put back to sea.

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — She lay inside a medical tent in the stifling midday heat, wincing in pain at the gashes and cuts that cover her body. But all Anisa Cornelia could think about was the love of her life — the man she was supposed to marry this month. She had not seen him since the tsunami smashed into an Indonesian island, separating the pair possibly forever as they strolled along a sandy beach at twilight. "Where is my fiancé? Please, do you have any news?" the badly bruised 22-year-old pleaded as medical staff came to check on her in the courtyard of the main hospital in the city of Palu.

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — French rescuers on Friday were unable to find the possible sign of life they detected a day earlier under hotel rubble, a week after the destructive earthquake and tsunami struck Indonesia's Sulawesi island, killing more than 1,550 people and burying hundreds in mud and debris. The five-member International Emergency Firefighters team said late Thursday its sensor "detected the presence of a victim" under thick concrete in the wreckage of the Mercure Hotel in Palu city. The device can identify breathing and heartbeats, but gas leaks and other factors can result in false positives. The team stopped digging overnight.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence charged Thursday that Russia's influence operations in America pale in comparison with the covert and overt activities China is taking to interfere in the U.S. midterm elections and counter President Donald Trump's tough trade policies against Beijing. Pence laid out measures Beijing is employing to undermine the Trump administration. They include public steps such as targeting Chinese tariffs to industries in states that are crucial to Trump in the midterms as well as behind-the-scenes actions like coercing U.S. businesses to speak out against the Trump administration and intimidating scholars. Pence also denounced China's maneuvers in the South China Sea, its oppression of Christians, Muslims and other religious believers, and Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature infrastructure and foreign policy initiative.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he might have cancer and added that "I don't know where I'm now physically" as he awaited the result of recent medical tests. Duterte said in a speech in Manila that he underwent an endoscopy and colonoscopy about three weeks ago but his doctor was advised this week to repeat the tests. Both tests aim to diagnose any abnormality in the digestive tract and colon. "I don't know where I'm now physically but I have to wait for that. But I would tell you if it's cancer, it's cancer," the 73-year-old Duterte said to a Philippine Military Academy alumni group and top security officials.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Scout movement in Australia on Friday apologized to victims of child sex abuse within the organization that recently joined a national compensation program. Scouts Australia Chief Commissioner Phil Harrison said the apology was part of his organization's commitment to acknowledge and address the harm that some of its members have suffered through Scouting. "Scouting sincerely hopes that the apology will help those who suffered through their time in Scouting, as well as their families who have also been affected," Harrison said in a statement. "The apology is a genuine and heartfelt admission that, for some young people, their time in Scouting was a negative experience.

LONDON (AP) — The West unleashed an onslaught of new evidence and indictments Thursday accusing Russian military spies of hacking so widespread that it seemed to target anyone, anywhere who investigates Moscow's involvement in an array of criminal activities — including doping, poisoning and the downing of a plane. Russia defiantly denied the charges, neither humbled nor embarrassed by the exceptional revelations on one of the most high-tension days in East-West relations in years. Moscow lashed back with allegations that the Pentagon runs a clandestine U.S. biological weapons program involving toxic mosquitoes, ticks and more. The nucleus of Thursday's drama was Russia's military intelligence agency known as the GRU, increasingly the embodiment of Russian meddling abroad.

MALE, Maldives (AP) — A Maldives opposition leader returned home Thursday after being exiled in Germany for months to escape a prison sentence on charges of plotting to overthrow the government. Qasim Ibrahim was welcomed at the airport by President-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. Ibrahim, a businessman who owns a chain of tourist resorts, was among dozens of political opponents who were jailed by outgoing strongman Yameen Abdul Gayoom following trials criticized for lack of due process. He went into exile in Germany after undergoing heart surgery in Singapore. "People have spoken. There is no use of acting up now," Ibrahim said in a brief speech to the gathering that came to greet him, referring to claims by Yameen that there were irregularities in the election process.

TOKYO (AP) — After years of delays Tokyo's 80-year-old Tsukiji fish market is closing on Saturday to move to a more modern facility on reclaimed industrial land in Tokyo Bay. The new, 569 billion yen ($5 billion) facility at Toyosu will open on Oct. 11, over the objections of many working in Tsukiji who contend the new site is contaminated, inconvenient and unsafe. "If the new place were better, I'll be happy to move," said Tai Yamaguchi, whose family has run fish wholesaler Hitoku Shoten since 1964. The 75-year-old leader of a group of 30 women whose families run shops in Tsukiji opposed to the move, Yamaguchi feels it has been mishandled by authorities who failed to fully consult those affected.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Visitors to New Zealand can be fined 5,000 New Zealand dollars ($3,243) for refusing to provide passwords to unlock electronic devices and allow customs officials to examine them under a new law that a civil liberties group on Thursday condemned as a grave invasion of privacy. The law came into effect on Oct. 1 as part of an update of 22-year-old customs legislation. It also gives customs officials authority to copy data found on searched devices. "The traveling public is unlikely to notice much difference at the border," the New Zealand Customs Service said in a statement last week.