WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former U.S. State Department official and his wife pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that they spied for almost three decades for the Communist-led Cuban government.

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's top domestic security official said Friday that sectors of the general public have cooperated with drug cartels in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, and the government is about to launch new social programs there to combat gangs.

HAVANA - The husband of an acclaimed dissident Cuban blogger was punched and shouted down by a pro-government mob Friday after he challenged the presumed state agents who earlier roughed up his wife to a street corner debate.

Jimmie Johnson will go for his fourth straight Cup title from the pole.

The death of the mother of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has been ruled a suicide.

ATP chairman Adam Helfant says the tour will not reopen a doping case against Andre Agassi even though he admitted to lying about using crystal meth in 1997.

Corey Fisher scored 18 points to lead Villanova past Dayton 71-65 on Friday in the second round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

MELBOURNE, Australia - The mother of recently separated conjoined Bangladeshi twins does not want custody of the daughters she gave up for adoption and wants them to have new lives in Australia, newspapers reported Saturday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Justice Department prosecutors asked a federal judge on Friday to dismiss the charges against one of five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's job approval rating has dropped below 50 percent in a second major poll in an indication he is suffering from the long healthcare debate and weakness in the economy, Gallup said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pandemic of swine flu may be hitting a peak in the Northern Hemisphere, global health officials said on Friday, but they cautioned it was far from over.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of three wavering U.S. Senate Democrats said on Friday he would vote to start the chamber's healthcare debate, bolstering the chances for a broad reform bill one day before its first crucial test.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - U.S. Sen. John McCain predicted success in the Afghan war effort Friday if President Barack Obama makes a decision quickly to send the reinforcements requested by his top commander there.

GENEVA - Scientists circulated beams of protons in the world's largest atom smasher Friday night for the first time after a year of repairs caused by a spectacular failure after the $10 billion machine was heavily damaged by a simple electrical fault.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Valuing truth over the right to privacy, Argentina's Congress has authorized the forced extraction of DNA from people who may have been born to political prisoners slain a quarter-century ago - even when they don't want to know their birth parents.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pandemic of swine flu may be hitting a peak in the United States, health experts said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of three wavering U.S. Senate Democrats said on Friday he would vote to start the chamber's healthcare debate, bolstering the chances for a broad overhaul one day before its first crucial test.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - The United States will do its part to reduce corruption in Afghanistan by examining its own contracts and projects, even as it is demanding the same from the Afghan government, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. He said the U.S. can exert the most leverage when it is signing the checks.

MUMBAI, India - The walls that the rockets blew out have not been repaired, and the plaster is a dense scattershot of bullet holes. Dozens of holes, blasted by grenades, pockmark the linoleum floors.

LONDON - A British couple being held hostage by Somali pirates said in an interview broadcast Friday that they fear they will be killed or handed to a terrorist group if a ransom is not paid soon. Paul and Rachel Chandler were kidnapped by pirates on Oct. 22, who seized their 38-foot yacht - the Lynn Rival.

ROME - A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus. Experts say the historian may be reading too much into the markings, and they stand by carbon-dating that points to the shroud being a medieval forgery.

MEXICO CITY - Authorities in the western Mexican state of Michoacan are investigating the disappearance of a journalist who wrote about organized crime. Michoacan state's attorney general says police are looking for people who had contact with Mexican reporter Maria Esther Aguilar before she disappeared on Nov. 11.

COCKERMOUTH, England - Raging floods engulfed northern England's picturesque Lake District on Friday following the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Britain, killing a police officer and trapping dozens in their swamped homes.

Mavericks forward Shawn Marion (ankle) will miss Friday's game against Sacramento.

The Chicago White Sox are close to signing veteran infielder Omar Vizquel.

The NFL players union has requested the removal of a doctor as co-chairman of the league's committee on concussions, claiming he is too biased to lead the group, the New York Times reported Friday.

If the NBA were to retire Michael Jordan's No. 23 league-wide, the newly inducted Hall of Famer says there are several more players just as worthy of the distinction.

The New York Knicks have decided not to pursue Allen Iverson, a decision that was reached late Thursday night.

SANA'A, Yemen - Yemen's coast guard says Somali pirates have hijacked a Panamanian cargo ship in the treacherous Gulf of Aden between the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa. A coast guard official says the Red Sea Spirit was carrying an unknown number of crew when it was hijacked Friday morning 36 nautical miles from the Yemeni port of Balhaf.

ROME - Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again, a Florence museum said Friday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Somalia has announced it plans to ratify a global treaty aimed at protecting children, leaving the United States as the only country outside the pact, UNICEF said Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's announcement of a new strategy on Afghanistan will not take place until after the Thanksgiving holiday next week, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pace of job losses slowed in many U.S. states in October, and the unemployment rate slipped in hard-hit Michigan, the Labor Department said on Friday, hinting the recession may be easing in some areas.

PERUGIA, Italy - An American student accused of fatally stabbing her British roommate in Italy had a growing hatred for the victim and killed her in retaliation during a drug-fueled sex game, a prosecutor contended Friday in closing arguments at her murder trial.

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemalan officials on Friday announced the resumption of international adoptions after a nearly two-year suspension prompted by the discovery that some babies were being sold.

TORONTO - Canada's Federal Court says the country's refugee board must reconsider the case of a lesbian who deserted the U.S. Army and fled to Canada. Judge Yves de Montigny said Friday the board erred last February when it rejected Bethany Smith's bid.

KABUL - Underpaid, under-equipped and under-trained, Afghanistan's 93,000-member police force is the weak link in an ambitious security strategy to hand over defense of the country to Afghans so American and other foreign troops can go home.

GENEVA - The World Health Organization says it is investigating samples of mutated swine flu found in two Norwegians who died of the virus and one person who suffered severe illness. Norway's Institute of Public Health announced Friday that the mutation "could possibly...cause more severe disease" because it infects tissue deeper in the airway than usual.