DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy is breaking new diplomatic ground in the Middle East with his two-day visit to Syria, an analyst said.

MOSCOW, June 11 (UPI) -- A planned concert by Uriah Heep in Moscow reportedly has been canceled due to a dispute between the British rock band and tour promoters.

PRINCETON, N.J., June 10 (UPI) -- Americans' opinions of countries U.S. President George Bush will visit have improved since the countries first opposed the Iraq war, a Gallup poll indicated.

BERLIN, June 9 (UPI) -- When U.S. President George W. Bush visits Europe for the last time in his presidential career this week, no demonstrators will line his path. It's not that Bush all of a sudden has become popular -- he simply is too lame of a duck to be worth the trouble.

PARIS, May 12 (UPI) -- A Frenchman received $8,000 for a bottle of wine at Credit Municipal of Paris, a pawnshop known to many Parisians simply as "auntie," officials said.

UPI Almanac for Wednesday, May 7, 2008.

WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- In the struggle over ABM defense bases in Central Europe, Washington finds Western Europe supports it while Poland and the Czech Republic are wavering.

WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to build two antiballistic missile bases in Central Europe -- one in the Czech Republic and the other in Poland -- is forging along more strongly than ever. In so doing, it is confounding the conventional wisdom of the past 20 years about the future dynamics of the Atlantic Alliance.

LONDON, May 5 (UPI) -- The victory of Boris Johnson in London's mayoral election represents the emergence of a new generation of politicians into the struggle for power. The baby boomers are starting the long, sad slide into senescence. The generation X-ers are on the march.