Lithuanians sway toward opposition parties

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- Lithuanians exasperated with economic hardship handed a stunning victory to a populist party led by a disgraced Russia-born millionaire, nearly complete results of Sunday's election show, while voicing resounding disapproval of plans to build a costly new nuclear power plant.

The opposition Labor Party, led by Viktor Uspaskich, once dubbed as the "pickle king" for having made his fortune selling jarred pickles, was leading with 23.4 percent of the vote after nearly three-fourths of precincts was counted.

2012 campaign offers Bill Clinton chance to help Democrats, polish his legacy as statesman

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bill Clinton is back in the game big time, serving as President Barack Obama's surrogate in chief and relying on his oratorical skill and folksy style to help Democratic candidates.

His high-profile role also gives him the chance to enhance his legacy as Democratic elder statesman and global humanitarian. He can build up political IOUs should his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, decide to run again for president down the road.

Out of office since 2001, Clinton is proving that he retains a strong appeal with voters, especially in conservative states where Democratic candidates aren't eager to appear with Obama. The ex-president is a leading expert in the art of the political comeback - a skill the struggling Obama could use now.

UAE to send air ambulance for girl shot by the Taliban in case doctors send her abroad

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- The United Arab Emirates plans to send a specialized aircraft to serve as an ambulance for a 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban in case doctors decide to send her abroad for treatment, a Pakistani official said Sunday.

The shooting of Malala Yousufzai along with two classmates while they were on their way home from school on Oct. 9 horrified people in Pakistan and internationally. She was shot for promoting girl's education and criticizing the Taliban.

The attack left Yousufzai seriously wounded and sparked calls for the Pakistani government to step up its fight against the militant group.

As EU basks in peace prize glory, separatists from Belgium to Spain are on the march

ANTWERP, Belgium (AP) -- Historic world port and fashionista capital, Antwerp has always lived on the crest of the wave. Now, a separatist party heading into municipal elections Sunday wants to use the city as a base for breaking away from Belgium - putting it at the forefront of a European breakaway trend just as the EU celebrates winning the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering continental unity.

Moves toward separatism have been getting a bigger these past months as the economic crisis pushes people faster toward stark choices on nationhood and their future. It is no different in Spain's Catalonia, another wealthy region grousing that it has to pay for others in its crisis-hit country.

Feds: Airline passenger with weapons cache had computer manuals on ways to hunt, kill people

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A teacher arrested at Los Angeles International Airport wearing a bulletproof vest and with checked bags containing knives, body bags, a smoke grenade and other weapons also had files on his computer detailing how to kidnap and kill people, federal authorities disclosed Friday.

In addition, Yongda Huang Harris had items on his computer revealing he has a "strong interest" in sexual violence against girls, including a video titled "Schoolgirls in Cement," Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Mills said.

One publication was entitled "Man Trapping" and showed how to hunt and trap humans, she said. He also had a document with schedules for schools in Japan showing when students arrived and left.

The prosecutor detailed the discoveries during a court appearance by Harris, 28, a Boston University graduate who had been working in Japan as a junior high school teacher.

Dems in coal states diverge on Obama policies

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Friends of coal are certain they know the enemy.

They fault President Barack Obama and his Environmental Protection Agency for new clean air rules they deride as a devastating blow to a multibillion-dollar industry that has been the lifeblood of Appalachia for generations. The agency standards imposed earlier this year tightened limits on existing coal powered-plant emissions while guidelines on restricting greenhouse gases could affect new plants as early as 2013.

Along the rolling hills of this tiny Ohio town - population just over 5,100 - campaign signs for judges, state legislators and county officials crowd the neat lawns. As the road curves toward the interstate, one banner overshadows them all: "End the war on coal. Fire Obama."

FDA regulation of pharmacies has knotty history

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The deadly meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated pain injections has prompted calls for tighter federal regulation of compounding pharmacies, which have periodically been blamed for crippling and sometimes fatal injuries. But this isn't the first time Congress has pushed for more authority over the industry.

Such efforts stretch back to the 1990s, and after vigorous pushback by compounding pharmacists, they have left a patchwork of incomplete, overlapping laws, contradictory court rulings and overall uncertainty about how much power the Food and Drug Administration has to regulate compounders.

And with a gridlocked Congress at its most unproductive in decades, experts don't expect to see new laws passed anytime soon.

Letters show Ryan asking for federal programs as he pushed for smaller government with Romney

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is a fiscal conservative, champion of small government and critic of federal handouts. But as a congressman in Wisconsin, Ryan lobbied for tens of millions of dollars on behalf of his constituents for the kinds of largess he's now campaigning against, according to an Associated Press review of 8,900 pages of correspondence between Ryan's office and more than 70 executive branch agencies.

For 12 years in the House, Ryan wrote to federal agencies supporting expansion of food stamps in his Wisconsin district. He supported city officials and everyday constituents who sought stimulus grants, federally guaranteed business loans, grants to invest in green technology and money under the health care law he opposes.

Taliban sent hit squad after teenage activist

KHAR, Pakistan (AP) -- A spokesman for the Taliban's Swat Valley chapter says its leadership decided already two months ago to kill a 14-year-old activist, who was shot and seriously wounded this week - and then sent out a hit squad to carry out the job.

A spokesman, Sirajuddin Ahmad, says Malala Yousufzai was warned three times to stop her activities promoting "Western thinking," but she did not.

He said the last warning was conveyed a week ago.

Cash-strapped Postal Service, awaiting financial help from Congress, raises mailing rates

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It'll cost another penny to mail a letter next year.

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service said Thursday that it will raise postage rates on Jan. 27, including a 1-cent increase in the cost of first-class mail to 46 cents.

It also will introduce a new global "forever" stamp, allowing customers to mail first-class letters anywhere in the world for one set price of $1.10. Currently, the prices vary depending on the international destination, with letters to Canada and Mexico costing 85 cents.

Under the law, the post office cannot raise stamp prices more than the rate of inflation, or 2.6 percent, unless it gets special permission. The post office, which expects to lose a record $15 billion this year, has asked Congress to give it new authority to raise prices by 5 cents, but lawmakers have failed to act.

With mocking smile and wagging finger, Biden walks line between aggressive and domineering

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden mockingly smiled, wagged his finger and couldn't seem to stop interrupting Republican running mate Paul Ryan.

"With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey," Biden said at one point, during an exchange on foreign policy.

Democrats cheered his sharp tone in the only vice presidential debate. Republicans panned the vice president as disrespectful to his younger opponent.

Biden's aggressive approach stood in stark contrast to President Barack Obama's listless - and widely panned - turn on the debate stage last week. Obama, to the dismay of his supporters, clenched his jaw, looked down at his notes and held back his criticism of Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Shuttle crossing provides a unique teaching moment

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- When the space shuttle Endeavour weaves through working-class communities on its way to its retirement home, Hildreth "Hal" Walker Jr. wants the children he tutors to remember a few names: Ronald McNair. Mae Jemison. Charles Bolden.

A retired laser scientist who had a role in the Apollo 11 mission, Walker took the opportunity with the upcoming two-day terrestrial crawl through predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles County to highlight the role that minorities played in the shuttle program.

"We really have a job to do to show them the accomplishments of the people whose shoulders they're standing on," Walker said.

Indicted Megaupload founder plans site reboot

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- In a move bound to provoke U.S. prosecutors and entertainment executives, indicted Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is planning to launch a replacement of his shuttered website and a new online music service by year's end.

The file-sharing site that Dotcom started in 2005 was one of the most popular online sites before U.S. prosecutors shut it down and filed racketeering charges against Dotcom and six other Megaupload principals in January.

U.S. authorities are now trying to extradite Dotcom from New Zealand, where he's a resident, claiming he facilitated massive copyright piracy through his site. Prosecutors say Dotcom pocketed tens of millions of dollars while movie makers and songwriters lost some $500 million in copyright revenue.

IMF offers bleak assessment of stalled recovery

TOKYO (AP) -- Plagued by uncertainty and fresh setbacks, the world economy has weakened further and will grow more slowly over the next year, the International Monetary Fund says in its latest forecast.

Advanced economies are risking recession, the international lending organization said in a quarterly update of its World Economic Outlook, and the malaise is spreading to more dynamic emerging economies such as China.

The IMF forecasts that the world economy will expand 3.3 percent this year, down from the estimate of 3.5 percent growth it issued in July. Its forecast for growth in 2013 is 3.6 percent, down from 3.9 percent three months ago and 4.1 percent in April.

NH's small size belies its political power as independents play key role in the swing state

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire's nickname is "the Granite State" but there's nothing solid about its political landscape.

Independent voters have been the reason in recent presidential elections.

Close to 40 percent of registered voters don't align themselves with the Democrats or the Republicans and, every four years, these fickle Americans cause the state to swing from the left to the right and back again when choosing a presidential candidate. This tiny Northeastern state - populated by Boston suburbanites in the south to rural residents in the far North Country - offers just four Electoral College votes of the 270 needed for victory. But in an era of close races in which every vote counts, presidential nominees of both parties have had the state on their target lists for two decades.

Alaska Airlines: Operations returning to normal

SEATTLE (AP) -- Alaska Airlines said flights were running close to normal late Monday after a fiber-optic outage shut down its ticketing system for more than four hours, causing the airline and its regional carrier to cancel 78 flights, affecting nearly 7,000 customers.

More than 130 other flights departed during the disruption, but some were delayed for as long as four hours, the airline said.

"Flights are running real close to schedule right now in all major cities. We expect tomorrow to be back on track completely," airline spokeswoman Marianne Lindsey said Monday evening.

The problems started shortly before 8 a.m. when computers the airline uses to check in passengers went down, forcing employees to board travelers manually - in some instances sticking handwritten flight numbers to computer monitors.

Soda industry: Vending machines will show calories

NEW YORK (AP) -- As criticism of sugary sodas intensifies, Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper are rolling out new vending machines that will put calorie counts right at your fingertips.

The move comes ahead of a regulation that would require restaurant chains and vending machines to post the information as early as next year, although the specifics for complying with the requirement are still being worked out.

"They're seeing the writing on the wall and want to say that it's corporate responsibility," said Mike Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which advocates for food safety and nutrition.

Decade after Bali, Indonesian terror aims at gov't

BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- Ten years after terrorist attacks at two Bali nightclubs killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists, Indonesia has won international praise for its counterterrorism efforts. Militant organizations have been fractured and many of their charismatic leaders have been killed or jailed.

But an Associated Press analysis shows the number of strikes within the country has actually gone up, especially since 2010, when radical imams called on their followers to focus on domestic targets rather than Westerners. The more recent attacks have been conducted with less expertise, and the vast majority of victims have been Indonesians.

US panel: China tech giants pose security threat

WASHINGTON (AP) -- American companies should avoid doing business with China's two leading technology firms because they pose a national security threat to the United States, the House Intelligence Committee is warning in a report to be issued Monday.

The panel says U.S. regulators should block mergers and acquisitions in this country by Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp, among the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications gear and mobile phones.

Reflecting U.S. concern over cyber-attacks traced to China, the report also recommends that U.S. government computer systems not include any components from the two firms because that could pose an espionage risk.

NKorean soldier defects to SKorea across border

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A North Korean soldier killed two of his superiors Saturday and defected to South Korea across the countries' heavily armed border in a rare crossing that prompted South Korean troops to immediately beef up their border patrol, officials said.

The soldier shot his platoon and squad leaders before crossing the western side of the Demilitarized Zone at around noon, a Defense Ministry official said, citing the soldier's statement after he was taken into custody by South Korean border guards.

The official, who declined to be named because questioning by authorities was ongoing, had earlier said one of the killed North Korean troops was a company commander but later corrected it, saying the information was mishandled in the first couple of hours of the development.

FBI agent: Workers at Texas firm coached to hide scheme to sell military electronics to Russia

HOUSTON (AP) -- An FBI agent testified Friday that employees at a Houston company were coached to hide information about the cutting-edge microelectronics the firm was buying from U.S. manufacturers and later illegally reselling to Russian military and intelligence agencies.

U.S. authorities have arrested Alexander Fishenko, owner of Arc Electronics Inc., and seven of his employees, including Alexander Posobilov, who was the company's director of procurement. They are accused of being involved in a scheme to illicitly sell military technology to Russia, starting in 2008.

U.S. Magistrate Judge George Hanks Jr. denied bail for Posobilov, 58, following a detention hearing Friday. Hanks agreed with prosecutors that Posobilov, a Russian immigrant who later became a U.S. citizen, was a flight risk.

Pope's butler awaits verdict in papal leaks trial

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A verdict in the case of the pope's butler accused of leaking papal documents may help close one of the most damaging scandals of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy. But even after Paolo Gabriele's fate is decided by a Vatican tribunal Saturday, a core question will remain: Did he really act alone in exposing one of the most secretive institutions in the world?

Gabriele faces up to four years in prison if he's convicted of aggravated theft, accused of stealing the pope's private correspondence and passing it onto journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book revealed the intrigue, petty infighting and allegations of corruption and homosexual liaisons that plague the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. It has been the gravest security breach of the papal entourage in recent memory.

Analysis: Lower jobless number give Obama a positive trend line; is public feeling it?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- September's lower unemployment rate breaks the 8 percent psychological and political barrier that has stubbornly dogged Barack Obama through his presidency, halting the kind of stagnant high joblessness that has weighed down past presidents seeking re-election in economically troubled times.

For Obama, the trend line now looks more like Ronald Reagan's in his successful re-election in 1984 than Jimmy Carter's in his losing effort in 1980.

The 0.3 percentage point drop to 7.8 percent unemployment last month comes at a welcome time for Obama, one month before Election Day and less than 36 hours after he delivered a lackluster debate performance that reinvigorated the campaign of Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Mexico: Mayan ball court was celestial 'marker'

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican archaeologists say they have determined that the ancient Mayas built watchtower-style structures atop the ceremonial ball court at the temples of Chichen Itza to observe the equinoxes and solstices, and they said Friday that the discovery adds to understanding of the many layers of ritual significance that the ball game had for the culture.

The structures sit atop the low walls of the court, where the Mayas played a game that consisted, as far as experts can tell, of knocking a heavy, latex ball with their elbows, knees or hips, through a stone ring set in the walls.

Israeli police: American kills chef at hotel

JERUSALEM (AP) -- An American man who lost his job at a Red Sea hotel in Israel shot dead a chef at the resort on Friday, then was killed himself in a shootout with Israeli commandos, police said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld identified the suspect as William Hershkovitz, 23, of Poughkeepsie, New York, and said his family in the United States had been notified.

The motive for the attack in the resort city of Eilat was still under investigation, police said. But the head of the Oranim work and study program said it occurred days after Hershkovitz lost his job at the Leonardo Club Hotel.

The attacker entered the hotel on Friday, snatched a gun from a hotel security guard and fired several shots, killing the chef, Rosenfeld said.

France looks to upend school year traditions

PARIS (AP) -- French children go to school four days a week. They have about two hours each day for lunch. And they have more vacation than their counterparts almost anywhere in the West.

It may sound a bit like the famously leisurely work pace enjoyed by their parents, most of whom work 35 hours per week as dictated by law.

But the nation's new government says elementary school kids risk classroom burnout, and is moving to help them cope. The issue: French school days may be relatively few, but they are at least as long as a day of work for adults. Even 6-year-olds are in class until late into the afternoon, when skies are dark, attention flags and stomachs rumble.

A phone home: NY teens pay valets to store devices

NEW YORK (AP) -- Thousands of teenagers who can't take their cellphones to school have another option, courtesy of a burgeoning industry of sorts in always-enterprising New York City: paying a dollar a day to leave it in a truck that's parked nearby.

Students might resent an expense that adds up to as much as $180 a year, but even so, leaving a phone at one of the trucks in the morning and then picking it up at the end of the day has become as routine for city teenagers as getting dressed and riding the morning-rush subway.

"Sometimes it's a hassle because not everyone can afford it," said Kelice Charles, a freshman at Gramercy Arts High School in Manhattan. "But then again, it's a living."