BEIJING – Xi Jinping, the son of a Chinese guerrilla leader who rose through the ranks to… BEIJING – Xi Jinping, the son of a Chinese guerrilla leader who rose through the ranks to become Communist Party chief in business-friendly Shanghai, was designated Monday as the most likely successor to President Hu Jintao as leader of the world’s most populous nation.

Xi, 54, Ph.D. in economics, was the highest ranked of four newcomers in a new Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in China’s Communist system. The nine-man group, including Hu and four other holdovers, was unveiled at a ritual introductory appearance before journalists following its acclamation by the new Central Committee that emerged Sunday from the party’s week-long 17th National Congress.

Xi’s ranking on the Standing Committee, according to long-standing tradition, signaled that he was the favorite to replace Hu at the next party congress in 2012, which will mark the end of Hu’s second five-year term as president and party leader – and his probable retirement. But analysts warned that, whatever the lineup now, things could change over the next five years in the bureaucratic elbowing likely to play out behind the walls of Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound in Beijing.

Xi’s emergence instead was interpreted as a sign of Hu’s inability to simply point a finger to designate a successor in the style of Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping. In the current era, analysts pointed out, transfer of power in China has become a question of negotiations and alliances, forcing Hu to balance competing interests among party barons, including former president and party leader Jiang Zemin and his loyalists. – Edward Cody, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON – Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker have concluded that Shiite extremists pose a rising threat to the U.S. effort in Iraq, as the relative influence of Sunni insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq has diminished drastically due to ongoing U.S. operations.

This judgment forms part of the changes that Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, approved last week to their classified campaign strategy for the country, which covers the period through summer 2009. The updated plan anticipates shifting the U.S. military effort to focus more on countering Shiite militias – some backed by Iran – that have generated new violence as they battle for power in the south and elsewhere in Iraq, said senior military and diplomatic officials familiar with the plan.

“As the Sunni insurgents quit fighting us, the problems we have with criminality and other militia, many of them Shia, become relatively more important,” said a U.S. Embassy official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan is not finalized.

The plan also acknowledges that the U.S. military – with limited time and troops – cannot guarantee a wholesale defeat of its enemies in Iraq, and instead is seeking “political accommodation” to persuade them to end the use of violence, the officials said. – Ann Scott Tyson, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON – White-helmeted District of Columbia police briefly scuffled with protesters Saturday during a demonstration outside the World Bank, but no one was seriously injured or arrested, officials and protesters said.

The confrontation came after violence erupted Friday night during a protest in Washington’s upscale Georgetown district. Objects were thrown at store windows, newspaper boxes were overturned and a police officer was pushed from a scooter, authorities said. Saturday was quieter.

About 500 demonstrators marched from Franklin Square, near the White House, to World Bank headquarters a few blocks away. The protesters, a mix of students, community activists and black-clad anarchists, denounced the policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are holding meetings this weekend.

The event was peaceful except for a tense moment in Edward R. Murrow Park, across from the bank, where the march ended. As delegates arrived for the meetings mid-afternoon, several anarchists charged the police line, according to officials and two demonstrators. Baton-wielding police raced in, shoving protesters and snatched their signs. A crowd massed, shouting “Our streets! Our streets!”

“They charged the police line,” said D.C. assistant police chief Patrick Burke, head of the homeland security bureau. “Police lines cannot be broken.”

Saturday’s event was a faint echo of the anti-globalization protests that brought huge crowds to the city in past years. In 2000, about 20,000 demonstrators converged on Washington, disrupting parts of downtown and clashing with police. – Mary Beth Sheridan, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON – Iran announced the resignation of its chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on Saturday, a sign of deepening internal divisions on the eve of critical international talks about its nuclear program.

The move may indicate that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to wrest control of nuclear policy and that Iran is preparing to take an even tougher line in negotiations, according to analysts and European officials familiar with the talks.

Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a former presidential candidate, had supported negotiations to try to defuse growing tensions. But he had faced increasing challenges from Ahmadinejad, who has vowed repeatedly that Iran will not bow to international pressure.

At talks with European negotiators in Rome on Tuesday, Larijani will be replaced by Saeed Jalili, a mid-level foreign ministry official described by Iranian analysts and media as one of Ahmadinejad’s closest friends.

Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said the change meant little. “Iran’s nuclear policies are stabilized and unchangeable. Managerial change won’t bring any changes in policies,” he told reporters at his weekly news conference.

But European officials and Iranian analysts say Larijani’s resignation is widely being seen as a boost for Ahmadinejad’s defiant position, which, in the short term, could set back talks with Britain, France and Germany on behalf of the United States and the United Nations. – Robin Wright, The Washington Post

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Lebanese politics notoriously are cumbersome and convoluted. Monday, squabbling politicians again delayed a decision on choosing a new president, this time putting it off until Nov. 12. The deadline before the country is hurtled into a constitutional crisis is Nov. 24, when President Emile Lahoud is scheduled to step down.

But while the Lebanese have been slow to pick a president, they have been quick to take on new fads, especially Facebook. The social networking website rapidly has taken on a life of its own among the outgoing and chatty Lebanese.

Lebanese have headed to Facebook with enthusiasm. The website’s Lebanon network includes 125,000 members, about one for every 32 residents of the country. For comparison’s sake, Israel has about 90,000 Facebook members, or one for every 70 residents, whereas gigantic Egypt has 180,000, or one for every 437 residents.

Lebanese Facebook members include grandmothers, scuba divers and sports car drivers. Neither men nor women are too shy to show off exposed bellies, sultry pouts or bare shoulders.

Now, one of the main contenders for the Lebanese presidency, Nassib Lahoud, has brought his candidacy to Facebook. His online group, “Nassib Lahoud for President,” has drawn 2,500 members.

An interview in his East Beirut office Monday began with 45 minutes of serious talk about Lebanon’s politics. But he smiled when the subject of Facebook came up.

“I guess we Lebanese,” he said, “are very extroverted.” – Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times