Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in televised remarks on Friday that the Syrian government had "agreed in principle" to participate in the conference in Geneva which is expected within two weeks.

Lukashevich, however, said that it is impossible to set the date for the conference at this point because there is "no clarity about who will speak on behalf of the opposition and what powers they will have." Opposition groups are opposed to Assad's representatives taking part.

More than 70,000 people have been killed and several million displaced since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war.

An active duty British soldier was killed. One of the attackers went on video to explain the crime, waiving his bloodied hands with a meat cleaver near the body that lay in the street. Police shot and wounded both suspects.

Prime Minister David Cameron says there are strong indications the attack was terrorism.

A police spokesman says seven people were briefly detained early today and one person was arrested on suspicion of arson of a cultural center housed in a 19th century building.

Police say 30 vehicles were set ablaze in six suburbs where mainly immigrants live. Gangs of up to 60 youths also set fire to a school and a nursery and hurled rocks at police and fire fighters.

The unrest began Sunday in response to the May 13 shooting, in which police killed a 69-year-old, knife-wielding man in a northwestern suburb.

Police say a suicide blast at a checkpoint and militants who opened fire at Iraqi troops have killed three soldiers in Tarmiyah. The town is 30 miles north of Baghdad.

A medical official confirms

The mayor says two parked car bombs went off simultaneously in the northern city of Tuz Khormato, killing three civilians and wounding 38 people there.

And in Kirkuk, police say three bombs exploded back-to-back at a sheep market, killing one person and wounding 25. Kirkuk is 180 miles north of Baghdad.

Pyongyang regularly conducts short-range missile tests. Analysts say these recent launches appear to be weapons tests or an attempt to get U.S. and South Korean attention amid tentative signs of diplomacy after soaring tensions that followed U.N. sanctions aimed at a nuclear test Pyongyang conducted in February.

Seoul's Defense Ministry says the latest projectile had similar ballistic trajectory as launches Saturday and Sunday. Seoul is analyzing whether the projectiles were missiles or a new type of artillery.

North Korea says its rocket tests are part of drills to bolster deterrence against what it calls U.S. and South Korean threats to attack the North.

At least two children also died in the powerful explosion in eastern Kabul. The attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into the convoy as it passed the home of an Afghan lawmaker.

NATO has not confirmed the nationality of the killed troops and contractors.

A Muslim militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and says it has formed a special "martyrdom" unit to attack foreign troops.

An airline statement says the captain couldn't return to the cockpit because the door was locked and that all efforts to open it, even from inside, failed during Tuesday's flight from New Delhi to the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

The co-pilot landed the plane at the nearest airport. The door was fixed by ground maintenance staff and the plane resumed its flight.

The airline said the incident posed no danger to the passengers.

The mourners raised their cupped hands in prayer today and asked for the salvation of those who lost their lives. They also appealed for divine blessings for those injured when the Rana Plaza building came crashing down last month.

Five garment factories were operating in the building when it collapsed in the worst ever garment industry disaster.

The army ended its search for bodies Monday and handed control of the site to the civilian government for cleanup.

To try to keep premiums low, some states are allowing insurers to charge patients a hefty share of the cost for expensive medications used to treat medical conditions like cancer, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society says the widely used cancer drug Gleevec could cost a patient more than $2,000 a month.

Seismic activity has increased at the more than 17,000-foot volcano. It shook Saturday night, sometimes spewing glowing rock over the crater.

Officials have closed off a seven-square-mile zone around the volcano and soldiers and federal police have been deployed to the area.