Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan has added new faces to his cabinet in a bid to appease opposition parties, help his push to mend the country's tattered finances and boost free trade to spur growth.

The Philippines said on January 14 it would restart peace talks next month with Muslim separatist rebels in an effort to end a decades-long insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Thousands of families living on mountain slopes or on riverbanks near Rio face extreme risk of being washed away in the heavy rains and flooding that have killed nearly 500 people, authorities said on Thursday.

Lebanese leaders agreed on Thursday to start talks next week on rebuilding a government after Hezbollah walked out of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's coalition, testing political faultlines across the Middle East.

The euro rose the most against the dollar in six months on Thursday and further gains were expected in the near term following solid Spanish and Portuguese debt auctions and after the head of the European Central Bank expressed concerns about inflation.

The global economy is forecast to grow at a modest 3.3% in 2011, with developing countries emerging as a stabilizing force against the riskier outlook for wealthy nations, according to a new World Bank forecast on January 12.

Floods and landslides devastated several mountain towns near Rio de Janeiro on January 12, killing at least 257 people as torrents of water and mud swept through the region, burying many families as they slept.

Members of the powerful Hezbollah movement and its allies brought down Lebanon's unity government on January 12 after resigning from Prime Minister Saad Hariri's Cabinet.

Iran is planning to launch a new satellite into orbit by the end of March, according to the country's semi-official Fars News Agency.

Oil rose on January 12 after production shutdowns, falling US inventories and growing demand sent Brent crude toward US$100 a barrel for the first time since 2008.