(Reuters) - Canada raced to a 2-0 lead over Spain in their Davis Cup world group first round tie on Friday, pushing the five-times champions to the brink of defeat and moving to within a doubles victory of a maiden win at this level. With top-ranked Spain missing big guns Rafa Nadal, David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro, the Canadians seized their chance when Milos Raonic and Frank Dancevic dominated the clay-loving Iberians on the lightning fast Vancouver hard courts. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta accused Iran of an intensified campaign to destabilize the Middle East by smuggling anti-aircraft weapons to militant allies, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. "There is no question when you start passing MANPADS around, that becomes a threat, not just to military aircraft but to civilian aircraft," Panetta told the newspaper in an interview. "That is an escalation." MANPADS are shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. ...

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The U.S. government is shipping emergency medical supplies to Brazil to treat survivors of a deadly nightclub fire who are suffering from exposure to cyanide gas released in the blaze, the Brazilian health ministry said on Friday. Officials say 119 people remain hospitalized after Sunday's fire at the Kiss nightclub in southern Brazil that killed 236. Brazilian doctors have said cyanide was among the toxic chemicals produced when fire consumed the soundproofing foam on the club's ceiling, contributing to the high number of fatalities. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Economists at many of Wall Street's top financial institutions do not expect the government to complete a deal to fully avoid automatic cuts in federal spending before a March 1 deadline, according to a Reuters poll conducted on Friday. Economists at 11 of 13 primary dealers - the 21 large financial institutions that do business directly with the Federal Reserve - said they expect spending cuts in some form to launch on March 1. ...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government vowed on Friday to find out whether an explosion that killed 33 people at the headquarters of its state-run oil monopoly Pemex was a deliberate attack or yet another stain on the company's poor safety record. Rescue workers continued to pull bodies from the debris on Friday and officials said the search would continue until everyone inside the Mexico City building was accounted for. ...

WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize winner who shepherded an effort to help spur a clean energy U.S. economy, will step down after a tenure rocked by the failures of some costly government investments. Chu's departure, which was announced Friday and follows similar moves by the Environmental Protection Agency administrator and the interior secretary, will allow President Barack Obama to craft a fresh team to address climate change. ...

DALLAS (AP) — Thanks to a tiny video camera on his collar, Barney offered a dog-level holiday tour of the White House in 2002 while shuffling from room to room and menacing the Christmas tree.