JERUSALEM (AP) ― Syrian rebels control almost all the villages near the frontier with the Israel-held Golan Heights, the Israeli defense minister said Wednesday, bringing the conflict dangerously close to the Jewish state and raising the possibility of an armed clash with the region’s strongest power. During a tour of the Golan Heights, Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave a scathing assessment of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and said Israel will remain “vigilant and alert.” “Almost all of

Japan said Thursday it wants to develop "mutually beneficial" relations with China's new leaders, as the two countries remain embroiled in a dispute over islands in the East China Sea.The sovereignty row is affecting the huge trade ties between the region's two biggest economies and shows little sign of being resolved.Relations between the two capitals are some of the "most important... for Japan and China and for the whole world", said the foreign ministry's deputy press secretary Naoko Saiki."

Following are brief sketches of the seven members of the Chinese Communist Party's new Politburo Standing Committee, the country's most powerful body revealed on Thursday, in order of seniority.XI JINPINGThe son of a revered communist revolutionary, Xi, 59, is the new general secretary of the party. He is expected to become national president in March.Xi is said to be backed by former president Jiang Zemin, who remains influential today, but is widely considered a consensus figure in China's fac

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan's new cabinet was sworn in on Wednesday at the national assembly and officially took up their posts, in the absence of eight contested nominees.Outgoing premier Abdel Rahim al-Kib transferred power to Zeidan in front of General National Congress members and diplomats in Tripoli and saw the appointment of the new premier and 23 of his 31 nominated ministers, who were approved by the GNC in October.Four of the proposed ministers were rejected by Libya's anti-corrup

NEW DELHI (AFP) ― Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a landmark visit to New Delhi Wednesday, after warning India not to get carried away by the startling reforms across its border.Suu Kyi, who was a student in New Delhi in the 1960s where her mother served as an ambassador, is paying her first visit to India in 25 years ― most of which were spent under military house arrest.Her invitation is an attempt by Singh’s government to repair a damaged

TOKYO (AP) -- Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Wednesday that he is ready to dissolve the parliament by Friday, bringing an election within weeks, if Japan’s main opposition party agrees to key electoral reforms. Noda made the pledge during a heated parliamentary exchange with Liberal Democratic Party chief Shinzo Abe. The LDP has been pushing Noda to make good on a promise to call elections soon, but he has said lawmakers must first carry out reforms needed to make the vote constitutional.The

TBILISI (AFP) ― Georgia’s former defense minister faces new charges of torturing soldiers amid the first major case against officials from the ex-Soviet state’s recently ousted government, prosecutors said Tuesday.Ex-defense chief Bacho Akhalaia had already been charged with abuse of office and is being held in pre-trial detention for two months in a case he says is motivated by political revenge against officials from President Mikheil Saakashvili’s former administration.Chief prosecutor Archil

LONDON (AFP) ― The United Nations failed in its mandate to protect civilians in the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war, according to a draft of a damning internal U.N. report seen by the BBC on Tuesday.“Events in Sri Lanka mark a grave failure of the U.N.,” the draft said, adding that the world body should “be able to meet a much higher standard in fulfilling its protection and humanitarian responsibilities.”Sri Lankan forces finally crushed Tamil rebels in May 2009 following decades of bruta