The two attackers shot the two Pakistani health workers while they were on a vaccination drive in rural Kandar village, said Swabi District Police Chief Mohammad Saeed. The gunmen arrived on foot and then disappeared, he said.

No one claimed responsibility for the Sunday attack. Some Pakistani militant groups oppose the vaccinations and accuse the workers of spying for the U.S. They point out the case of a Pakistani doctor used by the CIA to collect blood samples of the family of Osama bin Laden in order to track him down and kill him in Pakistan in 2011.

Islamic militants also try to block inoculation campaigns by portraying them as a conspiracy to sterilize people and reduce the world's Muslim population. Over the past year, nearly 20 health workers from the anti-polio campaign have been killed.

Pakistan is one of the only three countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, still affected by the polio virus. As many as 58 cases were reported in Pakistan in 2012, down from 198 in 2011.

The World Health Organization said in late March that some 240,000 children have missed U.N.-backed vaccinations against polio because of security concerns in Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. It said the health workers have not been able to immunize children in the North and South Waziristan regions Taliban strongholds since July 2012.

The shootings came a day after a Pakistani al-Qaida-linked militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, killed 24 people in the southwestern city of Quetta.

In the first of Saturday's attacks in Quetta, a blast ripped through a bus carrying female students, killing 14.

When the victims were taken to the nearby hospital, a suicide bomber struck there. Other attackers captured parts of the complex, triggering a siege by security forces in which four paramilitaries also died.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attacks. Six attackers also died in the siege.

Most of Quetta remained shut Sunday in mourning. On a visit to the city, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan promised to find and punish the culprits.

The Pakistan Muslim League-N party, of which both he and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are members, has pledged to bring peace to the country by holding negotiations with militant groups like the Pakistani Taliban.

Khan said the peace dialogue was still open but only for groups that were ready to end violence. "We will hold dialogue with those who are willing to do that," he said. "Those who only want to stick to militancy and terrorism they will get the same treatment."

Also Sunday, gunmen shot and killed three police officials at a checkpoint in district Qila Saifullah in southwestern province of Baluchistan, said government official Bashir Ahmad. He said it was not clear what group the attackers belonged to.

Besides the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the province has long been a scene of low level insurgency by nationalist groups fighting for a larger share of regional national resources.

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Associated Press writers Abdul Sattar in Quetta and Matiullah Achakzai in Chaman contributed to this report.

"Miranda was rear-ended, but is totally fine," Kerr's spokeswoman said in a statement.

Kerr's Australian publicist Annie Kelly told media there that the model was traveling on a Los Angeles freeway on Monday when the accident occurred, and was in pain from the collision.

Kerr, 29, is also the face of Australian airline Qantas and has her own line of skin-care products.

Kerr married British actor Orlando Bloom in 2010. She gave birth to the couple's first child, a boy, in 2011.

Victoria's Secret is a subsidiary of Limited Brands Inc.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Jan Paschal)

"Our grandparents used to make a point of not throwing away leftover food. Consumerism has made us accustomed to wasting food daily and we are unable to see its real value," Francis said at his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square.

"Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry," he said.

Since taking office in March, Pope Francis has said he wants the 1.2-billion-strong Roman Catholic Church to defend the poor and to practice greater austerity itself. He has also made several calls for global financial reform.

Around 1.3 billion metric tonnes (1.43 billion tons) of food, or one third of what is produced for human consumption, gets lost or wasted every year, according to the United Nations' food agency.

In the industrialized world the majority of waste is by consumers, often because they buy too much and have to throw away what they do not manage to eat.

A U.N.-backed study released on Wednesday said simple measures such as better storage and reducing over-sized portions would sharply reduce the vast amount of food going to waste.

In U.S. restaurants, diners wasted nine percent of the meals they bought, partly because of a trend to increase the size of everything from cheeseburgers to soft drinks, said the report by the World Resources Institute and the U.N. Environment Program.

Francis said the "culture of waste" was especially deplorable given the prevalence of hunger in the world. The United Nations says hunger affects some 870 million people, while 2 billion suffer from at least one nutritional deficiency.

The Argentinian-born pontiff warned that too much focus on money and materialism meant financial market dips were viewed as tragedies while human suffering had become normal and ignored.

"In this way people are discarded as if they were garbage," he said.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby in Vatican City, Alister Doyle in Oslo, Terrence Edwards in Ulan Bator, Deborah Zabarenko in Washington; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Gareth Jones)

In Wisconsin, a utility shuttered its plant last month after it couldn't find a buyer. In Florida and now California utilities decided it's cheaper to close plants rather than spend big money fixing them and risk the uncertainty of safety reviews.

Meanwhile, the low cost of natural gas is discouraging utilities from spending billions to build nuclear reactors. Three plants under construction in the Southeast face delays and cost overruns.

It's a big change from a few years ago, when a more robust economy, higher energy prices and a focus on greenhouse gasses brought on what the industry called a "nuclear renaissance."

Nuclear supporters acknowledge the problems. Still, they say nuclear plants prevent the country from putting too much reliance on natural gas.

The Outlook 2013 app will be given to owners of Microsoft's Surface tablet and similar devices running Windows RT. That's a slimmed down version of Windows 8, a radical overhaul of the ubiquitous operating system used on most personal computers.

Microsoft Corp. is preparing to modify Windows 8 in response to consumer complaints about the redesigned system released last October. The Redmond, Wash., company announced the addition of Outlook for Windows RT tablets Wednesday at a computer trade show in Taiwan.

A specific release date still hasn't been set for the upcoming update, called Windows 8.1. A preview version of Windows 8.1 will be available June 26 when Microsoft starts an annual programmers' conference in San Francisco.

Windows 8 includes touch-screen controls and displays applications in a mosaic of interactive tiles as part of an attempt to expand the system on to tablets. The operating system also remains compatible with keyboards, computer mice and programs created for traditional PCs.

The dual format has confused and frustrated some long-time users, contributing to lukewarm sales for devices running on Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Windows RT's omission of Outlook was among the grievances. Outlook's absence was magnified by Microsoft's inclusion of other popular programs, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, on the Surface tablet and other Windows RT devices. Unlike Windows 8 tablets, RT devices can run only programs specifically designed for it, so it hasn't been possible to buy Outlook separately.

Existing Window RT users will get Outlook for free as part of this year's Windows upgrade.

The Outlook announcement came as Microsoft showcased previously announced features of Windows 8.1 at the Computex show in Taiwan. Tami Reller, chief financial and marketing officer of the company's Windows Division, said the 8.1 update took into account input from consumers on the Windows 8 system.

"Windows 8.1 furthers the bold vision of Windows 8 by responding to customer feedback and adding new features and functionality that advance the touch experience and mobile computing's potential," Reller said.

Antoine Leblond, corporate vice president of Windows Program Management, demonstrated the upgraded system, which included enhancements in areas including platform personalization and search. Although Microsoft isn't restoring the traditional start button on the lower left side of the screen, it is restoring a logo in that spot and will let users add favorite applications, such as Word and Excel, to a horizontal tool bar while working in Window's traditional desktop mode.

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Online:

Microsoft's blog post: http://bit.ly/13kFSKm

Microsoft's video highlighting features in Windows 8.1: http://bit.ly/137L1nc

Knox, 25, spent four years in prison for the murder of Meredith Kercher while they were exchange students in Perugia, a hilltop Italian university town popular with foreigners. Knox, who became a tabloid sensation in Britain and Italy, was acquitted on appeal in 2011. She returned to her Seattle-area home, but Italy's high court last month ordered a retrial.

In the hotly anticipated memoir, published by HarperCollins and in bookstores on Tuesday, Knox maintained her innocence and wrote that she regretted that in prison she had never reached out to Kercher's family to say that the girl's death had been a "heartbreak to so many."

The memoir was released in conjunction with an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer that is due to air on Tuesday evening.

Knox wrote that she wished she had reached out to Patrick Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner whom Knox falsely accused of the murder. Lumumba, who was briefly jailed and then cleared, said in 2011 that Knox's accusation destroyed his life.

"Naming him was unforgivable, and he didn't deserve it, but I wanted to say that it wasn't about him," Knox wrote. "I was pushed so hard that I'd have named anyone."

Knox penned letters to both, but her lawyers advised against sending them because it would hurt her legal case.

In the 457-page memoir, Knox writes of arriving in Italy at age 20 with "rookie Italian" and a penchant for "immature antics," eager to develop independence and come into her own.

Knox writes that she and Kercher bonded right away: "We did what all girls do: we talked about the guys we liked in Perugia and the ones we'd left behind."

She denies that the relationship soured and describes a friendly final encounter as Knox and her new boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, left the shared apartment hours before the murder.

Knox writes that she did not understand that she was a suspect in Kercher's murder, and believed that she could help investigators find the killer.

"I was too confused to know what the truth was," she writes at one point, after implicating Lumumba and saying she witnessed the murder.

Her "bafflement" at the situation eventually gave way to "quiet indignation and defiance," Knox writes.

"I followed their directions like a lost, pathetic child," she writes of the investigation leading up to her arrest. "I didn't question, I didn't object, I just put my head down when they told me to and trusted that this would all make sense soon."

Knox, dubbed "Foxy Knoxy" in many early media reports, was initially portrayed as promiscuous and dishonest but a lobbying campaign by her family helped change perceptions.

Kercher's half-naked body, with more than 40 wounds and a deep gash in the throat, was found in the apartment she shared with Knox in the town in central Italy. A student at Leeds University, she was 21 when she died.

The Italian high court in March also overturned the acquittal of Sollecito, Knox's former boyfriend, and ordered a new trial on a date still to be set.

The acquittal came after independent forensic experts said the police scientific evidence was deeply flawed and the investigation had been bungled.

An Ivorian drifter named Rudy Guede, was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in a separate trial. He is now the only person serving time for the murder, although prosecutors say he could not have killed Kercher by himself.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Lisa Shumaker)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of genetic testing products maker Nanosphere Inc. climbed Monday after a Cowen & Co. analyst rated its stock "Outperform."

THE SPARK: Analyst Shaun Rodriguez is optimistic about the company's future revenue growth, and said he believes that more hospitals will start using its Verigene tests.

THE BIG PICTURE: The Northbrook, Ill., company's Verigene system is used in diagnostic DNA and RNA testing. Nanosphere said the system allows clinicians to run simple, inexpensive tests, and enables multiple tests to be run on the same sample simultaneously. It also allows laboratories that don't have advanced diagnostic capabilities to run genetic tests.

The company sold 166 Verigene systems in 2012, and expects that number to grow to 200 to 250 this year.

However the company had to lower its first-quarter guidance in February because of disappointing growth in international markets. Nanosphere now expects 45 to 55 placements during the first quarter, down from an earlier estimate of 80 to 100.

SHARE ACTION: Nanosphere stock rose 20 cents, or 7.8 percent, to close at $2.70. The shares fell 32 percent Feb. 14 but have recovered almost all of those losses.

Though gonorrheabeing a (STD) and alldoesnt come up in conversation too often, it's way more prevalent than you probably think. Its also a superbug, meaning its grown resistant to the usual treatments because the gonorrhea bacteria has mutated to become stronger than ever.  In fact, earlier this month you may have seen alarmist headlines (Sex Superbug Could be Worse Than AIDS, said ) about drug-resistant gonorrhea. Thewas quick to respond, quelling fears about the bugs presence in the U.S. Many reports were referring to gonorrhea strain H041, which is very resistant to ceftriaxonethe drug widely recommended for treating gonorrhea. That strain, though, hasnt ever been reported in the U.S., said the CDC.

Gonorrhea is caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a gram-negative bacterium (which means the cells have a double cell lining). Theestimates that about 62 million people get gonorrhea every year. To get it, you have to have contact with the mouth, penis, vagina, or anus of an infected sexual partner. Once N. gonorrhoeae bacteria have been transmitted, they infect mucosal surfaces in the genitals and throat.

Symptoms of gonorrhea manifest differently in men and women, and also vary in severity (many people, in fact, are asymptomatic). When symptoms do appear, men may see a urethral discharge, or feel pain in their testicles or scrotum. Complications for guys can result in epididymitis, which is pain and inflammation of the epididymis (for those not into genital anatomy and physiology, thats part of the testicle that stores sperm; were getting up close and personal now). In women, gonorrhea may also cause vaginal discharge or bleeding between periods.

Symptoms of untreated gonorrhea arent just uncomfortable and embarrassing, though. There are complications of gonorrhea infections that nobody likes to think about: In women, the STD can spread to the uterus and fallopian tubes, increasing the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy (a dangerous situation in which the embryo implants outside of the uterus). Gonorrhea can be passed from mother to child, and it also increases your risk for HIV. So, in the end, its a pretty serious infection.

In an interview with The Associated Press after the hearing, lawyer Jose Francisco Benitez Paz expressed optimism that he had proven the charges against Yanira Maldonado were baseless and that the 42-year-old could be released by Friday.

Maldonado's arrest has prompted outrage in the U.S. among politicians and her family members, who say she was framed when her bus was stopped at a military checkpoint last week and authorities found nearly 12 pounds of marijuana under her seat.

The case has been a fixture on TV networks with its nightmare scenario of a mother being caught up in a drug case and sent to prison in a judicial system that has long struggled with corruption.

"You can't imagine traveling to Mexico and the next thing you know they accuse you of having a block of marijuana under your seat, and you're going to jail," said Maldonado's brother-in-law, Brandon Klippel.

Yanira Maldonado and her husband, Gary, said they were returning from her aunt's funeral at the time of the arrest. Gary Maldonado says authorities originally demanded $5,000 for her release, but the bribe fell through. The husband was released after initially being suspected of smuggling.

In court Wednesday, Yanira Maldonado's lawyer argued that soldiers had presented inconsistent testimony about two packages of marijuana that they had recovered, with some saying both were found under his client's seat and others saying they were found under two separate seats.

Mexican officials also provided local media with photos that they said were of the packages Maldonado is accused of smuggling. Each was about 5 inches high and 20 inches wide, roughly the width of a bus seat. The marijuana was packed into plastic bags and wrapped in tan packing tape. Officials in Sonora state said they were attached to the underside of one or more seats, but they haven't specified how.

Benitez described the packets of drugs as attached to the seat bottoms with metal hooks, a task that would have been impossible for a passenger boarding normally as Yanira Maldonado did.

Benitez said he had requested a list of the bus passengers and video of the passengers boarding to show she was not in possession of drugs. He presented letters from people he described as prominent American officials vouching for Yanira Maldonado's character and said he was awaiting financial information proving she would have no need to earn cash smuggling drugs.

A search of court records in Arizona didn't turn up any drug-related charges against Yanira or Gary Maldonado.

The Mexican Embassy in Washington said in a statement Tuesday that Yanira Maldonado's "rights to a defense counsel and due process are being observed." The embassy didn't respond to allegations she was framed.

Yanira Maldonado is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Mexico, her family said. She and Gary Maldonado were married one year ago, and Klippel said they celebrated their anniversary while she was jailed.

Yanira Maldonado was taken to prison in Nogales, in Sonora state, after being turned over to federal prosecutors, said Mexico army spokeswoman Denisse Coronado. A federal judge will decide whether Maldonado should face trial, Coronado said.

Jen Psaki, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, confirmed Yanira Maldonado's arrest and said U.S. consulate officials in Mexico were closely monitoring the case. State Department officials visited her Friday and will likely attend any open proceedings in the case per protocol, Psaki said.

"Private citizens who travel abroad are expected to, of course, abide by the law in the country where they are visiting, and the consular office is in touch when cases like this arise to be helpful in advising," Psaki said in a press briefing in Washington on Wednesday.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is "personally monitoring the situation, and he has had multiple conversations with the deputy Mexican ambassador," his office said in a statement.

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Associated Press Writer Michael Weissenstein in Mexico City, researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York and writer Lara Jakes in Washington contributed to this report.

(Reuters) - A new type of asthma drug meant to attack the underlying causes of the respiratory disease slashed episodes by 87 percent in a mid-stage trial, making it a potential game changer for patients with moderate to severe disease, researchers said on Tuesday.

"Overall, these are the most exciting data we've seen in asthma in 20 years," said Dr. Sally Wenzel, lead investigator for the 104-patient study of dupilumab, an injectable treatment being developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and French drugmaker Sanofi.

The drug also met all its secondary goals, such as improving symptoms and lung function and reducing the need for standard drugs called beta agonists.

Although far larger trials will be needed to confirm findings from the "proof of concept" study, researchers expressed optimism. They noted that dupilumab has also shown the ability to tame atopic dermatitis, or severe eczema, an allergic condition that is not well controlled by current treatments.

Results of the 12-week asthma study are being presented on Tuesday at the annual scientific meeting of the American Thoracic Society in Philadelphia.

The medicine, if approved, could hold promise for patients with moderate to severe persistent asthma that is not well controlled by standard drugs.

"We have been treating asthma with sort of Band-Aid therapies that didn't get at the underlying causes," Wenzel said in an interview, adding that dupilumab could be an important step in going to the root of the problem.

The drug works by simultaneously blocking proteins that have been linked to inflammation, interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-13 (IL-13).

HITS ELUSIVE TARGETS

Wenzel, director of the Asthma Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, said other drugmakers have tested medicines that block one or both of the proteins, but without success.

The trial recruited patients with high levels of eosinophils, a biomarker that shows immune system cells called type 2 helper T cells (Th2 cells) associated with allergy and asthma have been activated.

Such patients were deemed likely to benefit from treatment.

All patients initially stayed on their standard asthma treatments, meaning medium-to-high doses of inhaled glucocorticoids, as well as long-acting beta agonists. But patients gradually tapered off on those drugs and were no longer taking either of them after 9 weeks.

Throughout the Phase IIa trial, half the patients also received weekly injections of dupilumab, while half received placebo injections.

After the ninth week, 25 percent of those on placebos had experienced exacerbations, a catch-all term that included the need to take a beta agonist, a decrease in lung function, the need for an oral or inhaled corticosteroid, or if the patient went to the hospital or emergency room for worsening asthma.

"By end of the trial, after 12 weeks, 44 percent of those in the placebo group had exacerbations, compared with 5 percent of those on dupilumab," Wenzel said. That represented an 87 percent reduction in exacerbations, which was highly statistically significant.

Wenzel said dupilumab was well tolerated, with side effects similar to placebo. But she cautioned that longer trials are needed to fully assess the drug.

Regeneron and Sanofi said standard drugs are unable to control asthma in 10 to 20 percent of patients. They estimate that inflammation caused by Th2 cells - the type of inflammation among patients they tested - affects up to 2.5 million people in the United States and up to 30 million worldwide.

Dupilumab has also shown strong hints of safety and effectiveness in two early-stage trials that involved 67 patients with atopic dermatitis. Larger studies are slated to begin later this year.

Atopic dermatitis is inherited and involves patches of highly itchy skin on any part of the body. Patients, many of whom also have asthma and hay fever, have compared the sensation to having unending poison ivy.

"This asthma data and the data we already have in atopic dermatitis really raises the possibility the scientific community has finally hit upon the key pathway across all these allergic diseases," George Yancopoulos, Regeneron's research chief, said in an interview.

Trial results were also reported on Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, along with an editorial that said results of the study appeared "compelling" at first glance and superior to those seen in previous studies of other asthma drugs.

But the editorial said effectiveness of dupilumab has been established in just a "limited subpopulation of patients with asthma" because only 21 percent of those screened for enrollment in the study met its criteria.

"We do not know whether dupilumab will be effective in other patient populations," the editorial said, including patients that stay on their standard therapies and who do not have high levels of eosinophils.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson. Editing by Andre Grenon)