Burma's president will hold onto his role as leader of the ruling party, despite concerns heading into the 2015 general election.

"The Party President is President Thein Sein, all the EC members agreed to this," said Union Solidarity and Development Party spokesperson Htay Oo. "The Vice Presidents are Thura U Shwe Mann, myself and Thura U Aye Myint — all together there's three."

Heading into the party vote Tuesday in the administrative capital of Naypyidaw, there had been talk the military-backed USPD might replace Thein Sein with his main rival, Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann.

French authorities say police have arrested 39 people in a sting on an Albanian and Kosovar heroin trafficking network.

Japan says it has spotted seven Chinese naval ships near one of its islands, as tensions between the two Asian powers remain high over a territorial dispute in the East China Sea.

Japan's Defense Ministry says the Chinese ships were spotted early Tuesday by Japanese aircraft about 50 kilometers outside Yonaguni Island, Japan's westernmost island.

The ministry said the ships were in the contiguous zone, an area just outside Japan's territorial waters in which Japan has certain rights under international law.

The United States will continue to funnel nonlethal aid to the Syrian opposition, and urges the international community to unite against Bashar Assad’s regime, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said.

The State Department is providing $100 million worth of nonlethal aid to those seeking to overthrow Assad. The opposition in Syria rose after protestors brought down long-term regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

Turkey says it has banned Syrian passenger planes from Turkish airspace in the latest sign of growing confrontation between the two neighbors.

Turkish authorities announced the ban on Sunday, four days after intercepting a Syrian passenger plane en route from Moscow to Damascus and confiscating what they said were military supplies on board.

Ankara has accused Damascus of using civilian airliners to bring in weapons for Syrian troops fighting an 18-month rebellion, and has vowed to prevent Turkish airspace from being used for such purposes.

President Hugo Chavez's election victory appears to mean that relations between Venezuela and the United States will remained strained. Chavez has been a fierce critic of the U.S. while nurturing friendships with U.S. adversaries like Cuba, Iran, and Syria, and his first news conference after his election seemed to reinforce some of those positions.

First news conference

North Korea is warning that its rockets are capable of striking the continental United States, two days after Seoul said it signed a deal with Washington to allow South Korea to extend the range of its ballistic missiles.

A spokesperson for the North's National Defense Commission said in state media Tuesday Pyongyang has "strategic rocket forces" that can hit not only the mainland U.S., but also American military bases in South Korea, Japan and Guam.

Delegates with the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a handful of East Asian countries and other Western powers skirted controversy over the heated issue of conflicting claims in Asia-Pacific waters during a meeting this week in the Philippines.

Diplomats joined security experts, maritime officials and others to discuss regional cooperation, the protection of marine resources and trade routes at a time when there has been growing tension over territorial disputes throughout the region.

Pakistan and Russia have held high-level discussions focusing on how to expand their political, economic and military relationship. But analysts believe Afghanistan is at the center of the intensified diplomacy as both countries are positioning themselves in anticipation of expected withdrawal of most U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan by 2014.

Pakistani military chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani traveled to Moscow this week while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Islamabad.