Top Asian News 3:28 a.m. GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban bombing in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province killed a candidate running in the parliamentary elections this weekend, a provincial official said, as attacks elsewhere in the country killed six policemen and two soldiers. The attacks came as the Taliban warned teachers and students not to participate in the vote and not to allow schools to be used as polling centers. The insurgents said in a statement that they will target Saturday's elections, which they view as illegitimate, but that they do not want to harm civilians. The blast in Helmand went off inside the campaign office of Abdul Jabar Qahraman, killing him and wounding seven people, said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

NEW DELHI (AP) — M.J. Akbar, India's junior external affairs minister, resigned Wednesday amid accusations by 20 women of sexual harassment during his previous career as one of the country's most prominent news editors, becoming the most powerful man to fall in India's burgeoning #MeToo movement. Akbar said in a statement that he would "challenge false accusations" in a personal capacity, referring to a criminal defamation case he filed Monday against the first woman to accuse him. Akbar, 67, first served as a lawmaker for India's then-ruling India National Congress party between 1989 and 1991. He then edited The Telegraph, The Asian Age and other newspapers and wrote several books of nonfiction, becoming one of the most influential people in the Indian news media.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — South Korea's president said he was certain peace could be achieved on the Korean Peninsula as he prepared for an audience Thursday with Pope Francis where he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for Francis to visit. South Korean President Moon Jae-in delivered remarks at a Wednesday evening "Mass for Peace" in St. Peter's Basilica. The pope's top diplomat, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, celebrated the Mass. In his homily, Parolin prayed for the "gift of peace" on the Korean Peninsula so "after so many years of tensions and division, the word 'peace' can ring out fully." Moon spoke at the end of the service, saying the prayers offered there "will also resound as echoes of hope in the hearts of the people of the two Koreas as well as the people of the whole world who desire peace." "Our prayers today will turn into reality for sure," the South Korean leader said.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam has freed a well-known blogger after two years in prison on the condition that she leave for the United States. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known as "Mother Mushroom," was arrested in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of defaming the Communist government. The conviction of the popular blogger, who wrote about human rights and industrial pollution, drew criticism from some Western governments and international human rights groups. Friends of the 39-year-old blogger said she was on her way to the U.S. with her mother and two young children. "After numerous efforts, the family of Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh was reunited in a free country," her friend Nguyen Tin wrote on his Facebook page.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Close allies of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte have resigned from his Cabinet to run in elections next year that will test his popularity and could determine his future political influence. Among those running in the May 13 elections are Duterte's former foreign secretary, who staunchly defended him from international criticism of his deadly anti-drug crackdown, his spokesman, his political adviser and a longtime aide. Wednesday was the final day for aspirants to register as candidates. More than 18,000 government posts are up for grabs, including 12 seats in the 24-member Senate, which stymied efforts by Duterte allies this year to rapidly open the country's constitution to amendments and allow a shift to a federal system of government.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani police say the sons of a suspected drug dealer arrested in the country's northwest have killed a local reporter who wrote about their father's case. Wajid Ali, a police official in Haripur district, says Sohail Khan was gunned down because of his article in the Kay-2 newspaper about the arrest of Musarrat Iqbal in a narcotic case. Ali says police are searching for Iqbal's sons, Ali Sher and Himayun Iqbal, who ambushed Khan's vehicle at a local bazaar and killed him on Tuesday. Khan is the second Kay-2 journalist to be killed in just over a year in Haripur.

BEIJING (AP) — The director of "Air Strike," featuring Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, says the film's release has been canceled in the wake of her disappearance and conviction on tax evasion charges. The World War II thriller, also starring Bruce Willis and Adrien Brody, was to have been released Oct. 26. However, director Xiao Feng posted on his Weibo miniblog Wednesday that it was "time to let go" after eight years of work on the film. Chinese tax authorities this month ordered Fan and companies she represents to pay taxes and penalties totaling $130 million, ending speculation over the fate of one of the country's highest-profile entertainers three months after she disappeared from public view.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan recorded a trade surplus for September of 139.6 billion yen ($1.2 billion), but exports fell 1.2 percent from the previous year in the first decline for the world's third largest economy since 2016. A series of natural disasters took a toll, but the lag in exports also reflects uncertainties over trade tensions after President Donald Trump imposed penalty tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of Chinese exports. Weaker U.S.-China trade generally hurts the export-dependent Japanese economy. Imports rose 7 percent, according to data released Thursday by the Ministry of Finance. During the month, a major earthquake hit the northernmost island of Hokkaido, causing fatal landslides and widespread blackouts, while a typhoon struck the western Kansai area and temporarily shut down a major airport.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city in disputed Kashmir on Wednesday after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two rebels, a civilian and a counterinsurgency police official, residents and police said. At least a dozen journalists covering the fighting were beaten by counterinsurgency policemen well after the fighting ended, media groups and reporters said. The gunbattle began early Wednesday after troops cordoned off a neighborhood in Srinagar on a tip that some rebels were in a civilian home, police said. The exchange of gunfire lasted about half an hour, police said, leaving two local militants, including a commander, a son of the house owner and a police official dead.

NEW DELHI (AP) — A temple in southern India and one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage centers opened its doors to females of menstruating age on Wednesday to comply with a Supreme Court ruling, but women weren't able to enter as hundreds of protesters fought street battles with police to keep them out. As the gates of the Sabarimala temple were flung open, a crowd of male devotees surged toward the temple. About 1,000 police used batons to try to control the protesters, who attacked them with stones and damaged police and TV vehicles and bullied female devotees to turn back.