One Direction's 2nd CD hits No. 1, sells 540,000

NEW YORK (AP) — One Direction's "Take Me Home" is the taking the boys to the top of the charts — and to new heights.The group's sophomore album has sold 540,000 in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the year's third-highest debut behind Taylor Swift's "Red," which sold 1.2 million units its first week earlier this month, and Mumford & Sons' "Babel," which sold more than 600,000...

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OB/GYNs back over-the-counter birth control pills

WASHINGTON (AP) — No prescription or doctor's exam needed: The nation's largest group of obstetricians and gynecologists says birth control pills should be sold over the counter, like condoms.Tuesday's surprise opinion from these gatekeepers of contraception could boost longtime efforts by women's advocates to make the pill more accessible.But no one expects the pill to be sold without a prescription...

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Clinton presses on with Israel-Hamas truce efforts

JERUSALEM (AP) — The U.S. secretary of state is pressing on with efforts to wring an elusive deal from Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers to halt the latest violence convulsing the region.Hillary Rodham Clinton heads to the West Bank on Wednesday morning, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the previous night. She was hastily dispatched to the region to join a high-profile...

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Aussie fake-bomb plotter sentenced to 13½ years

SYDNEY (AP) — An Australian investment banker who admitted chaining a fake bomb to a Sydney teenager as part of a bizarre extortion plot was sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison on Tuesday.Madeleine Pulver, then 18, was studying at home alone in her family's mansion in August 2011 when Paul Douglas Peters walked in wearing a rainbow-striped ski mask and carrying a baseball bat. He tethered...

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Alda, Lear honored at 40th International Emmys

NEW YORK (AP) — Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy paid tribute at the International Emmy Awards Monday night to television legends Norman Lear and Alan Alda, whose cutting-edge, socially-conscious shows in the '70s changed the face of television.Unlike previous years when Britain dominated the awards honoring excellence in television production outside the U.S., the winners in the nine categories this year...

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New push for most in US to get at least 1 HIV test

WASHINGTON (AP) — There's a new push to make testing for the AIDS virus as common as cholesterol checks.Americans ages 15 to 64 should get an HIV test at least once — not just people considered at high risk for the virus, an independent panel that sets screening guidelines proposed Monday.The draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are the latest recommendations that aim to make...

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Gaza offensive was years in the making

JERUSALEM (AP) — With little notice, Israel has launched a blistering air offensive against the Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas militant group. Here's a look at why the violence erupted, the goals of the warring sides and how it may end:LIGHTNING STRIKEIsrael opened its offensive with a surprise airstrike on Nov. 14 that killed the shadowy leader of Hamas' military wing. Since then, it has carried out hundreds...

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Obama to meet with Cambodia's longtime 'strongman'

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — President Barack Obama arrives in Cambodia on Monday having just won four more years in office, but that is nothing compared to his host, Hun Sen. The 60-year-old Cambodian prime minister has held power since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, and says he's not stepping down until he is 90.Hun Sen is known as one of Asia's most Machiavellian politicians, with a knack...

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.Meningitis mainly affects infants...

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Israeli air strike kills 11 civilians in Gaza

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli missile killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians including four children in Gaza on Sunday, medical officials said, apparently an attack on a top militant that brought a three-storey home crashing down. International pressure for a ceasefire seemed certain to mount in response to the deadliest single incident in five days of Palestinian rocket attacks...

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