WORLD BRIEFS

MYANMAR: Obama visit 'not celebration'

President Barack Obama's historic trip to Myanmar, a onetime U.S. adversary, should not be viewed as a "victory celebration," White House officials cautioned Thursday. Obama aides, seeking to assuage critics who say such a visit to the former pariah state is premature, said urgent action was still needed in Myanmar, most notably freeing political prisoners. Obama will be the first U.S. president to visit Myanmar when he makes a brief stop there Monday. He'll also stop in Thailand and in Cambodia, a country with an abysmal record on human rights. Aides said Obama would raise U.S. concerns about Cambodia's crackdown on dissidents when he meets with Prime Minister Hun Sen. Cambodia is hosting the annual East Asia Summit.

JAPAN: Noda's party expects to lose

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was poised to dissolve parliament Friday, triggering an election that polls show his party will lose, three years after ending the Liberal Democratic Party's half-century grip on power. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan set the national vote for the lower house on Dec. 16. The deal to bring forward elections due in August came after LDP leader Shinzo Abe agreed to end an impasse over financing the budget and to support a plan to reduce the number of Diet seats. An LDP win would reinstate Abe to the premiership he quit in 2007 after 12 months.

BRITAIN: BBC settles with politician

The BBC reached a settlement Thursday with the Conservative politician wrongly implicated in a child sex abuse scandal. The BBC had already apologized for linking Alistair McAlpine, 70, a member of the House of Lords, to child sex abuse that happened decades ago in Wales. The mistaken report nearly two weeks ago caused turmoil within BBC management ranks and led to the resignation of its chief. McAlpine will receive 185,000 pounds ($293,200) in damages, lawyers told Britain's Press Association. McAlpine said he now will seek settlements from those who had named him on Twitter.