World/Nation

• Israel launches Gaza airstrikes for worker killing

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli air and ground forces launched a series of attacks Tuesday on targets across the Gaza Strip, killing a young girl and wounding 10 in response to the deadly shooting of an Israeli civilian by a Palestinian sniper.

It was the heaviest burst of violence in the volatile area since November 2012, when Israel and Hamas' rulers engaged in eight days of heavy fighting. The sudden flare-up threatened a cease-fire that halted fighting and which largely has held up for the past 13 months.

"I recommend to Hamas not to test our patience and to assert its authority," Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said. "If there isn't quiet in Israel, there won't be quiet in the Gaza Strip."

The Israeli military said aircraft, tanks and infantry targeted "terror sites" in Gaza, including a weapons-manufacturing facility, "terror infrastructure" and a concealed rocket launcher.

Palestinian officials reported at least 16 Israeli attacks, causing a causing a series of loud explosions across the territory in rapid succession. Hamas ordered its forces to evacuate offices and compounds and redeploy to safer sites.

• Powerful bomb hits north Egypt police station

MANSOURA, Egypt - A powerful explosion believed to be caused by a car bomb ripped through a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city north of Cairo early on Tuesday, killing 13 people and wounding more than 100, leaving scores buried under the rubble.

The country's interim government accused the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attack, branding it a "terrorist organization." But the Islamist group condemned the bombing, describing it in a statement as a "direct attack on the unity of the Egyptian people" and demanding that the perpetrators be found and brought to justice.

It was the first major bombing in the Nile Delta, spreading the carnage that has marked Egypt's turmoil over the past months to a new area and bringing it closer to Cairo. Previous deadly violence has mostly taken place in the volatile Sinai Peninsula and in Suez Canal-area cities east of the Egyptian capital.

• Glitch-plagued rollout of health plan top story

NEW YORK - The glitch-plagued rollout of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul was the top news story of 2013, followed by the Boston Marathon bombing and the dramatic papal changeover at the Vatican, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.

The saga of "Obamacare" - as the Affordable Care Act is widely known - received 45 first-place votes out of the 144 ballots cast for the top 10 stories. The marathon bombing received 29 first-place votes and the papal transition 21.

Other strong contenders were the bitter partisan conflict in Congress and the leaks about National Security Agency surveillance by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden.

Last year, the top story was the massacre of 26 children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

The first AP top-stories poll was conducted in 1936, when editors chose the abdication of Britain's King Edward VIII.

- The Associated Press