By Mansur Mirovalev
The Associated Press

KOKAND, Uzbekistan (AP) — For one month a year, from morning to night, Dilorom Nishanova grows silkworms, a painstaking and exhausting job. She has been doing it since she was 8. Read the full story

By Jim Gomez
The Associated Press

Members of a Hong Kong police forensic team examine the tourist bus used in the hostage-hijacking on Aug. 23 by an ex-policeman at the auditorium at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, Aug. 30. (Photo by Noel Celis/AP)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — On Aug. 30, Hong Kong forensic experts inspected the bullet-peppered bus in which a hijacker killed eight tourists in Manila last week, as the Philippines tried to calm China’s outrage over the bloodshed. Read the full story

By Oliver Teves
The Associated Press

Relatives of the eight Hong Kong tourists who were killed in the hostage crisis cry during a Buddhist ceremony on Aug. 24 at Rizal Park in Manila, Philippines. The Chinese authorities demanded answers from the Philippines on Tuesday after a 12-hour hostage drama in the heart of Manila ended with eight Hong Kong tourists and their Filipino hostage-taker dead following a day of botched negotiations. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP)

MANILA, Philippines — Most survivors of this week’s tragic hostage drama in Manila flew home to Hong Kong on Wednesday, along with the bodies of eight slain tourists, while the Philippines grappled with outrage over its mishandling of the standoff. Read the full story

By Jay Alabaster
The Associated Press

TAIJI, Japan (AP) — As children in inner tubes bob on the calm waters of this small ocean cove, a 550-pound dolphin zips through the crowd in pursuit of raw squid tossed out by a trainer. Read the full story

BEIJING (AP) — Police in central China have detained an AIDS activist who contracted the virus as a boy and whose tireless campaigning for the rights of those with the disease angered local authorities, his fellow activists said Saturday. Read the full story

By Christopher Bodeen
The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — A 13-year-old Mississippi boy who made a rare visit to Pyongyang says officials there welcomed his idea for a “children’s peace forest” in the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea, although they said it would only happen if the countries signed a peace treaty. Read the full story

By Gillian Wong
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING (AP) — In China, tobacco companies sponsor schools. Almost half of all male doctors smoke. And one wedding dinner ritual involves the bride lighting cigarettes for each of her male guests.

China has committed to banning smoking at public indoor venues by Jan. 9, in accordance with a global anti-tobacco treaty backed by the World Health Organization. But smoking is such a way of life that China is unlikely to meet the deadline, and even the government seems resigned to failure.

Read the full story

By Kwang-tae Kim
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Lee Myung-bak named a former provincial governor as his new prime minister on Sunday as part of an extensive Cabinet reshuffle aimed at restoring public support following his party’s surprise defeat in local elections. Read the full story

By Joe McDonald
The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — China is set to overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest economy in a resurgence that is changing everything from the global balance of military and financial power to how cars are designed. Read the full story

By Hyung-Jin Kim
The Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Nam-soo has stuck needles into generals, actors, tycoons, and at least one president for more than six decades as South Korea’s acupuncturist to the stars. Read the full story

By Jim Gomez
The Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine police tracked down a suspect in a series of grisly robberies and killings with the help of his Facebook account, officials said Tuesday.

Mark Dizon, a 28-year-old computer technician, did not resist when arrested Tuesday while talking with his father in a public square in northern San Fernando city, police Senior Superintendent Danilo Bautista said.

He is accused of killing nine people — six Filipinos, an American, a Canadian and a Briton — in three different robberies at hotels and homes this month in Angeles city. The area, near the former U.S.-run Clark Air Force Base some 50 miles northwest of Manila, is home to many retired expatriates.

Dizon, who is from a well-off family and according to police had a fascination with guns, was Facebook friends with the daughter of one of the victims. A friend of her family showed his photo on the popular social networking site to witnesses to help identify him, police said.

“He was fond of computers and this gave him away,” Bautista told The Associated Press.

Murder charges will soon be filed against Dizon, who denied involvement in the killings, Bautista said.

The string of deadly robberies started July 12, when Canadian Geoffrey Alan Bennun, 60, and his Filipino girlfriend were shot to death after a robber broke into their hotel room.

Four days later, Briton James Bolton Porter, 51, and his girlfriend were killed by a gunman in their house in Angeles’ Malabanas village, police said.

Dizon allegedly later pawned some of the possessions taken from Bennun, including a laptop and a cell phone, Bautista said, adding investigators have secured pawnshop records and close-circuit television camera footage showing him with the stolen objects in the shop.

Last week, a gunman killed American Albert Mitchell, a 70-year-old veteran of the U.S. Air Force, along with his Filipino wife, Janet, 53, and three Filipino staff inside their Angeles home, Bautista said.

In the last killing, the fleeing gunman was seen by a village guard and a motorcycle taxi driver, who later described him to investigators, according to police.

After hearing descriptions of the suspect, a family friend of the Mitchells looked up Dizon’s Facebook page — the Mitchells’ daughter was one of his friends on the site. He showed the Facebook profile photo to the witnesses, who identified him as the man fleeing they saw, Bautista said.

He added that the same pistol was used in all the killings, linking Dizon to the other two crimes.

By Tomoko A. Hosaka
The Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Two Japanese journalists reported missing by their television network while pursuing a story of a helicopter crash were found dead on a mountain Sunday near the scene of the accident.

Nippon Television reporter Yuji Kita and cameraman Jun Kawakami were on their way to the scene of the crash that killed five people last weekend. The two men were unresponsive when found Sunday morning partially submerged in a pool of water in a gorge about 980 feet (300 meters) below a mountain trail in Chichibu city, roughly two hours northwest of Tokyo.

They were taken to a hospital and declared dead in the afternoon.

“I am filled with sadness that we lost two extremely talented and ambitious people,” said Nippon Television President Tadanori Hosokawa at a press conference.

The network said it is investigating the accident and the journalists’ preparations for the assignment.

The journalists began their trek Saturday morning, and Nippon Television said it contacted authorities after they did not return in the evening.

The area is not particularly dangerous for regular mountain climbing, said Kiyomitsu Yashiro, deputy chief of the Chichibu police department. But Kita, 30, and Kawakami, 43, appeared to have been scaling a steep gorge.

“It quite easy to hit branches or the surrounding walls, so you can assume accidents will occur,” he said.

Their goal was to reach the area where a rescue helicopter had crashed last Sunday. The chopper was on its way to aid a fallen climber.

Five of the seven on board were killed, including two pilots, a firefighter and two rescue workers. The 55-year-old female climber, who fell into a waterfall basin the previous day, died later.

The two journalists were found about just over a mile (two kilometers) from the crash site, police said.