The world in brief

LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We hope that the Syrian regime will end its incitement campaign against Ambassador Ford. At this point, we can’t say when he will return to Syria.”

Mark Toner, State Department spokesman,

after the Obama administration pulled its ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, out of the country

Article, 1A

Panetta alludes

to a China threat

TOKYO — The winding down of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan marks a pivot point for the U.S. military, which must now focus on looming threats such as the rising military might of China, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.

Panetta used his first visit to Japan as Pentagon chief to sound an emerging theme of the Obama administration: America will remain a global economic and military power despite coming budget reductions, and the Asia-Pacific region will be central to U.S. national security strategy.

In a question-and-answer session with U.S. and Japanese troops at Yokota Air Base, Panetta ticked off a list of threats that he said demand more U.S. attention as the end of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan near. He mentioned cyber-attacks, the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, Mideast turmoil and “rising powers” — an allusion to China.

As a traditional Pacific power, U.S. needs to invest more effort in building a wider and deeper network of alliances and partnerships in this region, he said.

U.S. says N. Korea talks are positive

The top U.S. envoy on North Korea has reported some progress after the first day of talks over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, the second direct encounter between both sides in less than three months.

Speaking to reporters and TV cameras Monday night as he re-entered his lakeside hotel after their first meeting at the United States’ U.N. mission in Geneva, Stephen Bosworth said he was “neither optimistic nor pessimistic.”

Bosworth said the United States and North Korea were “conducting very intensive discussions” and would continue to try to narrow their differences, but he did not provide more specifics.

Asked whether they had touched on other long-standing issues — such as food aid to the chronically impoverished North, reuniting separated families on the Korean peninsula and recovering the remains of troops missing in action — Bosworth replied affirmatively.

“Everything,” he answered, without elaborating.

Islamic party wins not-in-Tunisia vote

Tunisia’s Ennahda, an Islamic party that was legalized six months ago, won 50 percent of votes from Tunisians living abroad in the first election since the ouster of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the official news agency TAP reported.

Ennahda won nine out of 18 electoral constituency seats abroad, while four seats went to the Congress of the Republic, three to Ettakatol, one to the People’s Petition for Freedom, Justice and Development party and another to the Modernist Democratic Pole party, the Tunis-based news agency reported, citing the Independent Higher Authority for Elections.

Earlier Monday, Ennahda’s Abdelhamid Jalase, director of the party’s campaign, said Ennahda had so far won 30 percent of the vote for a constituent assembly. Members of the assembly will be in charge of writing a new constitution for the North African country.