Mexico: Ex-drug czar took cartel money
Mexico's former drug czar took $450,000 to leak information to a powerful cartel, officials said Friday.

Obama team springs leaks

Barack Obama was famously able to impose discipline and control over his presidential campaign, but it didn't take long for him to discover that running a transition is something quite different.

Child deaths test faith-healing exemptions
Three criminal cases have revived concerns about exemptions that most states grant to parents who rely on faith healing instead of doctors to treat sick children.

Bob Jones Univ. apologizes for racist policies
A fundamentalist Christian University has apologized for racist policies including a one-time ban on interracial dating that wasn't lifted until nine years ago and its unwillingness to admit black students until 1971.

Disputed Senate ballots hold key to Minn. win

The pile of disputed ballots in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race is growing at a pace sure to dwarf the 215-vote margin prior to the recount, making it tough to tell who is gaining an edge as the recount progresses.

Mukasey feeling better, checks out of hospital

The attorney general was given a "clean bill of health" and went back to work Friday after his harrowing collapse at a late-night dinner speech.

Spiders get their space legs — all eight of them

Two plucky spiders on the international space station have bounced back from a tangled false start to weave amazing new webs in zero gravity, astronauts said Friday.

Bush signs bill providing extra jobless benefits
President George W. Bush on Friday ensured that millions of laid-off workers will keep getting their unemployment checks as the year-end holidays approach.

Hundreds wait at stores for BlackBerry Storm

Hundreds of people lined up at Verizon Wireless stores on Friday to buy the BlackBerry Storm, the first touch-screen phone from Research In Motion that aims to compete with Apple's iPhone.