(Continued from page 27)

prompted authorities to enter the barracks.
• No names were immediately released but Solivan said the suspect and both victims were Marines. Authorities believe the suspect was a staff member at the officer candidate school at the base, Solivan said.
• Solivan said the shooting was an isolated incident and authorities were confident there were no other casualties. The base was put on lockdown after the shooting but the lockdown was lifted early Friday.
• ___

• BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's president has vowed to rid the country of Muslim extremists whom he blamed for a suicide bombing that killed 42 people, including a top Sunni preacher.
• Friday's statement by Bashar Assad came hours after the explosion ripped through a mosque in the heart of Damascus, killing Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti.
• It was one of the most stunning assassinations of the two-year civil war and the first time a suicide bomber struck inside a mosque.
• Al-Buti was a staunch supporter of Assad. More than 84 were wounded in the attack.
• In the statement carried by Syria's state news agency, Assad says al-Buti represented true Islam in facing "the forces of darkness and extremist" ideology.
• ___

• NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- Cypriot authorities were trying Friday to cobble together a plan they hope will convince international lenders to provide the money the country needs to avoid bankruptcy within days.
• As well as trying to forge an overall financing package, lawmakers were meeting to decide the fate of the country's second largest lender Laiki which was hardest hit from its exposure to bad Greek debt.
• The bank's restructuring is part of an alternative plan aimed at raising up to 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) to secure a larger rescue package of another 10 billion euros from the other 16 countries that use the euro currency and the International

(Continued on page 29)