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.

LONDON A retired British couple snatched from their yacht by Somali pirates said in an interview broadcast Friday they fear they could be killed within a week or handed to a terrorist group if a ransom demand is not paid.

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.

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

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.

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.

TORONTO 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.

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.

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

BEIJING Washington's ambassador to Beijing hit out Friday at negative U.S. media coverage of President Barack Obama's visit to China, saying it failed to take into account important progress on many issues.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LONDON Catherine Ashton: International woman of mystery.

ISLAMABAD Pakistan expressed fear Friday that a large increase in foreign troops in Afghanistan could push militants across the border into its territory and called on the U.S. to factor in that concern as part of its new war strategy.

MOSCOW A Russian ship reached open water off Antarctica after struggling through a huge mass of sea ice for days, a Russian shipping company and a British travel agency said Friday.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

MOSCOW Russia lacks a viable program for developing a new spacecraft and risks losing its place as a leader in space travel, a veteran Russian cosmonaut said in an interview published Friday.

GOMA, Congo Conservationists say Congolese schoolchildren will soon be able to take a closer look at baby mountain gorillas.

TEHRAN, Iran Iran plans to launch a communications satellite by late 2011 with no outside help, a top Iranian official said Friday, after Italy and Russia declined to put it into orbit.

PARIS Police say a man with an automatic rifle opened fire on a car near a Paris train station, killing one man and wounding two others.

KABUL A suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded at least 23 others Friday in a busy city square in western Afghanistan, while near Kabul a powerful former warlord narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, officials said.

BRUSSELS Representatives of six world powers on Friday were considering measures against Iran for its refusal to halt nuclear enrichment activities, as the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency warned Tehran not to miss the opportunity to resolve the dispute.

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

KABUL Afghan police say Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a parliamentarian and powerful former warlord, has narrowly escaped an assassination attempt near Kabul.

NEW DELHI Arun Kumar was born to disabled parents, beaten by his grandparents, ran away from home, got a job in a garment factory and had all his savings stolen by the police.

PARIS A 20-year-old top South Korean model who was a fashion week regular in New York, Milan and Paris has been found hanged in her Paris apartment, a police official said Friday.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has appointed a British lawyer to represent Radovan Karadzic if the former Bosnian Serb leader continues to boycott his trial when it resumes in March, according to a document released Friday.

EDITOR'S NOTE - The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child 20 years ago Friday, yet hundreds of millions of children still suffer from violence, hunger and disease. Associated Press correspondents around the globe interviewed children who illustrate the remaining challenges, along with some victories.

PATNA, India A passenger train derailed after Maoist rebels blew up a key track in eastern India, killing two people and injuring at least 30 others, a police official said Friday.

MOSCOW A gunman killed a Russian Orthodox priest in his Moscow church and seriously wounded the reverend's assistant, officials said Friday.

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands A gunman went on a rampage on the Pacific resort island of Saipan on Friday, killing four people and wounding six others before fatally shooting himself, officials said.

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands A gunman went on a rampage on the Pacific resort island of Saipan on Friday, killing four people and wounding six others before fatally shooting himself, officials said.

GANDAH KASARAY, Afghanistan France's foreign minister walked into a remote Afghan village on Friday to talk with small farmers and local tribal leaders about how to bypass corrupt officials and bring aid directly to those who need it.

MOSCOW A Russian shipping company says that its icebreaker carrying more than 100 tourists, scientists and journalists on an Antarctic cruise has freed itself from ice and reached clear water.

LIMA, Peru Police say a gang in the Peruvian jungle has been killing people and draining fat from the corpses to sell on the black market for use in cosmetics, although medical experts say they doubt a major market for fat exists.

KABUL A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle killed 13 people, including a police officer, and wounded 30 others Friday in a busy city square in western Afghanistan.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia Increasing numbers of English-language Web sites are spreading al-Qaida's message to Muslims in the West. They translate writings and sermons once largely out of reach of English readers and often feature charismatic clerics like Anwar al-Awlaki, who exchanged dozens of e-mails with the Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood shootings.

KATMANDU, Nepal A Hindu festival in which hundreds of thousands of animals are expected to be sacrificed will go ahead as scheduled in southern Nepal despite protests, organizers said Friday.