India set for murder, rape charges in gang attack

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian police were preparing Thursday to file rape and murder charges against a group of men accused of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old university student for hours on a moving bus in New Delhi.The Dec. 16 attack on the woman, who later died of her injuries, has caused outrage across India and sparked demands for tough new rape laws, better police protection for women and a sustained...

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Taliban likens US Afghan role to Vietnam War

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban Wednesday likened the planned withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan to America's pullout from Vietnam, calling it a "declare victory and run" strategy.A statement from the militant group said the ongoing transfer of security operations from U.S. troops to Afghan forces was merely a retreat similar to the American withdrawal from South Vietnam prior to the...

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Afghan negotiator welcomes prisoner release

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A top Afghan negotiator said Tuesday he hopes that eight members of the Taliban released by Pakistan will serve as mediators in the effort to end the 11-year war in Afghanistan.Pakistan set the prisoners free Monday in an apparent bid to boost the peace process. The captives include the former justice minister when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan before their 2001 overthrow...

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Asian nations giving enthusiastic welcome to 2013

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Fiscal cliff? Recession? Not in Asia, where the first countries to see 2013 dawn will enthusiastically welcome the new year.Increasingly democratic Myanmar will have a public countdown for the first time. Jakarta plans a huge street party befitting Indonesia's powering economy.In Sydney, eager revelers camped over Sunday night on the shores of the harbor to get the best...

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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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Sweaters knit by Myanmar's Suu Kyi sell for $123K

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's cash-strapped opposition party is tapping into the prestige of its leader: Two sweaters hand-knit by Aung San Suu Kyi have been auctioned for $123,000.A green-and-white sweater with a floral design sold at a Friday night auction to an anonymous bidder for 63 million kyat, or $74,120.On Thursday, a Myanmar-based radio station won a bidding war for a multicolored V-neck...

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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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India rape victim in Singapore, PM pledges action

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged Thursday to take action to protect the nation's women while the young victim of a gang rape on a New Delhi bus was flown to Singapore for treatment of severe internal injuries.The Dec. 16 rape and brutal beating of the 23-year-old student triggered widespread protests in New Delhi and other parts of India demanding a government crackdown...

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Afghan bomber attacks near major US base

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A vehicle driven by a suicide bomber exploded at the gate of a major U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing the attacker and three Afghans, Afghan police said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.Police Gen. Abdul Qayum Baqizai said a local guard who questioned the vehicle driver at the gate of Camp Chapman was killed along with two...

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Afghan policewoman kills US adviser in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan policewoman walked into a high-security compound in Kabul Monday and killed an American contractor with a single bullet to the chest, the first such shooting by a woman in a spate of insider attacks by Afghans against their foreign allies.Afghan officials who provided details identified the attacker as police Sgt. Nargas, a mother of four with a clean record. The...

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Police say Afghan policewoman kills US adviser

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan policewoman killed an American adviser at the Kabul police headquarters on Monday, a senior Afghan police official said.Kabul's Deputy Police Chief Mohammad Daoud Amin said it has not been determined whether the killing was intentional or accidental and that an investigation is under way. He declined to elaborate on the circumstances of the killing or give more...

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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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Afghan leader: Foreigners to blame for corruption

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's president has charged the countries that fund his government and military with enabling the widespread corruption that undermines his efforts to establish rule of law in the war-wracked country.Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a nationally televised speech Saturday that the Afghan government has been making strides in cleaning up corruption within its own...

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AP PHOTOS: A photo journey through N.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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Pakistan reports 9th death in polio team attacks

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Another victim from attacks on U.N.-backed anti-polio teams in Pakistan died on Thursday, bringing the three-day death toll in the wave of assaults on volunteers vaccinating children across the country to nine, officials said.Hilal Khan, 20, died a day after he was shot in the head in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said health official Janbaz AfridiSince Monday, gunmen...

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Fresh attacks on polio teams in Pakistan wound 1

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani official says gunmen have staged more attacks on U.N.-backed polio vaccination teams, wounding one worker in the country's northwest.Wednesday's attacks come a day after five female polio workers were killed in southern and northwestern Pakistan. Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan has claimed responsibility for the attacks on Tuesday.Pakistan is one of only three...

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Grenade attack at Pakistan army facility wounds 10

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say two men on a motorcycle threw hand grenades at the main gate of an army recruiting center in the country's northwest, wounding 10 people.Senior police official Ghulam Mohammed says Tuesday's attack took place in the garrison town of Risalpur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He says the injured included civilians and security personnel. The attackers fled...

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Bomb near government office kills 12 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A car bomb exploded outside the women's waiting area of a government office in Pakistan's troubled northwest tribal region on Monday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 45 others, government officials said.The bombing apparently targeted the office of the assistant political agent for the Khyber tribal area, one of the top local government officials, said Hidayat Khan,...

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Gunbattle follows airport attack in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Police say they are engaged in a gunbattle with militants believed to have been involved in an attack on the military side of an international airport in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.Police officer Shafqat Malik says the militants are holed up in a village 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the airport. He says one police officer and one militant died in the fighting...

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Sympathy over US school shooting stretches globe

BANGKOK (AP) — Images of a tearful President Barack Obama speaking after a shooting rampage in Connecticut resonated around the world, with many outside the United States expressing hope Saturday that America's latest school massacre would prompt the country to strengthen gun control.Shock and sympathy were the initial reactions to the rampage that left 28 people dead, including 20 children at an...

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