Anti-US sentiment snarls war efforts

Anti-US sentiment snarls war efforts

ISLAMABAD

U.S. diplomatic efforts to persuade Pakistan to reopen NATO supply lines to the Afghan war are proving no match for rampant anti-Americanism here, with Pakistani lawmakers increasingly unwilling to support a decision that risks them branded as friends of Washington.

Opposition legislators are demanding that the U.S. end its drone strikes against militants as a precondition, complicating U.S. strategies for winding down the 10-year war just weeks before a major NATO conference in President Barack Obama’s hometown of Chicago.

Pilot dies, and wife, 80, lands plane

MILWAUKEE

An 80-year-old woman with little flying experience knew her husband had died after he fell unconscious at the controls of a small plane, yet she remained calm as she landed the aircraft at a northeastern Wisconsin airport, her son said Tuesday. In a phone interview with The Associated Press, James Collins said he’s also a pilot and had helped his mother, Helen Collins, via radio as the Cessna twin-engine plane began running out of gas Monday evening. Another pilot also took to the skies to guide her to the ground at Cherryland Airport, near Sturgeon Bay, about 150 miles north of Milwaukee.

New effort to cut medical testing

WASHINGTON

Old checklist for doctors: Order that test, write that prescription. New checklist for doctors: First ask yourself if the patient really needs it.

Nine medical societies representing nearly 375,000 physicians are challenging the widely held perception that more health care is better, releasing lists today of tests and treatments their members should no longer automatically order.

The 45 items listed include most repeat colonoscopies within 10 years of a first such test, early imaging for most back pain, brain scans for patients who fainted but didn’t have seizures, and antibiotics for mild- to-moderate sinus distress.

Transgender woman allowed to compete

LOS ANGELES

Donald Trump says his organization is allowing a transgender woman who was born a male to compete for Canada’s spot in the Miss Universe pageant — and he’s wishing her good luck. In a statement issued Tuesday, the Miss Universe Organization says 23-year-old Jenna Talackova, who underwent a sex change four years ago, can compete in the 2012 competition to become Canada’s pageant contestant.

Troops start pullout, Syrian official says

BEIRUT

Syrian troops began pulling out Tuesday from some calm cities and headed back to their bases a week ahead of a deadline to implement an international cease-fire plan, a government official said. The claim could not immediately be verified, and activists near the capital Damascus denied troops were leaving their area. They said the day regime forces withdraw from streets, Syria will witness massive protests that will overthrow the government.

UN: 2.4M victims of human trafficking

UNITED NATIONS

The U.N. crime-fighting office says 2.4 million people across the globe are victims of human trafficking at any one time, and 80 percent of them are being used as sexual slaves.

Yuri Fedotov, the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told a daylong General Assembly meeting on trafficking Tuesday that two out of every three victims are women.

He said $32 billion is being earned every year by unscrupulous criminals running human-trafficking networks.

Associated Press