Six suspected rebels, including three women, have been killed in a security sweep in Russia's restive North Caucasus, the interior ministry said on Friday.

The ministry's spokesman in the Caspian Sea province of Dagestan, Vyacheslav Gasanov, said special forces cornered the suspects in a private house in the regional capital, Makhachkala. He said they refused to surrender and five of them were killed in a skirmish on Friday.

Australia will play Lebanon in a football friendly in Beirut on September 6 in a final build-up to its World Cup qualifier against Jordan five days later.

Coach Holger Osieck said he will use the match — the first ever between Australia and Lebanon — to fine-tune his squad for the match against Jordan in Amman on Sept. 11.

An official says suspected Kurdish rebels have detonated a roadside bomb, killing two soldiers in the country's southeast.

Moustafa Toprak, the governor of Diyarbakir province, told the state-run Anadolu agency the remotely-controlled bomb was hidden in a culvert on a road in the town of Lice and was detonated as a military vehicle passed by.

Seven nations may lose their ability to legally trade tens of thousands of wildlife species after U.N. conservation delegates agreed Thursday to penalize them for lacking tough regulations or failing to report on their wildlife trade.

The suspensions against the seven nations — Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Paraguay, Nepal, Rwanda, Solomon Islands and Syria — were approved by consensus among the delegates and would take effect Oct. 1.

Japanese women are no longer the world's longest living, their longevity pushed down in part by last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami, according to a government report Thursday. The top of the global life expectancy rankings now belongs to Hong Kong women.

The annual report by Japan's health ministry said the expected lifespan for Japanese women slipped to 85.90 years in 2011 from 86.30 the year before, mainly due to disease and other natural causes of death. The life expectancy for men also declined slightly, from 79.55 to 79.44.

Argentina's iconic first lady Evita Peron was so loved or hated when she was alive that long after her death, passionate arguments about her character drowned out more serious efforts to examine her legacy.

Some historians say that only now, 60 years after Gen. Juan Domingo Peron's firebrand wife succumbed to cancer at the age of 33, are many beginning to consider how much her actions shaped the society they live in today.

Manchester City says captain Vincent Kompany has signed a six-year contract extension with the Premier League champions.

The Belgium central defender guided Man City to its first league title in 44 years and has played 161 games for the club since joining from German side Hamburg in 2008.

A 21-pound (9.5-kilogram) lobster caught off Cape Cod has found a new home at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

That's after a raffle for the lobster at Capt'n Elmer's Fish Market in Orleans, where it was caught July 14.

French officials said Wednesday that a helicopter crashed in southeastern France and that five people were killed.

Francis Mene, a security official for southern France, said the helicopter crashed while carrying out a test flight Wednesday deep in the Verdon Gorge, a popular hiking destination.

AC Milan Vice-President Adriano Galliani has opened the door to a return for Rossoneri icon Kaka from Real Madrid.

Kaka's days at Madrid appear to be numbered, and the Brazil star was left behind for Tuesday's friendly win against Real Oviedo.