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.

The west and central Africa region is facing one of the worst cholera epidemics in its history, with over 85,000 cases reported leading to 2,466 deaths this year, the U.N. children's agency warned Tuesday.

"The size and scale of the outbreaks means the region is facing one of the biggest epidemics in its history," said a UNICEF spokeswoman.

A Ukrainian judge on Tuesday sentenced former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in jail for abusing her powers in a 2009 gas deal with Russia, a verdict that is set to harm ties with the European Union.

Amid emotional scenes in the packed court, Judge Rodion Kireyev said the 10 year contract for gas imports from Russia had sustained heavy losses for Ukraine and ruled that her actions were criminal.