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Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said there may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the alleged Fort Hood shooter before the deadly rampage.

The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents Friday.

Narseal Batiste, who faced a maximum of 70 years in prison, was convicted in May of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida, plotting to blow up buildings and conspiracy to wage war against the U.S. Officials acknowledged the plot never got past the discussion stage and the group never acquired the means to carry it out.

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.

Brazil's ghettos are poverty stricken and violent. But there are people fighting against the odds to turn things around for the poor children of Rio de Janeiro. Among them is an unusual apostle: a Rio socialite who founded a school for slum-dwelling children and views education as an equalizer.

When the Marines of "America's Battalion" first arrived in Afghanistan, they were eager to get into the fight against the Taliban. Now, as they wrap up their seven-month deployment — and after the loss of a dozen comrades — they see warfare in a different light.

Based on studies, two panels of medical experts this week recommended fewer screening tests for breast and cervical cancer. But people don't always want to do what the data say to do.

News from Yemen has been dominated recently by an escalating rebellion along the border with Saudi Arabia. But the country has been making news for decades because of its severe overuse of a rapidly disappearing water supply, the result of natural and political causes.

Levies on liposuction, breast augmentation and other cosmetic procedures would generate billions of dollars to help cover the uninsured.

Raging floods engulfed northern England's Lake District on Friday, killing a police officer and trapping dozens in their swamped homes. In Ireland, more than 3 feet of water shut down the center of the country's second-largest city, Cork, and more than a dozen other towns and villages.

Police arrested three members of a gang in the Peruvian jungle that allegedly has been killing people and draining fat from the corpses to sell on the black market for use in cosmetics. Medical experts expressed doubt about an international black market for human fat, though it does have cosmetic applications.

The Ohio school has a 20,000-seat stadium, a $3 million indoor practice facility and a live tiger for a mascot. Massillon teams have won 22 state championships and they're in the running for another one. It's football "sunup to sundown," the head coach says.

The Senate Ethics Committee on Friday admonished Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., for making "inconsistent, misleading or incomplete" statements about the circumstances surrounding his appointment to the seat once held by Barack Obama. The committee didn't recommend any punishment.

Democrats will need to vote in lockstep to overcome GOP opposition in a key procedural vote to move the $848 billion measure to full debate. But it's not yet clear whether Majority Leader Harry Reid can round up enough support.

If you're a member of Costco, the nation's largest wholesale club, you may be surprised to learn that Coca-Cola's products are no longer on the shelves. The two companies are locked in a rare public dispute over the price consumers pay for beverages.

UC regents, meeting at UCLA, approved fees that will bring the average annual cost to about $10,300 — a threefold increase in a decade. In protest, University of California Berkeley students barricaded themselves in part of a campus building on Friday.

Two children and a policeman were among those killed in the blast, which wounded at least 23 others when the motorcyclist detonated the explosives in a busy city square in western Afghanistan, officials said.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued new guidelines for cervical cancer screening — delaying the start of Pap smears for young women and cutting back on the frequency of the tests. The guidelines were announced just days after a different group caused a furor by recommending that most women wait until they're 50 to start getting mammograms.

Thousands of University of California students converged on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles Thursday, as regents adopted a 30 percent fee hike. It's one of the latest signs of California's continuing economic crisis. UC officials say, faced with a huge deficit of their own, they have no choice but to raise the fees. Many students say they can't afford to pay more.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says she believes a health-care bill will pass, despite fierce debate over language about abortion. She tells Renee Montagne that when it comes to Afghanistan, she doesn't sense wide support among House members for a significant troop increase. Pelosi says she's asked members to give President Obama room to decide his Afghan strategy.

The Senate is conducting hearings into the recent shootings at Fort Hood — a tragedy that took place just miles from the site of a deadly 1991 attack. That episode, in which a gunman killed 23 people at Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, reshaped how police, medical and psychological personnel respond to such tragedies.

One of the great mysteries about North America is what killed off woolly mammoths and other exotic animals that roamed the land after the last ice age. Ideas have ranged from a comet impact and climate change to human hunters. A study published Friday in Science Magazine provides new clues about this — cleverly deduced from samples of a fungus that grew on the animal's dung.

The country's spiraling unemployment rate continues to take a particular toll on men. The "he-cession," as it's sometimes called, has hit African-American men especially hard, increasing their unemployment rate to more than 17 percent last month.

A blown call by referees cost the luckless Irish a spot in the 2010 World Cup. Within minutes of a shootout, the ball hit the outstretched palm of French striker Thierry Henry, who guided it to his foot then passed it to a teammate for the winning overtime goal.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was able to get the bill passed while the Senate couldn't by appending it to a more popular bill. Republicans complained that the cost of the measure was not offset and also charged that it was repayment to the AMA for endorsing the Democrats' health care bill.

Army officials had said they would prohibit coverage of Palin's on-post event, saying it would turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama.

The talk-show icon will call it a wrap after 25 seasons, her production company said. A formal announcement is expected on Friday's edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Another man has been indicted on terrorism charges in a federal investigation into the recruitment of Minnesota Somalis to fight in Somalia.

Trade commissioner Catherine Ashton of Britain was selected as the EU's new foreign policy chief and Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was picked for president. Their appointments suggested the need for compromise outweighed the desire for big names like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In Los Angeles, University of California regents adopted a 30-percent increase in tuition in the face of a huge system-wide deficit. The vote came as thousands of angry students converged on the UCLA campus in protest.

In an NPR interview, the House speaker predicted she can corral enough votes from moderate Democrats to guarantee final passage of health care legislation — even if it contains the less-restrictive rules on abortion contained in the Senate version of the bill.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the government's $700 billion bailout program will end "as soon as we can," and that part of it will be used to lower the record deficit. He urged Congress to move quickly in overhauling the nation's financial rules, which he says is key to a healthy economy.

Two police officers were killed by a suicide bomber a day after 19 people were killed outside a courthouse in Peshawar. The bombings brought to eight the number of militant attacks in less than two weeks in the city on the Afghan border.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai pledged Thursday to prosecute corrupt officials, and said the country would control it own security within five years. Karzai's comments came in an inauguration speech that kicked off his second term of office amid a growing Taliban insurgency and a cloud of corruption allegations.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates named former Army Secretary Togo West and former chief of naval operations Adm. Vernon Clark to review a broad range of Pentagon programs. The review will try to find gaps in procedures for identifying service members who could pose threats to others, he said.

Studies show that testing women in their 40s could save a small percentage of lives. But to some public health officials, it isn't worth the possible harm the excess testing causes. Cancer survivors and advocacy groups say the screening tool isn't perfect, but it's worth the risk.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended Thursday the administration's handling of the financial crisis, as he again urged Congress to pass a regulatory overhaul that has been months in the making. Geithner faced tough questioning on the bailout of insurance giant AIG and Wall Street bonuses. Republican Congressman Kevin Brady even demanded Geithner's resignation.

The Senate needs 60 votes to bring its health care bill to the floor. To round up those votes, the bill unveiled Wednesday costs less than the House version, and delays the effective date for many provisions to 2014. Republicans are denouncing the cost cuts as mere gimmicks. Will those measures be enough to persuade wavering Democrats to vote at least to bring the bill up?

St. Bernard Parish is attracting more minorities to the largely white parish. Longtime residents want to bar low-income housing, saying it will destroy the neighborhood and discourage former residents from returning. Now a federal judge has weighed in.