Top Asian News 4:47 a.m. GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Three Filipino soldiers were killed and 17 others wounded in nearly two hours of fighting with about 150 Muslim militants in the south, the military said Sunday. The Abu Sayyaf gunmen withdrew after the fierce clash on Saturday in the mountains of Patikul town in Sulu province, and are being pursued by government forces, said regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan. An unspecified number of militants were either wounded or killed in the latest flare-up in a monthslong offensive ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte. Tan said the troops were backed by assault aircraft and artillery fire. The militants were led by Radulan Sahiron, a one-armed commander long wanted by the U.S.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police said they safely detonated a bomb on the outskirts of the capital after arresting a female would-be suicide bomber and other suspected Islamic militants who were allegedly planning to attack the presidential palace this weekend. The thwarted plot is likely to cause particular concern in Indonesia because of the possibility that women with militant network associations are now being recruited into more active roles, including plotting and carrying out attacks. "This marks a new chapter of terrorism in Indonesia, where the suicide bombing was to be carried out by a woman," terrorism analyst Ridwan Habib said in an interview with Indonesian TV.

TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo held a groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday for a $1.5 billion National Stadium to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and other dignitaries launched the construction at the site of the demolished National Stadium, which was used during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, by putting their hands on a glass sphere that rotated through pastels of the colors of the Olympic logo. The ceremony ended with a video replete with computer graphics showing how the stadium is expected to look and function once completed by November 2019. Work on the stadium in the center of the city fell behind schedule because the government abandoned the original design amid spiraling costs and complaints over its scale and appearance.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan naval troops fired warning shots to break up a protest by striking dock workers who have held up a Japanese vessel for four days at the island's southern international port. Troops entered Hambantota port from the sea Saturday and fired warning shots to disperse the crowd, considering their action an "act of piracy," navy spokesman Akram Alavi said. The protesters had prevented the Japanese vehicle carrier Hyperion Highway from leaving the port. No casualties were reported. After the navy's intervention, the Japanese ship sailed Saturday afternoon toward its next destination, Oman, Alavi said. Temporary workers began striking Tuesday, demanding to be made permanent employees of the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority, which manages island nation's ports.

BEIJING (AP) — Six workers are dead in China after being hit by an express cargo train on the railway line connecting Beijing and the southern city of Guangzhou. A local government statement about the Saturday accident said authorities are still investigating why the workers were on a live track. State media reported in July that the number of train-related accidents and deaths had declined during the first half of 2016. China's national safety regulator, the State Administration of Work Safety, reported 1,037 train-related deaths in 2015 and blamed most of them on pedestrians and drivers improperly crossing tracks, as well as typhoons and other natural disasters.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The previous time South Korea's parliament voted to impeach a president, ruling party lawmakers bawled and hurled ballot boxes, a man set himself on fire in front of the National Assembly, and thousands glumly held candlelight vigils night after night to save late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun. Twelve years later, the mood couldn't have been more different, with massive crowds returning to Seoul's streets on Saturday, a day after lawmakers voted in favor of removing disgraced President Park Geun-hye. The vote for impeachment left protesters basking in pride, believing they had repaired a damaged democracy with their weekly demonstrations.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Fresh off impeachment, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's days in office may be numbered. Her potential successors include the outgoing secretary general of the United Nations, an ambitious mayor who has been compared to both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, and the man who conceded the presidential race to Park four years ago. Park was suspended as president following a parliamentary impeachment vote Friday. She will be formally removed from office if six of the Constitutional Court's nine justices support her impeachment in a review that could take up to six months. The chances of the court reinstating Park are considered low, and if she's unseated, the country must hold a presidential election within 60 days.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea, after following the travails of South Korean President Park Geun-hye with unconcealed joy, got off to a slow start Saturday in reacting to her actual impeachment. Pyongyang residents told of the news, however, were quick to judge. First word of Friday's vote in Seoul to remove Park from office didn't come until Saturday afternoon from the North's state-run news agency, which reported it in a terse and largely insult-free story. Nothing about Park's impeachment by the South's National Assembly was carried by North Korea's ruling party daily, the Rodong Sinmun, on Saturday morning. Instead, an older story, headlined "Last Ditch Efforts of the Power Maniac," took up most of the top half of Page 5.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan has fallen so far from Americans' consciousness that some may have forgotten it's called the forgotten war. It also is America's longest war. Now in its 16th year and showing little sign of ending, it will soon be the responsibility of Donald Trump, two presidents removed from the October 2001 invasion. During the presidential campaign, neither Trump nor Democrat Hillary Clinton offered new ideas for breaking the battlefield stalemate. They hardly mentioned the country, let alone a strategy. And yet, the war President George W. Bush began as America's response to 9/11 grinds on as nearly 10,000 U.S.

BANGALORE, India (AP) — After an elephant broke his leg and was left to hobble around the backwaters of a reservoir in southern India, villagers and veterinarians brought him food and tried to soothe his agony through treatment. But he died Friday after efforts lasting more than three months. Sidda, the name given to the elephant by forest guards, was estimated to be 35 years old. Sidda fell into a ditch and broke his right leg in the Manchinbele dam area in late August. He also sustained abrasions all over his body, and had an abscess on his back that required treatment.