UNITED NATIONS (CNN)- The United Nations Security Council Thursday passed a resolution to extend its peacekeeping mission in Darfur despite U.S. complaints about the resolution.

The resolution passed overwhelmingly, with all countries in the council voting for it, except the United States. A U.S. representative did not cast a vote, citing concerns about the wording of the resolution.

The one-year peacekeeping mandate was set to expire until Thursday’s vote extended it.

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) — Two players from Cuba’s junior baseball team have defected in Edmonton, Canada, former Cuban President Fidel Castro said Thursday.

The defections of starting pitcher Noel Arguelles and shortstop Jose Juvenile — whose batting average is above .500 — occurred before play began in the 23rd World Junior AAA Championship, Castro said in a blog published on www.cubadebate.cu.

Castro, an ardent fan of the game, then detailed how the match went, noting that the replacement shortstop, Yandy Diaz, “played excellently” in the game, which Cuba won.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) — President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner reiterated this week her call for decriminalization of drug use.

Though a poll shows just 2 percent of Argentinians have ever taken cocaine, some people believe that decriminalization of drugs could result in wider drug use.

Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, is not persuaded. “The evidence generally shows that the decriminalization of possession is not clearly associated with any increase in illicit drug use,” he told CNN.

Meanwhile, the Argentine government wants Congress to pass the decriminalization legislation by the end of the year.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Transportation Security Administration Thursday fired an employee it had hired after she’d been fired from a top job in Minnesota for unprofessional conduct following the collapse of the Interstate 35-West bridge.

Sonia Pitt was fired from her $84,600-a-year Minnesota state job last November only to sign on to the TSA for $89,900 seven months later.

Pitt, 44, became a highly publicized object of scorn in Minneapolis last year when it was disclosed that she failed to return to Minnesota immediately after the tragedy. Instead, Pitt finished a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and took an unauthorized trip to Washington.

She returned to Minnesota about 11 days after the August 1, 2007, collapse.

From CNN’s Maria Carolina Gonzalez

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) — A law passed 18 months ago by the Venezuelan National Assembly granting special powers to President Hugo Chavez has expired.

The powers, which allowed the leftist leader to legislate in different areas, including energy, taxes, territorial order, security and defense, were spelled out in the Venezuelan constitution for use in special situations or during times of crisis.

Since January 31, 2007, the Venezuelan leader has used them 38 times, exceeding the 28 laws passed by parliament during the same period.

From CNN’s Kate Tobin

(CNN) — The Phoenix lander has successfully collected a tiny sample of ice from the surface of Mars and has begun to analyze it for signs of chemicals that could support life, NASA researchers announced Thursday.

Controllers have been trying to get an ice sample into a gas analyzer aboard the automated lander for weeks, struggling with a scraper and rasp on the probe’s robotic arm that were designed to grind up the material for study, said Bill Boynton, part of the University of Arizona team running the project.

Eventually, however, they used a scoop on the arm to dig up a sample of dirt, about 1 percent of which contained ice, and loaded it into the analyzer successfully, he said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The amount of Washington-bound mail that is being irradiated to kill anthrax and other deadly pathogens has declined significantly since the U.S. Postal Service first began zapping mail seven years ago, government auditors told Congress Thursday.

But government offices’ ingenuity in finding ways to circumvent the security procedure is partly responsible for the reduction, the Government Accountability Office said.

Some 23,700 containers of mail were irradiated per month in 2002 in the aftermath of the letter-born anthrax attack on Capitol Hill. But only 11,700 containers of mail were being irradiated every month in 2007, the GAO said.

From Justice Producer Terry Frieden

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A somber Sen. Ted Stevens spoke not a single word during his arraignment proceedings, nor on his way in or out of the federal courthouse.

It was Stevens’ famed defense counsel Brendan Sullivan who entered the pro-forma not guilty plea on the 84-year old senator’s behalf — even as the two were standing shoulder-to-shoulder before the judge.

Sullivan was the powerful attorney who memorably complained during the Iran-Contra hearings that he was “not a potted plant” and should be allowed to speak on behalf of his client Col. Oliver North.

This time, once again the center of official Washington’s attention, Sullivan got to do all the talking, and the Alaska Republican was the “potted plant.”

(CNN) — An al Qaeda “military leader” who escaped from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan in 2005 was killed in a recent U.S. air strike, according to a statement posted Thursday on radical Islamic Web sites known to carry messages from al Qaeda.

The statement, which called Abu Abdallah al-Shami a military leader and hero, did not say when or where he was killed.

The statement said al-Shami escaped from the U.S. prison in 2005 with a group of three others, including key al- Qaeda figure Omar al-Faruq. Faruq died in a British airstrike earlier.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A congresswoman Thursday said her “jaw dropped” when military doctors told her that 4 in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military.

A government report indicates the numbers could be even higher.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, spoke before a House panel investigating the way the military handles reports of sexual assault.

She said she recently visited a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Los Angeles area where women told her horror stories of being raped in the military.

(CNN) — A truck carrying an unarmed missile booster tipped over in North Dakota on Thursday, the latest in a string of Air Force mishaps and at least the second public mistake since the force’s top leaders were fired in June for a “pattern of poor performance” involving the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

The vehicle, which was carrying a Minuteman III rocket booster, tipped on its side on a gravel road about 70 miles southwest of Minot Air Force Base. The crew received only minor injuries.

Last week, the Air Force announced that three officers fell asleep July 12 while in control of a classified electronic part that contained old launch codes for intercontinental nuclear missiles. It happened during the changing out of electronic parts used to communicate with Minot Air Force Base.

The two incidents came after a high-profile error last August, when a B-52 bomber flew from Minot to Louisiana with the crew unaware that six nuclear-tipped missiles were onboard, and a 2006 accidental shipment to Taiwan of components that arm and fuse nuclear warheads.

(CNN) — President Hugo Chavez ordered Thursday the nationalization of the Banco de Venezuela “to put it at the service of Venezuela.”

The leftist president said in a televised address to the nation that he heard “a few months ago” that the bank’s Spanish owner — Grupo de Santander — was planning to sell the bank, which was privatized a few years ago, to a Venezuelan banker.

The banker has asked the Venezuelan government for permission needed to complete the deal, Chavez said. “I sent a message to the Spaniards — No. And to the Venezuelan banker — No. Now the government wants to buy the bank,” he said. “Wants to recover it, because it’s called the Bank of Venezuela, to put it at the service of Venezuela.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Navy has decided to cut short plans to build a new class of futuristic destroyers and build more of an existing type better suited for anti-aircraft and missile defenses, a top admiral said Thursday.

The Navy will build two of the planned DDG-1000 guided-missile destroyers, not the planned seven, Vice Adm. Barry McCullough told a House defense subcommittee. Instead, the service will build more of the existing Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, known as DDG-51s, dozens of which are already in service.

“The demand from combatant commanders is for ballistic missile defense, integrated air and missile defense and anti-submarine warfare best provided by DDG-51s, and not the surface fire support optimized in DDG-1000,” McCullough said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Officials in Minnesota said the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) did not check with them before hiring Sonia Pitt, a top Minnesota transportation official who was fired last year for unprofessional conduct following the collapse of the Interstate 35-West bridge.

Pitt, 44, was fired last November in a swirl of controversy after Minneapolis media outlets disclosed she failed to return to Minnesota immediately after the tragedy, and instead finished a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and made an unauthorized trip to Washington. State officials confirmed that, and said she also had misspent $26,000 in state money.

In May, seven months after Pitt was fired from her $84,600-a-year job in Minnesota, the TSA hired her at $89,900 a year, TSA officials confirmed Thursday.

TSA officials acknowledged the agency hired Pitt in May but said they could not say if Pitt disclosed her firing, nor could they discuss Pitt’s hiring process, because of employee privacy laws — and an on-going investigation, the nature of which they declined to disclose.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush this week ordered the most sweeping changes to the structure of the U.S. intelligence community in decades, the White House announced Thursday.

The amendments to the Reagan-era Executive Order 12333 clarify and strengthen the powers of the director of national intelligence, a position that was created in 2004. The current DNI, Mike McConnell, had sought the changes, which include giving him access to all national security intelligence and information no matter what department or agency it might come from. Agencies have been criticized by the 9/11 commission, among others, for holding on to valued information.

The new rules lay out guidelines for how information will be used and shared within the intelligence community, as the constellation of 16 different agencies reporting to the director of national intelligence is known.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A Minnesota official fired for unprofessional conduct in the aftermath of last year’s Interstate 35-West bridge collapse is now working in an $89,000-a-year job for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, the agency confirmed Thursday.

Sonia Pitt was fired in a swirl of controversy last fall after Minneapolis media outlets disclosed that Pitt, a top official with the state’s Department of Transportation, failed to return to Minnesota immediately after the tragedy, and instead finished a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and made an unauthorized trip to Washington.

State officials called Pitt’s conduct unprofessional, saying that she was expected to respond to transportation emergencies. And in a subsequent investigation, state auditors said Pitt had misspent $11,500 of state money, and had charged the state for more than $14,500 of work time that should have been recorded as personal leave.

(CNN) — All eight people aboard a Raytheon Hawker aircraft died Thursday when the plane crashed at a regional airport in Owatonna, Minnesota, authorities said Thursday.

Police Chief Shaun LaDue said the victims were six passengers and two crew members. One person died after being transported to a hospital.

The plane left Atlantic City, New Jersey, Thursday morning and crashed off runway 30 at Owatonna, said Elizabeth Cory, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. It was attempting to land when it crashed.
–CNN Radio’s Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The number of Iraqi civilian deaths in Iraq continues to decline, according to figures supplied to CNN by the Iraqi government.

A count of civilian deaths shows that 387 Iraqis were killed in conflict-related violence in July compared with 448 in June and 504 in May. The figures — based on data collected by Iraq’s Health, Defense and Interior ministries — reflect what American and Iraqi officials say has been a dramatic drop in violence in the country.

But the number of Iraqi police and soldier casualties in July rose from June. In July, 45 Iraqi police officers were killed and 83 were wounded. In June, 41 police were killed and 110 were wounded. In July, 33 Iraqi soldiers were killed and 63 were wounded. In June, 21 soldiers were killed and 47 were wounded.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A Federal Emergency Management Agency official Thursday defended the agency’s handling of millions of dollars worth of supplies meant for survivors of the 2005 hurricanes, but pledged to check with states before any future giveaways.

“We will give them notice prior to going to the proper process to get it into their hands,” Eric Smith, FEMA’s assistant administrator for logistics management, said at a congressional hearing.

Officials from FEMA and the General Services Administration came in for sharp questions from Gulf Coast lawmakers during a rare joint hearing held by the members of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — John McCain’s campaign manager charged Thursday that Barack Obama falsely accused the McCain campaign of injecting race into the presidential contest.

“Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong,” McCain campaign manger Rick Davis said in a prepared statement sent to reporters one day after Obama alluded to his own race during several stops in Missouri.

An Obama spokesman immediately denied the assertion. “This is a race about big challenges — a slumping economy, a broken foreign policy, and an energy crisis for everyone but the oil companies,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said. “Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign is using race as an issue, but he does believe they’re using the same old low-road politics to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign, and those are the issues he’ll continue to talk about.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that conditions have improved “dramatically” in Iraq and, as a result, some U.S. troops may be withdrawn.

“I think the situation has improved dramatically, and I personally believe that there is a real possibility of some additional drawdowns as we look forward,” he told reporters.

Gates said the final decision will be made by the senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus. “I think, until General Petraeus has made his recommendations, we are really not in a position to say what we will be recommending to the president” regarding the sequence and timing of any withdrawals.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Indicted Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of scheming to conceal thousands of dollars worth of gifts from an oil-services company.

The trial will begin with jury selection on September 24, Judge Emmet Sullivan announced.

Stevens’ lawyer had requested that the trial be held as soon as possible because Stevens is up for re-election in November.

He also proposed moving the trial to Alaska because a majority of the witnesses are there and the events in question took place there. Judge Sullivan, who is not related to Stevens’ attorney, said he thought Washington is an appropriate location for the trial but that he would entertain a motion to move it to Alaska.
–From CNN Producer Paul Courson

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The United States and Libya have a tentative deal for Libya to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorism victims, but the deal hinges on congressional action, the State Department and lawyers for the victims said Thursday.

If the deal goes through, it could put an end to legal liability by Libya from numerous lawsuits filed by families of victims of what the United States considers Libyan terrorist acts, paving the way for stronger U.S.-Libyan ties and increased American investment in the oil-rich nation.

The 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people — including 189 Americans– while the 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin killed three — including two American servicemen — and injured 229, 79 of them Americans.

The deal hinges on Congress passing fresh legislation creating a fund for the settlement.
–From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott

(CNN) — An evangelical preacher killed his wife several years ago and stuffed her body in a freezer after she caught him abusing their daughter, Mobile, Alabama, police and court documents contend.

Anthony Hopkins, 37, was arrested Monday night at the Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Jackson, Alabama, just after he had delivered a sermon to a congregation that included his seven other children, officials said. He faces charges including murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and incest.

The case began whe