The United States Air Force planned a key test Tuesday of an experimental aircraft designed to fly at six times the speed of sound, which is about 3,600 mph (6,000 kph).

The unmanned X-51 WaveRider was expected to reach Mach 6 after being dropped by a B-52 bomber and taking flight off the Southern California coast near Point Mugu. Engineers hoped the X-51 would sustain its top speed for five minutes, twice as long as it's gone before, NBC reported.

The Mustaqbal bloc noted on Tuesday that former minister Michel Samaha’s arrest uncovers to the entire world the Syrian regime’s “criminal intentions” towards Lebanon.

It therefore demanded after its weekly meeting “the suspension of the security agreement between Lebanon and Syria.”

Head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun hoped on Tuesday that the case of former minister Michel Samaha would not be exploited politically.

He said before reporters the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting in Rabiyeh: “Let the judiciary perform its duties in the case.”

Stepping into the vacuum this Friday, a brand new private space venture from the Netherlands called Mars One aims to send four astronauts on a one-way journey to Mars in just 11 years time, NBC reported.

Founded by Dutch entrepreneur and researcher Bas Lansdorp, who previously headed up an alternative energy company, Mars One says it will establish a colony on Mars by 2023, according to the Mars One website.

The United States called Monday on Lebanon to ensure transparency in any action against former minister Michel Samaha, fearing a spread of violence from neighboring Syria.

Samaha was arrested on Thursday and a Lebanese judge has accused him and Syria's security chief, General Ali Mamlouk, of planning sectarian killings and explosions in the North.

Foreign ministers preparing for a summit in Mecca of the Islamic Cooperation Organization on Monday recommended the expulsion of Syria from the 57-nation bloc, its secretary general said.

Asked by reporters whether the foreign ministers had decided to call for a suspension after their meeting in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah to prepare for Tuesday's summit, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said: "Yes."

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels confirmed in a statement on Monday that they were holding the lawmaker Huseyin Aygun captive and warned Turkey to abandon its rescue operation.

"The lawmaker Huseyin Aygun has been detained by our fighters," rebels said in a statement given to the pro-Kurd news agency Firatnews.

Fresh sanctions slapped by the United States are meant to "expose and disrupt" links between Iran, Hizbullah movement and Syria, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday.

She said the "number one goal" of Washington and Ankara was to hasten the end of Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus and stop the bloodshed, while warning that Syria must not become a haven for Kurdish rebels battling Turkey.

Syrian troops and rebels fought fierce battles on Friday in the city of Aleppo, where several people died when a shell crashed into a bakery as hundreds queued for bread, Agence France Presse reported.

The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces shot dead 115 civilians and rebels across the country.

The United States on Friday added Hizbullah to a list of organizations under sanctions for their ties to the Syrian regime.

"This action highlights Hizbullah's activities within Syria and its integral role in the continued violence the Assad regime is inflicting on the Syrian population," the U.S. Treasury Department charged in a statement.