A Nigerian man dubbed the "underwear bomber" pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009, saying he had sought to avenge the killing of Muslims.

In a six-minute speech to a shocked courtroom on the second day of his high profile-trial in Detroit, Michigan, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab insisted his actions were righteous and that the true crime was U.S. foreign policy.

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Bali Thursday, causing panic in tourist areas as people fled buildings that cracked as they shook violently in the tremor.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake's epicenter was in the ocean south of Bali's capital Denpasar, but the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no current tsunami warning in effect.

A gunman opened fire Wednesday in a busy hair salon, killing eight people and critically wounding another while leaving bodies scattered throughout the business in a normally sedate Southern California beach community.

The gunman got into a truck and drove away from Salon Meritage after opening fire. A suspect was stopped by officers about a half-mile away and surrendered without incident while saying he had multiple weapons with him, police Sgt. Steve Bowles said.

A Turkish gas prospecting vessel will set sail late Wednesday for a second exploration off the Cyprus coast, not far from a Greek Cypriot drilling zone, an expedition member said.

The Piri Reis, whose first venture caused much tension between Turkey and Cyprus, will prospect less than 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from the Greek Cypriot site in the Mediterranean, mission coordinator Derman Dondurur told Anatolia news agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday denounced an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on American soil as a 'dangerous escalation' by Tehran, and called for International condemnation.

The U.S. Treasury Department hit Iran's Mahan Air with sanctions, saying it secretly transported members of a military force accused of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil.

Ukraine on Wednesday attempted to contain the damage caused to its image and diplomatic ties after both the West and Russia angrily condemned the jailing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

A Kiev court on Tuesday jailed the leader of the pro-Western 2004 Orange Revolution for seven years, prompting allegations that President Viktor Yanukovych was resorting to Stalinist methods to deal with opponents.

Serbia on Wednesday won a first battle in its bid to join the European Union, when the EU executive recommended granting the Balkans nation candidate status.

If approved by EU leaders, the proposal by EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele will be a key first step towards joining the EU club of 27 nations, which this year agreed to enlarge to 28 with Croatia, due to join in 2013.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin left China Wednesday after a visit that yielded $7 billion in trade pacts but no breakthrough on a long-delayed gas deal with the world's top energy consumer.

Putin held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao in Beijing on his first foreign trip since he announced plans to reclaim the Russian presidency.

France said Wednesday it was tightening immigration rules to require would-be citizens to provide written proof that they speak enough French to manage their daily lives.

Announced in the government's official gazette, the new rules require candidates for citizenship to "prove knowledge of the French language consistent with understanding the essential points needed to manage daily life."

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he was bewildered by the seven-year sentence handed to his former Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko.

The Russian leader spoke in Beijing after a Ukrainian judge earlier in the day sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in jail for abusing her powers in a gas deal with him in 2009.