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• DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Syrian TV says the country's national security chief has died of wounds suffered in a rebel blast.
• Gen. Hisham Ikhtiyar is the fourth member of President Bashar Assad's inner circle to die in Wednesday's bombing that targeted security chiefs meeting in the national security headquarters in Damascus.
• The TV report says Ikhtiyar died Friday morning.
• The others killed in the blast were Gen. Assef Shawkat, the deputy defense minister who was married to Assad's elder sister, Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha and Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister.

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• SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) -- A man believed to have carried out a suicide attack on a bus full of Israeli vacationers had a short haircut, not the long hair seen in a security video, and tried to rent a car in the days before the bombing but was turned down because his ID appeared suspicious, a Bulgarian prosecutor said Friday.
• Authorities looking for clues as to the identity of the man suspected of killing himself and six others are using his fingerprints, his DNA and his fake Michigan driver's license.
• Security camera footage from before the attack showed the suspected bomber wandering in and out of the terminal, wearing a baseball cap over long hair, and a T-shirt, and plaid shorts, with a bulky backpack believed to contain the bomb.
• Israel was quick to blame Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah for the attack and a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Thursday night that Hezbollah was believed to be behind the attack. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a sensitive intelligence issue.
• Prosecutor Kalina Chapkanova said in a TV interview that before the attack a man believed to be the bomber tried to rent a car in the town of Pomorie, near the site of the bombing. She said the owner of the rental agency, whom she would not identify, become suspicious of his license and refused to conclude the deal.

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