Myanmar News Links: AP Top News at 8:43 a.m. EDT

FILE - In this file photo taken Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, new Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, left, is seen with his comrade Waliur Rehman, front center, during his meeting with media in Sararogha of Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan along the Afghanistan border. Intelligence officials said Friday, Nov. 1, 2013 that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud was one of three people killed in a U.S. drone strike. (AP Photo/Ishtiaq Mehsud, File)

*The Associated Press*

In this video frame grab provided by LifeNews via Rossia 24 TV channel, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden looks over his shoulder during a boat trip on the Moscow River in Moscow, with the Christ the Savior Cathedral in the background. LifeNews said the video was shot in September 2013 and Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, confirmed the photo's authenticity. Snowden is calling for international help to persuade the U.S. to drop its espionage charges against him, according to a letter a German lawmaker released Friday after he met the American in Moscow. (AP Photo/LifeNews via Rossia 24 TV channel) TV OUT

*The Associated Press*

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly responds to a question about his department's stop-and-frisk policy, during a news conference at police headquarters, in New York, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that the ruling by U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin would be on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has touted the tactic as a major reason crime rates have continued to fall in the city. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

*The Associated Press*

President Barack Obama meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. The prime minister arrived at the White House Friday to personally appeal to President Barack Obama for more U.S. assistance in beating back the bloody insurgency consuming his country. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

*The Associated Press*

This Oct. 14, 2013 photo provided by the St. Paul's and St. George's Foundation shows workers preparing to install a statue of Jesus on Mount Sednaya, Syria. In the midst of a civil war rife with sectarianism, a 12.3-meter (40-foot) tall, bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions - Syrian forces, rebels and gunmen in the Christian town of Sednaya. (AP Photo/Samir El-Gadban, St. Paul's and St. George's Foundation)

*The Associated Press*

FILE - In this Dec. 6, 1999 file photo, Johnny Htoo, left, a 12-year-old Karen boy, watches as his twin brother Luther smokes a Myanmar cigar during a meeting with The Associated Press at their jungle base of Ka Mar Pa Law in Myanmar opposite Thailand's Ratchaburi province, 95 kilometers (59 miles) west of Bangkok. Luther and Johnny Htoo, who grabbed headlines more than a decade ago as 12-year-old twins leading a small band of anti-government guerrillas in Myanmar, were reunited in Thailand. The brothers, who gave up their struggle to surrender to authorities in Thailand, have traveled different paths since then: Luther moving to Sweden, and Johnny, after an unhappy attempt to resettle in Myanmar, living in a Thai refugee camp. Luther came to Thailand to see his sibling and to try to discover the fate of former comrades in his "God's Army," who dispersed and disappeared after the twins disbanded their group. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong, File)

*The Associated Press*

FILE - In this July 18, 2013 file photo, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Harkin is one of many proponents of a bill that would prohibit employers from discriminating against workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

*The Associated Press*

Gunman targets TSA in Los Angeles airport shooting

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man toting a semi-automatic rifle, some 150 rounds of ammunition and a grudge against TSA agents shot his way past a security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport in a deadly rampage that sent hundreds of travelers fleeing in terror. When the shooting stopped, a Transportation Security Administration officer was dead. Gerardo I. Hernandez, 39, became the first TSA officer in the agency's 12-year history to be killed in the line of duty.

NJ police: LAX shooting suspect sent suicidal text

PENNSVILLE, N.J. (AP) — The father of the young man suspected of carrying out a fatal shooting at Los Angeles International Airport called his local police chief around the time of the shooting to report that his son had sent a suicidal text message to a sibling and he needed to find him, a New Jersey police chief said. Paul Ciancia, the owner of an auto-body shop in southern New Jersey and father of the 23-year-old suspect of the same name, called Pennsville Police Chief Allen Cummings in the early afternoon to tell him one of his children had received a text message from the younger Ciancia "in reference to him taking his own life," the chief told The Associated Press.

10 Things to Know: This Week's Takeaways

Looking back at the stories to remember from this week: 1. SYRIA COMPLETES DESTRUCTION OF EQUIPMENT USED TO PRODUCE CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Pakistani Taliban confirm leader killed by drone

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban confirmed the death of their leader in a U.S. drone strike Saturday, a day after he was killed, as the group's leadership council met to begin the process of choosing a successor. The death of Hakimullah Mehsud, a ruthless leader known for attacking a CIA base in Afghanistan and a bloody campaign that killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and members of the security forces, is a heavy blow for the militant group.

Snowden seeks the world's help against US charges

BERLIN (AP) — The U.S. refused to show any leniency to fugitive leaker Edward Snowden on Friday, even as Secretary of State John Kerry conceded that eavesdropping on allies had happened on "automatic pilot" and went too far. Snowden made his appeal for U.S. clemency in a letter released Friday by a German lawmaker who met with him in Moscow. In it, the 30-year-old American asked for international help to persuade the U.S. to drop spying charges against him and said he would like to testify before the U.S. Congress about the National Security Agency's surveillance activities.

Next step in stop-frisk depends on new NYC mayor

NEW YORK (AP) — Front-running mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio faces political and legal dilemmas now that a judge's ruling critical of the police department's stop-and-frisk tactic has been blocked. The federal judge's summertime rebuke of the department's stop-and-frisk policy as discriminatory to blacks and Hispanics was a ringing affirmation of one of de Blasio's major campaign themes, helping propel him from also-ran to Democratic nominee nearly 40 points ahead in the polls days before the election.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/11/02/ap-top-news-at-843-a-m-edt-u/

Myanmar News Links

Saturday, 2 November 2013

AP Top News at 8:43 a.m. EDT - U