AP - German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed regret Saturday that Chinese police blocked a human rights lawyer from meeting her and said the Communist government should have the confidence to allow dissent.

AP - Pakistan's prime minister will travel to Qatar next week to talk with leaders there about the prospect of a peace deal to end the war in Afghanistan, a government official said Saturday, a trip that suggests some progress in a process long stymied by mistrust.

AP - Last year was the deadliest on record for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed as insurgents ratcheted up violence with suicide attacks and roadside bombs, the United Nations said Saturday.

AP - The Afghan Taliban on Saturday denied that their leader Mullah Omar had written to President Barack Obama last July.

AP - Afghan officials say they are hopeful that the country's largest airport will reopen after being closed due to heavy snowfall.

AP - A U.N.-backed tribunal's Supreme Court lengthened the sentence for the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer to life imprisonment on Friday because of his "shocking and heinous" crimes against the Cambodian people.

AP - A day after proclaiming the death of a top regional terrorist suspect in a U.S.-backed airstrike, the Philippine military acknowledged Friday that his remains still have not been found.

AP - Police said Friday that local thugs, not al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants, were likely to have abducted two European tourists this week in the southern Philippines.

AP - More than 110 people were missing Friday after a ferry sank off Papua New Guinea's east coast, and rescuers feared many had been trapped inside.

AP - For an emerging generation of Japanese innovators, the dream isn't a job for life at a big company. They have new ambitions, and they're determined to go places. Especially Silicon Valley.

AP - World stock markets were mostly lower Friday ahead of a U.S. jobs report that is a key gauge of how robust the world's No. 1 economy is.