· Madonna, Ritchie granted preliminary divorce
The show-business marriage that began in a Scottish castle came to an end in a drab London courtroom Friday as Madonna and Guy Ritchie were granted a preliminary decree of divorce.

· Mexico: Former drug czar took cartel money
Mexico's former drug czar was accused Friday of taking $450,000 from a powerful cartel, further evidence the country's drug gangs are being protected by the highest levels of government.

· Islamists say they'll fight Somali pirates
A radical Islamic group in Somalia said Friday it will fight the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil.

· Philippine leader's plane makes emergency landing
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's plane made an emergency landing in Japan on Friday after her husband fell ill on board, airport police said.

· Myanmar court hands comedian 45-year prison term
Myanmar's courts continued a crackdown on activists Friday, handing out a 45-year prison sentence to a comedian who went to the delta to help cyclone victims and criticized the junta's slow relief response.

· Colombian volcano sets off landslides
Landslides triggered by a volcanic eruption injured nine people and destroyed more than 20 homes and five bridges in southwest Colombia, prompting a red alert for more activity.

· European library site crashes hours after launch
European culture went digital _ but it only lasted a day.

· Bulgarian archaeologists discover ancient chariot
Archaeologists have unearthed a well-preserved 1,800-year-old bronze chariot at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Friday.

· Germany bans Hezbollah television station Al-Manar
Germany's Interior Ministry has banned Hezbollah's television station on grounds that it violates the country's constitution, a spokesman said Friday.

· Blast kills 8 mourners at Pakistani funeral
Police said a bomb killed eight mourners at the funeral of a Shiite cleric in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, stoking sectarian tension in a region already beset by militant violence.

· French charge suspected Basque terrorist leader
A French judge has filed preliminary anti-terrorist charges against the suspected leader of the Basque separatist group ETA, a judicial official said Thursday.

· Lebanese soldiers clash with gunmen, killing 1
Lebanese soldiers clashed with gunmen in a northern port city on Friday, killing one and wounding others, the army said.

· White S. African sentenced for racist killings
A white teenager has received four life sentences for a shooting spree that killed four blacks and wounded eight, re-igniting racial tensions in post-apartheid South Africa.

· Afghan official: suicide bomb attack kills 3
A suicide bomber drove his car into the gate of an army base in southern Afghanistan on Friday and detonated his explosives, killing three civilians, a provincial official said.

· Mexico says former drug czar took cartel money
Officials say Mexico's former drug czar took $450,000 to leak information to a powerful cartel.

· Iraqi Shiites burn Bush effigy to protest US pact
Thousands of followers of a radical Shiite cleric protested a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security deal Friday, burning an effigy of President George W. Bush in the same square where Iraqis beat a toppled Saddam Hussein statue five years ago.

· Brazil, Ecuador in spat over debt
Brazil is calling its ambassador to Ecuador back home for consultations after Ecuador said it does not want to pay the debt it owes to a Brazilian bank.

· Amsterdam moves to close a fifth of 'coffee shops'
Amsterdam's mayor said Friday that the city will close nearly 20 percent of its marijuana cafes to comply with a national ban on having them near schools.

· Bulgarian worker kidnapped in Nigeria
Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry says a Bulgarian worker has been kidnapped in Nigeria.