WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pressed Europe on Friday to shift toward a more pro-growth policy and away from austerity to tackle a crisis that threatens to push Greece out of the euro zone and send economic shockwaves worldwide. Setting the tone for a weekend G8 summit, Obama made clear he was aligning himself with the new French president's drive for more economic stimulus in the recession-plagued euro zone instead of emphasizing belt-tightening programs spearheaded by Germany. ...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog are making headway towards a framework deal on how to tackle concerns about its atomic activity, diplomats say, a potential bargaining chip for Tehran in next week's negotiations with world powers. Iran says such an agreement is needed before it can consider a request by U.N. inspectors to visit the Parchin military site where they believe explosives tests relevant for developing nuclear weapons may have been carried out. ...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shot two protesters in the capital Damascus on Friday and fired in the air to break up thousands of anti-government demonstrators in the commercial hub of Aleppo, activists said. It was the second consecutive day of street protests in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, where a visit by U.N. ceasefire monitors a day earlier saw demonstrators mass outside the gates of the Aleppo University before security forces drove them off. ...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek voters are returning to the establishment parties that negotiated its bailout, a poll showed on Thursday, offering potential salvation for European leaders who say a snap Greek election next month will decide whether it must quit the euro. The poll, the first conducted since talks to form a government collapsed and a new election was called for June 17, showed the conservative New Democracy party in first place, several points ahead of the radical leftist SYRIZA which has pledged to tear up the bailout. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Friday it believes China spent up to $180 billion on its military buildup last year, a far higher figure than acknowledged by Beijing, and it accused "Chinese actors" of being the world's biggest perpetrators of economic espionage. The Pentagon, in its annual report to Congress on China's military, flagged sustained investment last year in advanced missile technologies and cyber warfare capabilities and warned that Chinese spying threatened America's economic security. ...

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's highest appeals court on Friday upheld a decision that cleared former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in a fraud and embezzlement case related to his private broadcaster Mediaset. Milan magistrates who wanted Berlusconi to be indicted lodged an appeal after a judge ruled last October that there was not enough evidence for a trial for the former prime minister. ...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German police said they detained 400 anti-capitalist protesters in Frankfurt on Friday for defying a ban on demonstrations against austerity policies implemented to tackle the intensifying euro zone debt crisis. The demonstration in the German financial capital was part of a four-day-long "Blockupy" protest, due to run until Saturday, against capitalism and austerity measures. "Hungry? Eat a banker," read one banner protesters held up outside the Messeturm skyscraper housing Goldman Sachs' offices. Reuters' Frankfurt office is also in the building. ...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin will likely name allies to key economic posts when he unveils his new cabinet on Monday, asserting control over the government in a move that could hamstring reforms backed by his more liberal premier. At stake is the future of Russia's privatization program and the drive to diversify a $1.7 trillion Russian economy still heavily dependent on oil and gas exports, which yield half of all state revenues. "It will be Putin's cabinet," said Lilia Shevtsova, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank who is an author and expert on Putin. ...

British officials have given their word: "We won't read your emails."

French President Francois Hollande said Friday he would carry out his pledge to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan by year's end, two years earlier than the U.S. ally once planned. He made the declaration to President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.

Chaos in Greek politics and Spanish banking combined this week to underscore just how fragile Europe's economy remains after an eviscerating austerity regime that has spawned unemployment, desperation and misery. And there is no respite in sight, as Germany's finance minister predicted Friday that the crisis could last up to another two years.

President Joyce Banda declared Friday she wants to repeal Malawi's laws against homosexual acts, going against a trend in Africa in which gays are being increasingly singled out for prosecution.

Syrian security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse thousands rallying Friday in Aleppo in what activists said was the largest protest yet in a city that has largely remained loyal to President Bashar Assad during the country's 15-month uprising.

President Vladimir Putin on Friday gave a senior government post to a tank factory worker who had offered to come to Moscow with fellow laborers to disperse opposition protests.

Quebec's provincial government is expected to vote Friday on an emergency law that would shut some universities and impose harsh fines on protesters blocking students from attending classes as the government looks to end weeks of demonstrations against tuition hikes.

Scores of Christian youths in the Philippines chanted "Stop the Lady Gaga concerts" at a rally Friday calling for the pop diva's shows here to be canceled despite assurances from authorities that they won't allow nudity and lewd acts.

The death of an ancient cedar tree inside a remote park on Canada's Vancouver Island is being showcased by an environmental group seeking more protection against illegal loggers.

Even Hollywood stars Johnny Depp and Lady Gaga would not be welcome to work for the Japanese city of Osaka because of their tattoos, its mayor said amid a backlash over his stance against body art.

The oft-disaster-battered island of Sumatra may have yet another threat to add to the roster of natural phenomena that afflict the Indonesian island: colossal volcanic eruptions.

A British library opened more than a century ago by one of America’s greatest writers is being closed because of austerity budget cuts.

Surrounded by ancient olive groves, Douma is just ten miles from Damascus but it feels like another world. It is a city under occupation.

In what appears to be a rare public spat between longtime neighbors and allies, 29 Chinese sailors have been kidnapped in the Yellow Sea by North Koreans, according to Chinese media reports.

The Obama administration says it is easing restrictions on U.S. investment and trade in Myanmar to encourage business development in the impoverished country and in recognition of its political reforms.

Prosecutors in the trial of Ratko Mladic have described five days in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995 when his troops massacred 7,000 unarmed Muslim boys and men.

An Israeli official on Thursday attacked the International Olympic Committee after it apparently refused to allow a minute's silence at the start of this year's games in memory of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches massacred by Palestinian militants in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Topless dancers at the renowned Crazy Horse night club in Paris have gone on strike, saying they are not being paid enough to take the shirts off their backs.

A military exercise involving more than 11,000 troops from 19 countries is under way in Jordan, reportedly just miles from Syria's border.

With the support of an Indian spiritual leader, Bulgarian musicians put their Scottish counterparts to shame with a world record for the largest bagpipe ensemble.

This image released by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency shows a scale model of the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden was killed.

ATHENS — Homeward bound after the Trojan War, Odysseus of Greek myth could sail by way of a sea monster with six heads or a whirlpool that digested ships whole. Now, whether modern Greece exits the euro — potentially triggering global economic turmoil in the process — depends on the tough choices of Ivi Moreti and her 11 million countrymen.

BEIRUT — Tens of thousands of protesters poured onto the streets of Syria’s commercial capital, Aleppo, on Friday, a sign that a city that had remained relatively quiet as an uprising swept the country has been galvanized into activity.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Friday he will travel to Iran over the weekend on a previously unscheduled visit to try to resolve an impasse over access to Iranian nuclear documents and scientists.

ATHENS — What did Angela Merkel really say?

The Greek press buzzed late Friday when the office of freshly inaugurated Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos issued a statement saying Merkel, the German chancellor, had suggested that Greece should hold a referendum on the euro.

ATHENS — Europe’s economic woes escalated Friday as fears mounted over troubled Spanish banks and the credit rating agency Fitch further downgraded Greece’s debt, citing heightened worries that the country might be forced to abandon the euro.

SPINA, Afghanistan — When night came, after long hours in the desert, the Afghan troops poured into a one-story schoolhouse and sprawled out on the floor. Outside, the Americans were still crammed in their mine-resistant vehicles, gauging the risks of sleeping next to their partners.

A Senate bill intended to tighten economic sanctions against Iran was blocked Thursday by Senate Republicans who said they were holding out for an even tougher measure that included an explicit threat of a U.S. military strike if Iran refuses to curb its nuclear ambitions.

HUSSEINYIA, Egypt — Thousands of people crowded into a tent on a dirt lot in this all-but-forgotten town north of Cairo on a recent afternoon to hear Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh.

Some came because they had already decided to vote for the moderate Islamist, a front-runner in the presidential campaign. Others wanted to know more. But all shared the anticipation and sense of responsibility that are building here as the May 23 vote approaches, the first time in modern Egypt that the winner of a presidential election is not a foregone conclusion.

The Obama administration granted a visa this week to the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro but rejected visas for nearly a dozen other Cubans to attend an academic conference in California, angering both conservative Cuban American leaders and American scholars seeking to improve U.S.-Cuban academic ties.

Consumers should not eat shellfish from South Korea and retailers should stop selling it, federal and state regulators said Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration yanked firms that transport Korean shellfish off its list of approved shippers on May 1 and said it may launch “a fairly extensive recall of the product” — specifically fresh, frozen or processed oysters, clams, mussels and scallops.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has come under increased scrutiny following news that he had renounced his U.S. citizenship to become a resident of Singapore.

The move drew criticism as reports pointed out that the move would save Saverin — who owns a part of Facebook — millions of dollars in taxes after the company goes public.

On May 18, 1920, Karol Jozef Wojtyla is born in the Polish town of Wadowice, 35 miles southwest of Krakow. Wojtyla went on to become Pope John Paul II, history's most well-traveled pope and the first non-Italian to hold the position since the 16th century. After high school, the future pope enrolled at Krakow's Jagiellonian University, where he studied philosophy and literature and performed in a theater group. During World War II, Nazis occupied Krakow and closed the university, forcing Wojtyla to seek work in a quarry and, later, a chemical factory. By 1941, his mother, father, and only brother had all died, leaving him the sole surviving member of his family.

Although Wojtyla had been involved in the church his whole life, it was not until 1942 that he began seminary training. When the war ended, he returned to school at Jagiellonian to study theology, becoming an ordained priest in 1946. He went on to complete two doctorates and became a professor of moral theology and social ethics. On July 4, 1958, at the age of 38, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Krakow by Pope Pius XII. He later became the city's archbishop, where he spoke out for religious freedom while the church began the Second Vatican Council, which would revolutionize Catholicism. He was made a cardinal in 1967, taking on the challenges of living and working as a Catholic priest in communist Eastern Europe. Once asked if he feared retribution from communist leaders, he replied, "I’m not afraid of them. They are afraid of me."

Wojtyla was quietly and slowly building a reputation as a powerful preacher and a man of both great intellect and charisma. Still, when Pope John Paul I died in 1978 after only a 34-day reign, few suspected Wojtyla would be chosen to replace him. But, after seven rounds of balloting, the Sacred College of Cardinals chose the 58-year-old, and he became the first-ever Slavic pope and the youngest to be chosen in 132 years.

A conservative pontiff, John Paul II's papacy was marked by his firm and unwavering opposition to communism and war, as well as abortion, contraception, capital punishment, and homosexual sex. He later came out against euthanasia, human cloning, and stem cell research. He traveled widely as pope, using the eight languages he spoke (Polish, Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin) and his well-known personal charm, to connect with the Catholic faithful, as well as many outside the fold.

On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square by a Turkish political extremist, Mehmet Ali Agca. After his release from the hospital, the pope famously visited his would-be assassin in prison, where he had begun serving a life sentence, and personally forgave him for his actions. The next year, another unsuccessful attempt was made on the pope's life, this time by a fanatical priest who opposed the reforms of Vatican II.

Although it was not confirmed by the Vatican until 2003, many believe Pope John Paul II began suffering from Parkinson's disease in the early 1990s. He began to develop slurred speech and had difficulty walking, though he continued to keep up a physically demanding travel schedule. In his final years, he was forced to delegate many of his official duties, but still found the strength to speak to the faithful from a window at the Vatican. In February 2005, the pope was hospitalized with complications from the flu. He died two months later.

Pope John Paul II is remembered for his successful efforts to end communism, as well as for building bridges with peoples of other faiths, and issuing the Catholic Church's first apology for its actions during World War II. He was succeeded by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict XVI began the process to beatify John Paul II in May 2005.