Mexico City street gangs mimic cartel violence

Two headless bodies are dumped on a street in suburban Mexico City along with a message sent by a mysterious group called "The Hand with Eyes." Days later, a severed head shows up in a car abandoned outside an elementary school in the same suburb.

For drug lords, this sprawling metropolis of 20 million has been a favorite hide-out and place to launder money, making Mexico City somewhat of an oasis from the brutal cartel violence along the border and in outlying states.

Now a spate of killings and decapitations never before seen have authorities batting down fears that a once-distant drug war is making its way into the capital. Instead, they say, the violence since late last year comes from street gangs fighting for an increasingly lucrative local drug market.

While drug use in Mexico City doesn't come close to that in the U.S., it has grown dramatically in the past decade. About 8 percent of middle and high school students here now experiment with drugs, said city drug addiction adviser Patricia Reyes, a number that has climbed from 2.5 percent in 1998 according to national surveys.

US-Russian space crew to take first ride on Soyuz

Two Russian cosmonauts making their first flights into space said Sunday they are counting on their U.S. crewmate when the three blast off together for the International Space Station.

American Ron Garan logged 13 days in space on a space shuttle mission in 2008, which makes him the most experienced member of the crew. At 49 he is also the oldest.

Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrei Borisenko, 46, and Alexander Samokutyayev, 40, will ride into space on a Russian Soyuz to be launched early Tuesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are expected to reach the orbiting station two days later.

"We've got Ron who's got this experience and he promised to help us with some issues and the feelings that we might encounter and that cannot be modeled on earth," Samokutyayev told reporters.

The launch is just a week shy of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic journey into space as the first human in space. Tuesday's launch is from the same launch pad.

Government appeals judge's health care ruling

The federal health care overhaul's core requirement to make virtually all citizens buy health insurance or face tax penalties is constitutional because Congress has the authority to regulate interstate business, the Justice Department said in its appeal of a ruling that struck down the Obama administration's signature legislation.

The government's 62-page motion filed Friday to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals argued that Congress had the power to enact the overhaul's minimum coverage requirements because it is a "rational means of regulating the way participants in the health care market pay for their services."

The motion also warned other pieces of the overhaul, including a law that blocks insurers from denying coverage to people because of pre-existing conditions, would be "unworkable" without a minimum coverage provision.

Twenty-six states filed a lawsuit that said Congress had exceeded its authority by requiring that all citizens buy health insurance or face tax penalties. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida agreed in a Jan. 31 ruling that said President Barack Obama's entire health care overhaul is unconstitutional. It is considered the most sweeping ruling against the health care law.

German foreign minister to quit party post

Germany's foreign minister said Sunday he will not seek another term as leader of the junior party in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition amid calls for his replacement after embarrassing losses in recent state elections. Guido Westerwelle told reporters that he would not run again to lead the pro-business Free Democratic Party at the party's congress next month, after the party's poor results in last weekend's elections in two southwestern states. Westerwelle said he would concentrate his energy on his post as foreign minister. "It was a difficult decision, but also an easy one," Westerwelle told reporters, hours after he returned from a visit to China and Japan. Pressure had been mounting on the foreign minister, who also serves as Merkel's deputy, since the Free Democrats saw their share of the votes halved in two state ballots last week. They were forced from the government in Baden-Wuerttemberg state and failed to make the regional legislature in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Taliban twin bombers kill 42 at Pakistani shrine

A pair of Taliban suicide bombers struck one of Pakistan's most important Sufi Muslim shrines on Sunday, killing 42 people and wounding 100 who were celebrating the anniversary of its founder's death with music, meditation and other practices abhorred by Islamist militant groups.

Another bomber was wounded when his explosive vest partially detonated. He was arrested along with a fourth militant who was seized before attacking, police official Ahmad Mubarak said.

The attack on the Sakhi Sarwar shrine ended a months-long respite in a relentless militant campaign against the shrines founded by ancient adherents of Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam that sees dancing, chanting and visiting holy sites as expressions of devotion to God. Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan called The Associated Press to claim responsibility for the assault.

"It was a huge blast. People were running in panic," said Fida Bakhsh, 42, a vendor outside the shrine. "It was horrible. We were running over bodies and blood."