A Japanese rocket carrying supplies for the International Space Station successfully lifted off from a remote island Saturday on a mission designed to help fill a hole left by the retirement of NASA's space shuttle program.

The unmanned rocket was carrying nearly 6 tons of food, water, clothing and experimental equipment to the astronauts in orbit in the space station, an international project involving 15 nations. The rocket also was carrying cargo for NASA.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden said the release of two French hostages in Afghanistan depends on a pullout of their country's soldiers and warned Paris of a "high price" for its policies, in a tape broadcast on Friday.

"We repeat the same message to you: The release of your prisoners in the hands of our brothers is linked to the withdrawal of your soldiers from our country," said the speaker on the audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.

Six world powers began fresh talks with Iran Friday in a bid to resolve tensions over its controversial nuclear drive, but the United States warned against building up hopes of a breakthrough.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, led the delegations which convened for the two-day meeting at a seafront Ottoman palace in Istanbul, a Turkish diplomat said.

U.S. President Barack Obama passed the halfway point of his four-year term Thursday and revealed he is already plotting to win a second, boosted by a sudden upswing in popularity.

Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs divulged the worst-kept secret in Washington, saying that his boss would "likely" ask voters to send him back to the White House in 2012.

South Korean navy commandos Friday stormed a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, rescuing all the crew and killing eight pirates, military officials said.

"Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages," said Colonel Lee Bung-Woo, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Nine civilians were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghlan province, northern Afghanistan, as they traveled to a wedding on Sunday, police and local officials said.

Six women, two men and a child died in the blast, which happened as the vehicle traveled from Pul-e-Khumri, the provincial capital, to a village in the province, on a road often used by foreign forces.

Former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier has made a surprise return to Haiti in the midst of a political vacuum left by disputed presidential elections.

Returning to his homeland Sunday for the first time after 25 years in the political wilderness, most of them spent in exile in France, Duvalier told reporters at the airport, simply: "I've come to help."

The pope on Friday approved a miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II's intercession and set May 1 as the date for his beatification, an event that will be a major morale boost for a church reeling from a wave of violence against Christians and fallout from the clerical sexual abuse scandal.

Pope Benedict XVI declared in a decree that a French nun's recovery from Parkinson's disease was miraculous, the last step needed for the beloved pontiff's beatification.

Three Bulgarian airline employees, working on a contract for the United Nations in Sudan, were kidnapped in the east African country, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said Thursday.

"A crew of three Bulgarian nationals, working for a Bulgarian airline company operating flights on a U.N. contract, were kidnapped in north Sudan," the ministry said in a statement.

Chrysler Group said Tuesday it plans to build a new sport utility vehicle for Italy's Maserati in North America.

Chrysler/Fiat Chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne said he had approved a plan to build a sport utility vehicle for the ultra-high end Italian luxury brand at the Jefferson North Assembly plant in Detroit.