Syrian rights activist say some 450,000 people took to the streets across the country to protest against the regime of President Bashar Assad. The restive city of Hama became a flashpoint of Friday’s rallies, with tens of thousands of demonstrators demanding Assad step down. On Friday US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford remained for a second day in Hama, to which he traveled without Damascus’ permission to show solidarity with protestors. A Syrian Foreign Ministry official accused Washington of inciting unrest and interfering in the country’s affairs.

Thousands of supporters of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh rallied on Friday, a day after their leader made his first TV appearance since being seriously injured in a bomb attack on his compound last month. Saleh loyalists apparently opened fire during the rallies, killing at least 11 people across the country. Hospital officials say most of the shooting Friday was in celebration of Saleh’s appearance. But it was unclear if all the deaths were accidental. In his speech Thursday, Saleh criticized the protesters and accused them of misunderstanding democracy. He also gave no hint that he planned to step down from office, but said that he is ready for dialogue with the opposition to end the crisis. Yemen has been rocked by months of anti-government demonstrations, which have called for the removal of Saleh's regime. Some news reports said opposition forces also held a rival demonstration.

British police searched the offices of the Daily Star Sunday newspaper as part of an investigation into allegations of police corruption and phone hacking involving former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, who was arrested on Friday. The paper said in a statement that Scotland Yard sought the help of the Daily Star Sunday in the investigation.  Officers formally requested any and all computer material that Goodman had been involved with during his occasional shifts as a freelance reporter at the paper. They were particularly interested in examining Goodman's current email contacts to cross check them with those from his time at the News of the World. Goodman served time in jail in 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving royal aides. Police re-arrested Goodman on Friday over allegations of bribing police.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has repeated that he will not seek reelection when his term expires in 2013. In an interview with the daily La Repubblica, the premier said will not run again and will nominate Justice Minister Angelino Alfano as his preferred successor. Berlusconi said “it’s only right” that new generations be prepared to take over, suggesting it may be time for his chief ally, Umberto Bossi of the Northern League, to step aside, too.

Security forces in the Pakistani city of Karachi have been ordered to shoot gunmen on sight after three days of violence in which 80 people have been killed.  Gunmen linked to rival political parties went on shooting sprees in several neighborhoods in the country’s largest city. The city has been virtually shut down, with shops, schools and roads deserted. Most people are staying indoors, fearing more violence. The government says an extra 1,000 troops have been deployed to deal with the situation.

The space shuttle Atlantis has safely lifted off for its 135th and final journey. The shuttle blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 15:29 GMT. A NASA spokesman said: "The space shuttle spreads its wings one last time for the start of a sentimental journey into history." Experts had warned of a high chance that the launch would be delayed by bad weather. The launch marks the end of the US space shuttle program, and the end of an era, leaving tens of thousands without jobs.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan has admitted to a series of mistakes after ordering “stress tests” to be carried out on nuclear power plants weeks after declaring them safe to restart. The stress tests had been designed to dispel people's safety fears. Two-thirds of the country's reactors have been shut down since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March. The destruction of the Fukushima plant caused radiation leaks which have led to a worldwide review of nuclear power.

An airplane carrying 112 people has crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday. At least 53 passengers are feared to have died, Hewa Bora airline CEO told Reuters. The aircraft crashed while trying to land in bad weather at Kisangani International Airport. Some 40 survivors have been pulled from the wreckage of the plane, a government spokesman said.

A court in Tomsk, Siberia, has sentenced opposition activist Sergey Zaikov, 50, to 2.6 years in a penal colony for slapping the region’s governor, Viktor Kress. On March 2, 2010, after the governor delivered an annual report to the public and local legislators, Zaikov shouted, “For my grandmother’s death!” and slapped him in the face. According to Zaikov, a well-known organizer of opposition protests in Tomsk, his grandmother died after the police raided his apartment to confiscate anti-governmental leaflets. The court has found him guilty using non-life-threatening violence against a representative of the authorities in connection with his professional duties. The activist’s defense plans to appeal the ruling.

Ivan Demjanjuk, a former guard at a Nazi death camp, will remain free awaiting the outcome of the appeal of his conviction on Nazi war crimes charges as Munich prosecutors have dropped their objection to his court-ordered release. The 91-year-old Demjanjuk has been living in a nursing home in Bavaria and shows no signs of being a danger to flee, spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said. On May 12, he was convicted of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder after a Munich court found he served as a guard at the Nazi Sobibor death camp. He was sentenced to five years in prison but was immediately released pending his appeal.

­Ivan Demjanjuk, a former guard at a Nazi death camp, will remain free awaiting the outcome of the appeal of his conviction on Nazi war crimes charges as Munich prosecutors have dropped their objection to his court-ordered release. The 91-year-old Demjanjuk has been living in a nursing home in Bavaria and shows no signs of being a danger to flee, spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said. On May 12, he was convicted of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder after a Munich court found he served as a guard at the Nazi Sobibor death camp. He was sentenced to five years in prison but was immediately released pending his appeal.

After completing its third reading, the State Duma has ratified a bill which qualifies the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors as a criminal offense. A person selling alcohol to children and teenagers will still be punished by an administrative fine of up to 5,000 rubles (some $180). A similar violation committed by an official will be punishable by up to 20,000 rubles ($715), while any legal entity will have to pay up to100,000 rubles ($3,570).  However, the bill deems the repeated sale of alcohol to minors to be a crime, punishable by a fine of up to 80,000 rubles ($2,860), or up to one year of mandatory labor. According to Rospotrebnadzor, two of three Russian children aged between 13 and 16 regularly consume alcohol, mostly beer and canned cocktails.

Visa says it has closed a donation channel to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks after briefly accepting payments. DataCell website, which was processing payment for WikiLeaks, said Visa has decided to close down the gateway and terminate the contract with DataCell. It's not clear whether donations to WikiLeaks were fully processed, and, if so, how much money made it to the internet group. Major payment systems, such as Visa and MasterCard, have been blocking funds for the scandalous website responsible for the release of tens of thousands of sensitive US documents and diplomatic cables.

British police have arrested another former aide of Prime Minister David Cameron on suspicion of corruption as the UK tabloid phone hacking scandal continues unfolding. Clive Goodman, the former royal editor of the News of the World newspaper served a jail term in 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal Household.  Police re-arrested Goodman on Friday over allegations of bribing police. The arrest comes shortly after London police nabbed former News of the World editor and Cameron’s ex-spokesman Andy Coulson over the hacking scandal.

Russia needs additional measures to stimulate the country’s birth rate, Dmitry Medvedev told Healthcare Minister Tatiana Golikova on Friday. “To convince families to have a second child, we will need some unconventional measures,” Medvedev observed. “Additional stimuli, including incentives provided by employees, could play a big part here.” The demographic situation in Russia seems to be improving, with 1.758 million children having been born in 2010, which is a 22 per cent increase as compared to 2006. However, to completely stop the shrinking of population in Russia, every family needs to have [at least] two children, Golikova said.

­Dozens of Syrians loyal to President Bashar Assad have staged a rally in the Russian capital to show their support to the Syrian and Russian leadership. The unsanctioned, spontaneous demonstration was staged near the Syrian embassy in Moscow on Friday. The participants were chanting “Allah, Syria, Bashar!” They also waved Russian flags and signs reading “Thank you, Russia, Medvedev and Putin.” Syrian diplomats said the rally was intended to express gratitude to Russia for its position on the situation in Syria. Russia opposes the UN resolution on Syria and urges other nations not to intervene in Syria’s affairs. At the end of June, Syrians residing in Moscow staged a rally near the headquarters of RIA Novosti news agency to protest a visit by Syrian opposition.

The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, is calling on the UK to separate the issue of visas for Russian citizens from the investigation of Aleksandr Litvinenko’s death, which is a long-standing source of diplomatic tension between Moscow and London. “These issues are totally unrelated,” Kosachev said in an interview. “We are also interested in solving Litvinenko’s murder and seeing the guilty, whoever they are, punished. But it is absolutely unacceptable to turn common people into hostages over this situation,” he added. Recently, Russians have found it increasingly difficult to obtain British visas. Earlier this week, a British official said the visa regime would not be facilitated until Moscow extradites Vladimir Lugovoy, whom the British prosecutors accuse of poisoning former security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko in London.

Andy Coulson, a former aide of British Prime Minister David Cameron and former News of the World editor has been arrested over the hacking scandal that has caused an outcry across the country. Coulson was nabbed on Friday morning on allegations of phone hacking and police bribery. He was taken into custody at a London police station. The arrest came shortly after a news conference in which Cameron took “full responsibility” for his appointment but refused to apologize for it. The Murdoch media empire was forced to shut down the 168-year-old tabloid amid the allegations that its journalists paid police for information and hacked into the phone messages of celebrities, young murder victims and families of dead soldiers.

Thousands of people are gathering in Cairo’s landmark Tahrir Square to press military rulers for reforms and demand justice for victims of the former regime. Many Egyptians are frustrated by the slow pace of transition to democracy five months after the popular uprising toppled the autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak. They say the military is reluctant to implement change and try officials for the killings of nearly 1,000 protesters during the revolt that triggered the Arab Spring. Similar rallies are taking place in other cities and towns across the country on Friday.

A court in Tomsk, Siberia, has sentenced opposition activist Sergey Zaikov, 50, to 2.6 years in a penal colony for slapping the region’s governor, Viktor Kress. On March 2, 2010, after the governor delivered an annual report to the public and local legislators, Zaikov shouted, “For my grandmother’s death!” and slapped him in the face. According to Zaikov, a well-known organizer of opposition protests in Tomsk, his grandmother died after the police raided his apartment to confiscate anti-governmental leaflets. The court has found him guilty using non-life-threatening violence against a representative of the authorities in connection with his professional duties. The activist’s defense plans to appeal the ruling.

After completing its third reading, the State Duma has ratified a bill which qualifies the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors as a criminal offense. A person selling alcohol to children and teenagers will still be punished by an administrative fine of up to 5,000 rubles (some $180). A similar violation committed by an official will be punishable by up to 20,000 rubles ($715), while any legal entity will have to pay up to100,000 rubles ($3,570).  However, the bill deems the repeated sale of alcohol to minors to be a crime, punishable by a fine of up to 80,000 rubles ($2,860), or up to one year of mandatory labor. According to Rospotrebnadzor, two of three Russian children aged between 13 and 16 regularly consume alcohol, mostly beer and canned cocktails.

The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a preliminary investigation against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of attempted rape filed by a French writer. Tristane Banon, 32, claims that Strauss-Kahn attacked her in an empty apartment in 2003 during an interview.  The investigation may take months or years and may still not result in a trial. The former IMF chief denies such allegations. The latest scandal comes after the French politician was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York in May.

The United Nations will provide up to 7,000 troops for the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. According to the draft UN resolution obtained by the Associated Press, the world body will also send 900 international police with a mandate to keep the peace and help promote development in the newborn state. South Sudan is set to become officially independent from the Khartoum-based government in the north on Saturday.

United Russia welcomes opposition politicians to take part in its primaries, but warns that they would have to give up membership to any other political party in order to do it, State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov said on Friday. "There is a tendency: members of various parties, including the opposition, who must be disappointed in their own parties, are joining United Russia’s Popular Front," he said. "There is nothing wrong with it,” he assured. However to take part in early elections, or the primaries, members of the Popular Front must either be United Russia members, or not belong to any party at all. United Russia and the Popular Front plan to run together in the November State Duma elections. On Friday, Kommersant daily wrote that several members from various opposition parties intend to participate in United Russia’s primaries, with the aim that they’ll be able to participate in the December parliamentary elections on behalf of United Russia.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised a “full public inquiry” into the News of the World phone hacking scandal that has shocked the nation and sparked massive public outcry. “Firstly, we need action to get to the bottom of what has happened,” said Cameron. The original police investigation was "inadequate". The police are now being investigated with "full independent insight," he added. Cameron also said the hacking of murdered Milly Dowler’s phone was “despicable.” The prime minister spoke at a news conference at Downing Street on Friday. On Thursday, the scandal forced Rupert Murdoch’s News International to announce the shutdown of the 168-year-old News of the World tabloid.

America's top military official says Pakistan's government was behind the killing of a journalist who had said he had been threatened by Pakistan’s intelligence agency. Saleem Shahzad was abducted near his home in May. His tortured body was found two days later. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday he believed the Pakistani government “sanctioned” Shahzad's murder but that he could not link it to Pakistan's intelligence services, which was initially blamed for the slaying. Pakistan rejects the allegation, calling the US claims “extremely irresponsible.”

The State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, on Friday closed the spring session and adjourned for summer recess. During the past season, the MPs ratified 264 federal laws and three constitutional laws, Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said. The next session, starting in the autumn, will be the last one for the current configuration of the lower chamber, since in December 2011 Russia will elect a new, 6th State Duma. “I have no doubts that even during the election campaign, we will still be able to stick to the constructive discussion of laws,” Gryzlov told the MPs as he closed the session.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), wants Yeltsin-era market oriented liberal Boris Nemtsov “and his team” ousted from Russia for good. According to Zhirinovsky, Nemstov and other opposition politicians, such as Vladimir Milov or Eduard Limonov, are actually enemies of Russia, intentionally acting so as to provoke a negative reaction towards the Russian authorities from the West. His comments came after Nemtsov complained that he had been banned from leaving Russia for failing to abide by a court order. The restriction, which was lifted by the end of the day, raised a wave of criticism from politicians in the EU and the US.

Israel has deported two pro-Palestinian activists after it issued a blacklist of 300 people not welcome in the country. Other blacklisted activists have been blocked from boarding Israel-bound flights at European airports. Israeli authorities say more activists are expected to arrive later on Friday as hundreds planned to descend on the country to stage mass protests as a counterpart to the troubled Gaza humanitarian flotilla. The two activists deported on Friday were Americans who had flown there from Greece.

The US Congress has ratified a bill supporting democracy and human rights in Belarus, calling on the Belarusian authorities to free all political prisoners. "This bill encourages those struggling for decency and basic rights against the overwhelming pressures from the anti-democratic regime," Republican Representative Chris Smith, the author of the bill, said in a statement, as reported by AFP. The bill also upholds existing sanctions against Belarus. Belarusian activists opposed to the current regime have been holding regular protests in major cities across the country. Wednesday’s protests saw an estimated 400 people arrested throughout the country. So far, every protest has been summarily dispersed by the police, and many of the activists have ended up in detention centers.

The detention of four photographers in Georgia is not directly related to their professional activities, a spokesperson for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has said. They are accused of copying sensitive information, in particular, a confidential schedule of events and private correspondences, and handing them over to an organization identified as a spy network, she said. Nevertheless, only a court will decide whether they are guilty of these charges or not, she added. On Thursday, Georgian police detained four photographers, including a personal photographer for Pesident Saakashvili, on spying allegations.

Japanese authorities say radiation levels exceeding the government limit have been discovered in tea produced in the city of Tochigi, about 160km from the disaster-stricken Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, NHK broadcaster reports. According to Tochigi Prefectural Government, 1,810 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium were detected in the tea processed from leaves harvested in the area in early July. It is more than three times the legal limit. Authorities have asked the farmers in the city to halt shipment of the products.

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has expressed his readiness to send anti-government protesters to EU nations. “Should anyone in the EU want to take them, we will send them out tomorrow. No problems… If they [protesters] want to get there faster, I’ll give a plane,” Lukashenko said. He added that there are no political prisoners in Belarus, labeling the protesters as “loafers.” The Belarusian leader also said he believes that people are being paid to take part in the public demonstrations. “They get paid for that. This is not for free,” Lukashenko claimed to reporters. However, the “silent protests”, as the actions are called, will become history as soon as the country’s economy stabilizes, he said. “They want to seize the moment. They realize perfectly well that every day we will continue to disentangle ourselves from the panic we created at the beginning of the year,” Lukashenko observed. According to human rights groups some 1,800 people have been detained during the crackdown on five peaceful demonstrations organized through social media.

A Mexican national has been executed in the US state of Texas despite numerous appeals arguing that he deserved additional court review as his consular rights were violated. Humberto Leal, 38, received a lethal injection on Thursday evening for rape-slaying 16-year-old Adria Sauceda in 1994. The US Supreme Court rejected White House-backed appeals to spare him. Leal’s lawyer said the “execution of Mr. Leal violates the United States' treaty commitments, threatens the nation's foreign policy interests, and undermines the safety of all Americans abroad." However, the court said evidence pointing to Leal’s guilt was strong.

Syria is accusing Washington of interfering in its affairs, after the US ambassador to the country visited the flashpoint city of Hama. Robert Ford traveled to the city where protesters are facing a security crackdown, after weeks of anti-government demonstrations. Tanks remain outside the area, where more than 20 people were shot dead in recent days. Thousands of people have fled the country, fearing violence by security forces.

­Yemen's president made his first appearance on TV since being severely injured in a bomb attack on his palace last month. Ali Abdullah Saleh, with a burnt face and bandaged hands, said he had undergone more than eight successful operations. He is now recovering in Saudi Arabia. In his address, which was aired on state TV, the president called for a dialogue to resolve Yemen’s problems. Months of unrest have left hundreds dead, and protesters continue to demand that Saleh step down.

­According to police, the suspect in seven Michigan shooting deaths is holding two people hostage in a standoff with police. Neither hostage is believed to be injured. Police are communicating with the suspect, 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler. A manhunt for Dantzler began after four people were found dead in one home and three more bodies were found in another house across town. Police said Dantzler is believed to have fled the crime scene in a car. The Associated Press quoted State Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan as saying Dantzler was released from prison in 2005 after serving a sentence for assault.

­There are reports of massive explosions in the city of Abadan in Turkmenistan, which according to a Turkmen government statement were caused by fireworks set off by unusually hot weather.  The government statement said there were no victims, but despite a media and internet blackout, unconfirmed reports say there have been casualties.  Military and emergency vehicles have reportedly left the capital Ashgabat, 20 kilometers away, in large numbers. Abadan, a city of 50,000, is said to be in panic.  The Cabinet and Security Council met in an emergency session chaired by the president to coordinate the response. A large scale evacuation is underway as explosions were reportedly still taking place 12 hours after the initial incident, with rounds of unexploded material scattered widely. There are reports – again unconfirmed – that an armory depot caught fire, triggering major explosions. The authorities have set up an emergency center providing water and medical assistance.