PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) — American Samoa plans to take away frequent flier miles from government workers who travel on behalf of the U.S. territory and use the loyalty points to help medical patients and students travel off the islands when necessary.

TOKYO (AP) — Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant's operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it.

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An 80-year-old Japanese man who began the year with his fourth heart operation became the oldest conqueror of Mount Everest on Thursday, a feat he called "the world's best feeling" even with an 81-year-old Nepalese climber not far behind him.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — An American citizen killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in 2011 was arrested by Pakistani authorities three years earlier but escaped after being released on bail, officials said Thursday.

LONDON (AP) — Financial markets around the world were roiled Thursday after Japanese stocks suffered their biggest slide since the country was hit by a devastating tsunami more than two years ago.

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An 80-year-old Japanese mountaineer on Thursday became the oldest person to reach the top of Mount Everest — although his record may last only a few days. An 81-year-old Nepalese man, who held the previous record, plans his own ascent next week.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A large bomb hidden by the Taliban in a rickshaw exploded as a police vehicle passed in southwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing 11 policemen and two civilians, police said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian authorities detained three anti-government figures, charged a student activist with sedition and seized hundreds of opposition newspapers Thursday, raising political tensions after recent national elections triggered claims of fraud.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A Taliban car bomb targeting a police vehicle killed 11 policemen and one civilian Thursday in an area of southwest Pakistan wracked by Islamic militancy and a violent separatist insurgency, police said.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's financial markets gyrated wildly Thursday, underscoring the vulnerability of its economy to a loss of investor confidence as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attempts shock monetary easing to end two decades of stagnation.