AID MISSIONS BOOST US TROOPS' READINESS

ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (AP) -- As soon as Navy pilot Matthew Stafford puts his helicopter down in the village of Borongan, he is rushed by dozens of local men who form a line to unload the supplies and water he has flown in from the mothership, the USS George Washington aircraft carrier. Children swarm him as he breaks out a box of sweets.

On the Philippine islands of Leyte and Samar that were shattered by Typhoon Haiyan, there is no doubt about it: the U.S. military has been a godsend. "It is awesome to see this," says one grateful villager. "They are saving us."

But while U.S. military support can be critical when disasters like Haiyan strike, staging massive humanitarian relief missions for allies in need isn't just about being a good neighbor. They can be a strategic and publicity goldmine for U.S. troops whose presence in Asia isn't always portrayed in such a favorable light - and a powerful warning to countries that aren't on board.

"These disasters are not unique only to the Philippines. It will send a signal to all of Southeast Asia, to Asia, that the U.S. is serious about its presence here," said Philippine political analyst Ramon Casiple. "It's easy to translate this capability for disaster handling into handling warfare. This is the new orientation of the task forces."

From the military perspective, humanitarian missions like the ongoing Operation Damayan in the Philippines offer concrete benefits - the chance to operate in far-flung places, build military-to-military alliances and get realistic training - that they may later apply to their primary mission, which will always be fighting and winning wars.

3-DAY-OLD GIRL DIES IN TYPHOON WRECKED HOSPITAL

TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) -- All through her very short life, the parents had squeezed oxygen into her tiny body with a hand-held pump to keep her alive.

In the end, their prayers and whatever little medical care doctors could muster in the typhoon-ravaged hospital were not enough. Althea Mustacia, aged three days, died Saturday.

She was born on Nov. 13, five days after Typhoon Haiyan annihilated a vast swath of the Philippines, killing thousands. The storm's aftermath is still claiming victims, and Althea was among the latest.

She was born at the government-run Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, suffering from a condition called newborn asphyxia, a failure to start regular breathing within a minute of birth. The consequences are possible brain damage or death if not corrected quickly.

According to the World Health Organization, newborn asphyxia is one of the leading causes of newborn deaths in developing countries, accounting for about 20 percent of the infant mortality rate. In the United States, it is the 10th leading cause of infant mortality.

Althea could have been saved had the hospital's ventilators had been working. But power lines were down in the entire region. There was no electricity and none of the equipment in the hospital - flooded and wrecked - worked. Not the ventilators, not the incubators, not the suction pumps to feed her oxygen.

Instead, her parents had to push life into her mouth with a hand-held pump connected to an oxygen tank. They took turns to do this continuously since she came into this world without stopping. With her lungs barely functioning, the only sign of life in the infant was a heartbeat.

But Althea's fragile body could not cope. Even the heartbeat stopped on Saturday evening, a few hours after an Associated Press team visited the hospital.

SENATE SHOWDOWN OVER MILITARY SEXUAL ASSAULT BILL

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has secured public support from nearly half the Senate, but not enough votes, for her proposal to give victims of rape and sexual assault in the military an independent route outside the chain of command for prosecuting attackers.

Gillibrand's solution for a problem the military calls an epidemic appears to have stalled in the face of united opposition from the Pentagon's top echelon and its allies in Congress, including two female senators who are former prosecutors.

Opponents of the proposal by Gillibrand, D-N.Y., insist that commanders, not an outside military lawyer, must be accountable for meting out justice.

Even so, major changes are coming for a decades-old military system just a few months after several high-profile cases infuriated Republicans and Democrats in a rapid chain of events by Washington standards.

"Sexual assault in the military is not new, but it has been allowed to fester," Gillibrand said in a recent Senate speech.

The Senate this week is set to consider an annual defense policy bill that would strip commanders of their ability to overturn jury convictions, require dishonorable discharge or dismissal for any individual convicted of sexual assault and establish a civilian review when a decision is made not to prosecute a case.

The bill would provide a special counsel for victims and eliminate the statute of limitations.