A Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, who was the most public face of Bashar al-Assad's government as it battled a 20-month-old uprising, has defected and fled the country, a diplomat in the region said on Monday.

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China on Monday branded a US-Japan security treaty "a product of the Cold War" after Washington reaffirmed its commitment to Japan in its territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands, known in Chinese as

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Bangladeshi garment workers clashed with police on Monday as some 10,000 protested over the deaths of 110 people in the country's worst clothing factory fire, with demonstrations entering a second week. Industrial police deputy director

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Russia and China urged North Korea on Monday not to go ahead with a plan for its second rocket launch of 2012, with Moscow saying any such move would violate restrictions imposed by the UN

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France and Italy on Monday vowed to press ahead with a controversial 26 billion euro high-speed rail line through the Alps despite doubts over EU financing for a tunnel at the centre of the project.

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Europe piled pressure on a defiant Israel on Monday over the Jewish state's plans to build new settlements in occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank after the Palestinians won upgraded status at the United

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The most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed 0.4 percent to close at 57,550 yuan ($9,200) a tonne on Monday as promising manufacturing data from top consumer China fuelled a cautious return

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Copper touched a six-week high on Monday on promising manufacturing data from top metals consumer China, but doubts over the soundness of the global economy put a lid on gains. Benchmark copper on the London

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Brent oil prices turned lower in choppy trading on Monday as weak US manufacturing data pulled crude futures back after supportive Chinese economic data and Middle East tensions had sparked a rally. US manufacturing unexpectedly

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Rains expected to hit Argentina's grains belt this week will sustain the floods that have fanned global supply worries by swamping and blocking access to key soya, corn and wheat areas, local experts said on

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