International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is making a new appeal for the Syria's opposition to attend a proposed peace conference.

Speaking in Damascus today, Brahimi said it would be impossible for the long-delayed Geneva talks to take place without rebel participation.

Rebels have demanded President Bashar al-Assad resign before they attend the peace conference.

Also, Israeli warplanes were reported to have attacked a shipment of missiles at a Syrian military base near the port city of Latakia. Speaking anonymously today, U.S. officials said the target of the Israeli airstrike was likely Russian missiles headed for the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

The Lebanon-based Shi'ite group has been fighting alongside the Syrian government in its civil war against mainly Sunni Muslim rebels. It also fights against Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the nation's surveillance activities went "too far" in some cases, and has promised that will not happen again.

Kerry, in Washington, made the comments Thursday by videolink to a conference in London.

Recent media reports that the National Security Agency was monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone calls -- and those of other allies, have ignited anger overseas and in Washington. The reports were based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

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China's domestic security chief has blamed a Muslim Uighur separatist group for planning a "violent terrorist incident" this week on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Meng Jianzhu, a member of the 25-member Politburo with responsibility for domestic security, said Friday that the incident had been organized by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

The United States and the UN have classified that organization as a terrorist group.

The Chinese government says the Monday car crash in Tiananmen Square was a suicide mission planned by religious extremists.

The Vatican has taken a highly unusual step in asking bishops around the world to find out what Roman Catholics think about church teachings in some areas that have become controversial, including birth control, divorce, and same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary-general of the Vatican's Synod of Bishops, sent out the survey October 18, asking bishops to reach out "immediately as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so the input from local sources can be received." Baldisseri asked for results by the end of January.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expanding the nation's efforts to draw foreign investment by clearing away red tape and having U.S. diplomats court investors.

Mr. Obama says the United States will coordinate efforts at the federal level to attract investment in a way it has not before. Until now, such missions to attract offshore investments have typically been left to governors of the 50 U.S. states and mayors of big cities.