Syrian troops have made advances in a strategic suburb of Damascus and been bombarding other areas around the capital today in a push to secure President Bashar Assad's seat of power as rebels make gains in the north.

The French president says the country will raise its domestic terror threat level after military action in Mali and Somalia, promising to increase protection at public buildings and transportation networks.

A French commando raid in Somalia to free a captive intelligence agent has ended in the deaths of 17 Islamists, a French soldier and apparently the hostage as well.

France says its troops and warplanes in Mali have driven Islamist rebels from a key city and destroyed a militant command center.

Venezuelan opposition politicians say they're preparing to present a case before a regional human rights court to challenge a Supreme Court decision that permits the indefinite postponement of President Hugo Chavez's inauguration.

Several hundred people have rallied in the center of Azerbaijan's capital in protest at the death earlier this month of military conscript.

A fugitive wanted by Arizona and California authorities has been handed over by Mexican authorities.

Thousands of Puerto Ricans are demanding justice for a university professor arrested after refusing to return her toddler to her ex-husband in the mainland U.S. under a court-ordered agreement.

Mali's president has declared a state of emergency on national television a day after Islamists pushed the closest ever from the north toward government-held territory.

International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi expressed little hope for a political solution for Syria anytime soon after meeting Friday with senior Russian and U.S. diplomats trying to bring an end to the civil war, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

BRUSSELS (AP) - The Belgian government plans to speed up reforms and likely limit financial support to the royal family after it rebuked Queen Fabiola for setting up a special inheritance system widely seen as a tax dodge.

A statement released by Chadian Foreign Affairs Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat on Friday says a prime minister will be appointed from the country's political opposition as part of the agreement.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Bolivian President Evo Morales has attained a partial, symbolic victory in his international campaign to decriminalize the coca leaf.

Stunned Qantas Airways passengers watched out their windows as a large python clung to a plane's wing during a two-hour flight from Australia's northeastern city of Cairns to Papua New Guinea.

Philippine authorities say a fire swept through three adjacent hotels, killing three American retirees, one South Korean and two Filipino women.

At least 115 people are dead after a series of bombings in Pakistan.

A court in southern Sweden has convicted a man of ordering online sex shows involving very young Filipino girls and sentenced him to eight years in prison.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Police say the death toll from a twin bombing at a billiard hall in southwest Pakistan has risen to 38.

The Kremlin says an adoption deal with the U.S. will remain valid until 2014 despite a new Russian law banning the practice.

Pakistani police: 2 bombs explode minutes apart in snooker club, killing 17 people.

BRUSSELS (AP) - The Belgian government has chastised Queen Fabiola over her inheritance plans, which have been widely seen as a tax dodge on a fortune amassed with taxpayer money.

Italian police have arrested the driver of the snowmobile that crashed into a ravine during a nighttime outing on a steep ski slope, killing six Russians being pulled behind the vehicle on a sled.

The chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo military tribunals says he will seek to dismiss one of the eight charges against five prisoners accused of planning and aiding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A community in Quebec's Far North is calling for outside help to free about a dozen killer whales trapped under a vast stretch of sea ice.

A group of 48 Iranians freed by Syrian rebels after months in captivity have arrived at a Damascus hotel.