Syria's foreign minister laid out a hard line Wednesday, saying Bashar Assad will remain president at least until elections in 2014 and might seek another term, conditions that will make it difficult for the opposition to agree to U.N.-sponsored talks on ending the civil war. Any deal reached in such talks would have to be put to a referendum, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem added in a TV interview, introducing a new condition that could complicate efforts by the U.S. and Russia to bring both

Hurricane Barbara made landfall on a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico's southern Pacific coast Wednesday, the second-earliest landfall since reliable record-keeping began in 1966. At least two people were killed, including a man identified by local officials as a U.S. surfer.The director of civil defense for Oaxaca state, Manuel Maza Sanchez, said a 61-year-old man from Colorado died while surfing at Playa Azul, a beach near the resort town of Puerto Escondido, as Barbara made landfall about

Israel is preparing to build more than 1,000 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem as the United States strives to revive dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, an NGO said late Wednesday.Danny Seidemann, director of Jerusalem settlement watchdog Terrestrial Jerusalem, told AFP that contracts for 300 homes in the northeastern settlement of Ramot were signed and another 797 plots were to be offered for sale in the southern Jerusalem settlement of Gilo, near the West bank city of Jerusalem

The U.S. government said Wednesday it remains concerned about reports that financial sanctions on nuclear-armed North Korea are taking a toll on humanitarian aid for the country's people in need."We're aware of them. That's an issue, of course, we remain deeply concerned about," State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said at a press briefing.In March, the U.S. designated the North's Foreign Trade Bank for its role in facilitating the communist nation's proliferation activities. The measure

South Korea's industrial output grew in April for the first time in four months amid still lingering economic uncertainties, a government report showed Thursday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries increased 0.8 percent last month from a month earlier. From a year ago, it grew 1.7 percent, bouncing back from two consecutive months of contractions.The output in the service sector also grew 0.2 percent on-month in Apri

Three months after being dropped from the 2020 Olympics, wrestling won a reprieve Wednesday and made the IOC shortlist for inclusion in the games.Also making the cut were squash and a combined baseball-softball bid.Eight sports were vying for a single opening on the lineup. Eliminated from contention were five sports _ karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and the Chinese martial art of wushu. The IOC executive board will submit wrestling, squash and baseball-softball to the full I

U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon has pushed for stronger military relations with China as part of preparations for a summit next month between President Barack Obama and China's Xi Jinping.However, difficulties establishing trust between the sides were underscored by new revelations Tuesday that China used cyberattacks to access data from nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programs and almost 30 other defense technologies, ranging from missile defense systems to the F-35 joint strike fighter.T

Apple chief Tim Cook on Tuesday said he sees promise in computers shrunk down and worn like watches or other accessories, but drew the line at Internet-linked eyewear such as Google Glass.Google Glass is "not likely to be a mass market item" but Apple is "incredibly interested" in the broader area of wearable computing, Cook said in an on-stage interview at an AllThingsD conference in California.He predicted there will be "tons of companies playing" in the wearable computing sector but sidestepp

South Korea has asked China not to repatriate nine North Korean defectors, who were sent back to China from Laos early this week, to their totalitarian homeland, a senior Seoul official said Wednesday. The nine North Koreans, aged between 15 and 23, were deported to China, on Monday, after being rounded up by the Lao authorities on May 10, Seoul's foreign ministry officials have said. South Korea had asked Laos to send them to Seoul after they fled from their country to the Southeast Asian natio

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday cut its growth forecast for China in 2013 to "around 7.75 percent", down from its earlier forecast of 8.0 percent, citing a sluggish global recovery which hurt exports."The Chinese economy is expected to grow at around 7.75% this year and at about the same pace next year," David Lipton, IMF first deputy managing director, told reporters in Beijing.China is the world's second-largest economy and seen as a potential driver of global recovery in the face

The U.S. government on Tuesday delivered thinly veiled disparagement of the outspoken mayor of Osaka, Japan, who is under fire over a series of comments on "comfort women" and American troops in the region.Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who co-heads the opposition Japan Restoration Party, canceled his trip to the U.S. next month amid growing criticism.He recently said Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women during World War II was a necessity for its troops. And he urged U.S. soldiers