MEXICO CITY — Authorities in the western Mexican state of Michoacan are investigating the disappearance of a journalist who wrote about organized crime.Read more

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.Read more

• Link | http://www.chabad.org/mumbai

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.Read more

CAIRO — Egyptian soccer fans burned Algerian flags and rioted outside the Algerian Embassy in Cairo, smashing cars and shop windows, in an escalating row between the two countries over a bitter World Cup rivalry.Read more

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.Read more

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.Read more

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.Read more

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.Read more

GENEVA — The World Health Organization said Friday it is investigating samples of variant swine flu linked to two deaths and one severe case in Norway, but that so far the significance of the mutation is unclear.Read more

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.Read more

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.Read more

• Link | Halifax International Security Forum
• Link | Defense Department

LONDON — Catherine Ashton: International woman of mystery.Read more

MOSCOW — Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev criticized Kremlin policies Friday and toyed with the ambitious idea of attempting a political comeback.Read more

KAMPALA, Uganda — Ugandan officials say the army has killed 34 tribesmen who were stealing cattle in Uganda's volatile northeastern region.Read more

SALVADOR, Brazil — Brazil's President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is joining his Palestinian counterpart in calling on Israel to stop building new settlements in areas claimed by Palestinians.Read more

LONDON — Buckingham Palace says the queen and her husband Prince Philip are celebrating 62 years of marriage quietly - without the fanfare of two years ago, when they marked their diamond anniversary.Read more

LONDON — A British man who said he strangled his wife during a nightmare about fighting off an intruder has been found innocent in her death.Read more

BAGHDAD — A top aide to Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader on Friday urged the country's fractious political blocs to resolve a crisis over a key election law that threatens to delay national polls planned for January.Read more

BRUSSELS — Representatives of six world powers urged Iran on Friday to accept a U.N. plan aimed at delaying its ability to build a nuclear weapon, as the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency warned Tehran not to miss the opportunity to resolve the dispute.Read more

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian officials announced Friday that a new date for parliamentary and presidential elections will be set next month now that President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to postpone the January vote, though the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers maintain they will boycott the voting.Read more