New law points to Philippine church's waning sway

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Twenty-six years after Roman Catholic leaders helped his mother marshal millions of Filipinos in an uprising that ousted a dictator, President Benigno Aquino III picked a fight with the church over contraceptives and won a victory that bared the bishops' worst nightmare: They no longer sway the masses.Aquino last month signed the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health...

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Indian court may suspend lawmakers facing crimes

NEW DELHI (AP) — India's top court said Wednesday it will decide whether to suspend lawmakers facing sexual assault charges as thousands of women gathered at the memorial to independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi to demand stronger protection for their safety.The march came as police prepared to formally charge six suspects in the gang-rape and killing of a student in the capital two weeks ago.The...

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NKorea's Kim wants better living standards, arms

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday called for improving the economy and living standards of his impoverished nation with the same urgency that scientists showed in successfully testing a long-range rocket recently.Kim's first New Year's speech, delivered on state TV, was peppered with rhetoric, with calls for boosting the military's capabilities and making the science...

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Myanmar to fete 2013 with first public countdown

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar will ring in 2013 with its first public New Year's Eve countdown and a grand fireworks display in a celebration unprecedented in the former military-ruled country.Monday night's outdoor party marks the latest, and perhaps most exuberant, example of the country's emergence from decades of isolation.Thousands were expected to attend the celebration at a large field in...

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India rape victim's body cremated in New Delhi

NEW DELHI (AP) — A young woman who died after being gang-raped and beaten on a bus in India's capital was cremated Sunday amid an outpouring of anger and grief by millions across the country demanding greater protection for women from sexual violence.The cremation took place during a private ceremony in New Delhi soon after the woman's body arrived in the capital on a special Air India flight from...

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Attackers in India rape case to face murder charge

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian police charged six men with murder on Saturday, hours after a woman who was gang-raped and beaten on a bus in New Delhi nearly two weeks ago died in a Singapore hospital.New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said the six face the death penalty if convicted, in a case that has triggered protests across India for greater protection for women from sexual violence, and raised...

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Nowhere to use Japan's growing plutonium stockpile

ROKKASHO, Japan (AP) — How is an atomic-powered island nation riddled with fault lines supposed to handle its nuclear waste? Part of the answer was supposed to come from this windswept village along Japan's northern coast.By hosting a high-tech facility that would convert spent fuel into a plutonium-uranium mix designed for the next generation of reactors, Rokkasho was supposed to provide fuel while...

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Thai 'Yellow Shirt' leaders charged for 2008 rally

BANGKOK (AP) — Protest leaders in Thailand were indicted Thursday for storming the prime minister's office compound and sealing off Parliament during massive anti-government rallies in 2008 at the height of political turmoil, which left the country deeply divided to this day.Prosecutors filed charges against Sondhi Limthongkul, Chamlong Srimuang and other leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy,...

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Air Bagan survivor tells of terrifying landing

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Air Bagan says it has found the black box after a dramatic Christmas Day crash-landing, as survivors told terrifying tales of escape and expressed disbelief that only two people died.Details of the accident remain unclear, though the airline and officials have blamed heavy fog for the aircraft's crash into a rice paddy field where it burst into flames. Four foreigners were among...

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Plane crash-lands on Myanmar road, 3 killed

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A flight packed with Christmas tourists crash-landed on a road in central Myanmar on Tuesday, killing three people and injuring 11, officials said.Four foreigners were among the injured on the Air Bagan flight, the airline said. It said the fatalities were all Myanmar citizens: a tour guide and an 11-year-old child on board the plane and a man riding a motorcycle on the road...

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Afghan policewoman kills US adviser, police say

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan policewoman shot and killed an American adviser outside the police headquarters in Kabul on Monday, the latest in a rising tide of insider attacks by Afghans against their foreign allies, senior Afghan officials said.The woman, identified as Afghan police Sgt. Nargas, had entered a strategic compound in the heart of the capital and shot the adviser with a pistol...

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Bombing at political rally kills 9 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed nine people including a provincial government official at a political rally held Saturday by a party that has opposed the Taliban, officials said.The rally in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban.Among the dead...

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AP PHOTOS: A photo journey through North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — My window on North Korea is sometimes, quite literally, a window — of a hotel room, the backseat of a car, a train. Fleeting moments of daily life present themselves suddenly, and they are opportunities to show a side of the country that is entirely at odds with the official portrait of marching troops and tightly coordinated pomp that the Pyongyang leadership presents...

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US budget negotiations setback drives stocks down

PARIS (AP) — Another failed attempt find a compromise in U.S. budget negotiations sent world stock markets plummeting Friday, as investors feared the world's largest economy could teeter into recession if no deal is found.Without an agreement, the U.S. economy will fall off the so-called "fiscal cliff" on Jan. 1 when Bush-era tax cuts expire and spending cuts kick in automatically. The measures were...

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SKorea's president-elect faces NKorea uncertainty

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Park Geun-hye promises to reach out to North Korea with more humanitarian aid and deeper engagement after she moves into South Korea's presidential Blue House on Feb. 25. Pyongyang, however, may be in no mood to talk anytime soon.Park's declarations ahead of Wednesday's election that she will soften five years of hard-line policy rang true with voters, even as they rejected...

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New attacks on polio teams in Pakistan kill 2

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen shot dead a woman working on U.N.-backed polio vaccination efforts and her driver in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said, just a day after similar attacks across the country killed five female polio workers.The killings prompted the world health body to suspend the vaccination campaign in two of Pakistan's four provinces on Wednesday.The attacks are...

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Gunmen kill 6 polio workers in Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen killed six people working on a government polio vaccination campaign in two different Pakistani cities on Tuesday, officials said. The attacks were likely an attempt by the Taliban to counter an initiative the militant group has long opposed.The attacks came a day after an unknown gunman killed a volunteer for the World Health Organization's anti-polio campaign in Pakistan's...

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Car bomb kills 17 people in market in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A car bomb exploded in a crowded market in Pakistan's troubled northwest tribal region near the Afghan border Monday, killing 17 people and wounding more than 40 others, officials said.The bomb went off next to the women's waiting area of a bus stop, which is located near the office of one of the top political officials in the Khyber tribal area, said Hidayat Khan, a local...

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Rocket still centerpiece as NKoreans mourn Kim

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea parlayed the success of last week's rocket launch to glorify leader Kim Jong Un and his late father on Sunday, the eve of the first anniversary of his death.The successful firing the rocket on Wednesday — ostensibly to place a satellite in space — was a clear sign that Kim will continue his father Kim Jong Il's militaristic...

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Pentagon to send missiles, 400 troops to Turkey

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (AP) — The U.S. will send two batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack, the Pentagon said Friday.Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed a deployment order en route to Turkey from Afghanistan. It calls for 400 U.S. soldiers to operate two batteries of Patriots at undisclosed...

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