Oliver Tree

The device was detonated in a restaurant in the Qaboun neighborhood, a hot bed of protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

The measure grants President Barack Obama the power to impose sanctions against any country or company that enters into a joint venture or offers technology to assist Iran's uranium or oil industries.

The California company's Falcon rocket, topped by an unmanned Dragon freight capsule, lifted off from its Florida pad at 03:44 EDT, after an aborted first attempt at the weekend.

The deadlock emerged after a meeting between French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici and his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin on Monday.

The former KGB strongman maneuvered key allies into prominent posts, including naming the heavy-handed Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev as interior minister, who came down hard on anti-Putin protestors in recent weeks.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to announce that he will not be extending the mission of Canada's 950 military trainers currently in Afghanistan after international forces leave the country in 2014.

The two sides have so far failed to agree on a strategy to re-open the vital supply routes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which have been closed since a U.S. air-strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

The bomber mingled with soldiers before detonating the device near the presidential palace, eyewitnesses reported.

In a report, the South Korean Institute for National Unification said it had interviewed around 230 North Korean exiles who had personally witnessed executions of those found guilty of cannibalism and selling human flesh.

With the euro under threat and looming nuclear showdowns in Iran and North Korea, the Heidi-like retreat of Camp David in Maryland will come as a welcome break for the beleaguered leaders as they gather for this weekend's Group of 8 summit.

Turkey, which does not recognize the Cyprus government, and has repeatedly warned against exploration for oil and gas deposits on the island, launched its own exploration effort in the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Tsipras' comments are set to raise the stakes in an already tense standoff between Greek politicians and their European benefactors.

The embarrassing delay at the ?2.5 billion Berlin Brandenberg airport ($ 3.17 billion) has angered airlines and the German capital's authorities, who reacted by firing the airport's managing director for technical issues Manfred Koertgen.

Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fuele visited the Turkish capital on Thursday to launch a new positive agenda aimed at overcoming the numerous hurdles to the country joining the union.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said any agreement would need to include an ambitious strategy for growth.

The Spanish government sold ?2.4 billion of debt on Thursday morning, with bonds due in 2015 carrying an average yield of 4.375 percent - a huge rise from an average yield of 2.89 percent in April.

Prosecutors in Milan said in a statement on Wednesday that Bossi was being investigated for suspected fraud, while his sons Renzo and Riccardo were being investigated for alleged embezzlement.

Taylor, who was convicted in April of supporting rebels during Sierra Leone's bloody civil war, was speaking before the court for the last time before sentencing later this month.

The comments come amid a growing chorus of European ministers openly discussing the possibility of a Greek exit from the single currency.

The former Bosnian Serb general, on trial for the murder of tens of thousands of Muslim men, women and children during the early 1990s Bosnian war, entered The Hague courtroom clapping his hands and gave the thumbs-up sign.

The move comes after a final bid to form a government failed on Tuesday, raising the possibility of a Greek exit from the euro.

The invitation came a day after Islamabad proposed re-opening supply routes to Afghanistan, shut six months ago after a U.S. drone strike mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border.

Hollande - the first Socialist French President in nearly 17 years to occupy the Elysee Palace - is at odds with Merkel's German-led package of tax hikes and spending cuts that have characterized the European response to the growing sovereign debt crisis.

Al-Nusra, a little-known Islamic opposition group fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has denied a video that appeared shortly after last Thursday's Damascus attack in which the group supposedly claimed responsibility was released by them.

Majid Jamali Fashi, 24, who was sentenced to death in August of last year was said to have worked as an assassin for Israeli intelligence service Mossad, receiving $120,000 for the hit.

The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed they are charging Rupert Murdoch's former right hand woman in relation to the phone hacking scandal, which has rocked the British establishment and resulted in the closure of tabloid newspaper the News of The World.

In his first address to the country, Hollande outlined a message of confidence, in an inauguration ceremony the new president asked to be kept as low-key as possible.

The attacks, which saw Yemeni warplanes bombard a militant hideout 40 miles from the city of Zinjibar, Abyan province, came as six government troops died battling militants in the city itself.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief inspector Hermann Nackaerts pressed Tehran to allow access to people, documents, information and sites, before two days of preliminary talks with Iran's envoy, Ali Asghar Soltanieh in Vienna began on Monday.