Mexico to start social programs to combat cartels

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 that the government is about to launch social programs there to combat gangs. The anti-crime measures, to be launched within weeks, represent a shift from a military-based approach to the border to one also addressing the social roots of organized crime. While thousands of troops will remain, the new approach outlined by Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont will focus less on policing and more on rebuilding communities shattered by drug violence.Read more

Court backs lesbian Army deserter

CANADA — A lesbian who deserted the U.S. military and fled to Canada must be given another chance to plead her case for refugee status, Canada’s Federal Court ruled Friday. Judge Yves de Montigny said the board erred in February when it rejected Bethany Smith’s bid for refugee status. Smith says she fled the Army because she was harassed and threatened by fellow soldiers over her sexual orientation. She testified that she was stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., the same base where a gay soldier was beaten to death with a baseball bat in 1999. She said she received a note that threatened her with the same fate.Read more

A retired State Department worker and his wife accused of a decades-long plot to spy for Cuba pleaded guilty Friday in a deal that will leave him behind bars for the rest of his life but gives her a chance at freedom in six years.Read more

Despite U.S. pressures, Pakistan continues to push for a different path in the fight with terrorists.Read more

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.Read more

Scientists switched on the world's largest atom smasher Friday night for the first time since the $10 billion machine suffered a spectacular failure more than a year ago.Read more

An imam's teachings have reportedly inspired suspects in a number of cases.Read more

The words on the shroud include the name "Jesus Nazarene" in Greek.Read more

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 and will soon be put on display, an Italian museum director said Friday.Read more

Increasing numbers of English-language Web sites are spreading al Qaeda's message to Muslims in the West.Read more