British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday that Iran and Hizbullah were "propping up" Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"It is very clear that the Syrian regime is receiving a great deal of support, increasing support in recent months from outside Syria from Hizbullah and Iran,” Hague said in a news conference with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh in Amman.

Backers of the Syrian uprising were to meet in Amman with the opposition Wednesday to discuss a U.S.-Russian proposal for peace talks, as the two-year conflict escalated close to the border with Lebanon.

"Today's effort ... is part of a political path aimed at ending the violence and bloodshed," Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague before the meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria group.

The first Art Basel fair to be hosted by Hong Kong boasts a prestigious array of international art, highlighting the city's new role as a global arts hub amid an explosion of personal wealth in mainland China.

The four-day annual show is the world's premier art fair and has until now only been held in Switzerland and the United States.

A Japanese cancer specialist said Wednesday she has started the world's first clinical trial of a powerful, non-surgical, short-term radiation therapy for breast cancer.

The National Institute of Radiological Sciences has begun the trial using "heavy ion radiotherapy" which emits a pinpoint beam that can be accurately directed at malignant cells, said Kumiko Karasawa, radiation oncologist and breast cancer specialist.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang vowed to strengthen his country's partnership with Pakistan as he arrived Wednesday for a visit less than two weeks after the country's general election.

The long-time allies will look to use the two-day trip to boost trade ties, and Li will meet prime minister-elect Nawaz Sharif -- who has not yet been sworn in -- as well as holding talks with senior officials.

Hundreds of sunbathers fled a popular Indonesian beach in panic when a four-meter (13-foot) crocodile laid down next to them to soak up some rays, an official said Wednesday.

Crowds were thronging the beach at Balikpapan on Borneo island at the weekend when the 500 kilogram (1,100 pound) reptile crawled ashore.

Japan is considering direct talks with North Korea, the government said Wednesday, adding momentum to the cause after a top level aide to the prime minister made a surprise trip to Pyongyang.

Bilateral talks are on the table as Tokyo seeks to salve the running sore of abductions of its nationals by North Korean spies in the 1970s and 1980s, an issue that inflames public opinion at home.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hit out Wednesday at a decision to disqualify a close ally from a vote to elect his successor, while former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani had no objections to his own omission.

The conservative-dominated Guardians Council on Tuesday eliminated both Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie and Rafsanjani from a list of eight candidates for the June 14 poll, and those ruled out have no right to appeal.

A Singapore company supervisor caught on video slapping a male intern is in trouble after the clip went viral on the web and sparked a public outcry.

Police confirmed to Agence France Presse that a complaint had been lodged against the supervisor, who works at a software company, and the manpower ministry said it had also been alerted about the alleged case of workplace abuse.

The world needs to wake up to the risk of a spike in natural disasters linked to climate change and strive to find ways to cut the human and economic cost, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

"We live in a time of huge natural disasters which are made worse by climate change," the U.N.'s deputy secretary-general, Jan Eliasson, told reporters at the start of a three-day conference on risk reduction in Geneva.