AP - Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has signed a bill that adds a 30-day age limit to a safe-haven law led to the abandonment of nearly three dozen children, including some teenagers as old as 17. The law goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

AP - A senior Democratic official says New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has emerged as a serious contender for Commerce Secretary in President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet.

AP - Germany is dropping its pursuit of a ban on Scientology after finding insufficient evidence of illegal activity, security officials said Friday.

AP - 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. Chanting and waving flags, Muqtada al-Sadr's followers filled Firdous Square to protest the pact that would allow American troops to stay for three more years.

AP - Looting soldiers tried to rape one woman and fatally shot another at a refugee camp, witnesses said Friday, as the United Nations prepared to send more peacekeepers to help protect traumatized civilians in eastern Congo.