AP - Germany is dropping its pursuit of a ban on Scientology after finding insufficient evidence of illegal activity, security officials said Friday.
AFP - Around 100 employees of Alitalia's creditors protested Friday at Fiumicino airport in Rome over the Italian flag carrier's unpaid debts, Telenews agency reported.
AP - Police say a blast at the funeral of a Shiite Muslim cleric has killed at least six people in northwestern Pakistan.
AP - Hiroshi Nohara is on a layover at the Mexico City airport. It has lasted almost three months, and he has no plans to leave.
AFP - London shares were in the backfoot again Friday after a dire manufacturing report compounded fears that a deep and prolonged recession is ever more likely.
AP - Shootings, looting and rape plague the already desperate lives of refugees in eastern Congo, where people caught between soldiers and rebels live in constant fear, U.N. officials said Friday.
AFP - The Vatican's daily newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of the "White Album" on Friday by dismissing as a "quip" John Lennon's notorious claim that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ.
