Japan's governing party has suffered a crushing election defeat. Results of parliamentary elections Sunday show the next government will be formed by the Liberal Democratic Party. The conservatives and their allies are expected to take a more hawkish approach in confronting the country's neighbors, but what they plan to do to reverse Japan's long economic decline remains murky.

Japanese voters, as forecast, have tossed out the party they brought into power three years ago.

As tensions continue to simmer between the Philippines and China over competing claims in the South China Sea, the Philippines is cleaving more closely to its Mutual Defense Treaty partner, the United States. Manila hosted several meetings this week with U.S. officials to discuss defense, maritime rule of law and strengthening other ties.

The Philippines has been more vocal in the past year about having a stronger stance against what it sees as aggressive territorial claims by China. At the same time the United States has been making a policy shift toward Asia and the Pacific.

Analysts say North Korea's successful launch of a long-range rocket is a major achievement for a country that has long wanted to obtain the capability to strike North America with nuclear weapons. But they say Pyongyang must still make several major technological advances before that threat becomes a reality.

Japan scrambled eight F-15 fighter jets after a Chinese plane entered disputed airspace near contested islands in the East China Sea on Thursday, prompting a diplomatic dispute between the two Asian powers.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura says the jets were sent in response to a Chinese Oceanic Administration airplane that was spotted near the islands. He said Japan has lodged an official protest and summoned the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo.

As more states embrace legalization of marijuana — a pet cause of George Soros for decades — the British publication The Independent has published a groundbreaking series of articles by journalist Patrick Cockburn on how his son went insane smoking the drug.

Cockburn and his son Henry, who was treated for psychosis and partially recovered, have written an article in which Patrick Cockburn is quoted as saying his son played Russian roulette with cannabis "and lost."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has undergone cancer surgery and is recuperating in Cuba at a hospital in Havana.

His Vice President, Nicolas Maduro, made the announcement Tuesday, adding the surgery was successful.

Chavez returned to Cuba Monday for more cancer surgery, after a recurrence of the disease led him to name his vice president as his chosen successor should he be forced from office.

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists says the number of reporters in prisons worldwide reached a record high this year.

The watchdog group named Turkey, Iran and China the worst offenders, saying those governments stepped up terror and other anti-state charges to silence critical media.

A CPJ report issued Tuesday says 232 writers, editors, and photojournalists were behind bars as of December 1, a record number since the group began counting in 1990. The nearly 30 percent increase over 2011 is the largest percentage jump in a decade.

The Tibetan government-in-exile has sharply criticized the Chinese government's crackdown on those who allegedly "incite self-immolations," arguing that innocent people will likely be targeted.

State media reported this week that a monk and his nephew were detained for inciting eight Tibetan protests in the Kirti monastery in Aba, in China's southwest Sichuan province.

Police said the monk encouraged the protests "on the instructions of the Dalai Lama and his followers," a charge that the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has repeatedly denied.

The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Admiral Samuel Locklear, says the U.S. is moving warships to track a rocket that North Korea expects to launch.

North Korea announced last week that it plans to try again to launch a long-range rocket soon, despite warnings from the United States and others for it not to do so.