BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese man sent to a labor camp for a joke about Bo Xilai said he was awarded minimal compensation by a court on Thursday, in what could be a blow to others jailed by the disgraced leader's administration and hoping for substantial damages. Fang Hong, 46, was sentenced to a year of re-education in 2011 after posting a poem online that mocked Bo and his then police chief Wang Lijun for miscarriages of justice during an anti-crime campaign in the southwestern city of Chongqing, where Bo was Communist Party chief. ...

AMMAN (Reuters) - The revolt against President Bashar al-Assad first flared in Deraa, but the southern border city now epitomizes the bloody stalemate gripping Syria after 22 months of violence and 60,000 dead. Jordan next door has little sympathy with Assad, but is wary of spillover from the upheaval in its bigger neighbor. It has tightened control of its 370-km (230-mile) border with Syria, partly to stop Islamist fighters or weapons from crossing. ...

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia faces a possible fourth straight year of political instability after opposition leader Tony Abbott, on track to win power in a September election, threatened a second poll if a hostile upper house rejects his plan to scrap a tax on carbon. One day after Prime Minister Julia Gillard surprised voters by announcing a September 14 election, Abbott on Thursday promised to scrap a carbon tax if he wins office, but added he would call a second election if a hostile Senate rejected his plans. ...

DOUENTZA, Mali/PARIS (Reuters) - French troops seized the airport in Mali's northern town of Kidal, the last urban stronghold held by Islamist insurgents, as they moved to wrap up the first phase of a military operation to wrest northern Mali from rebel hands. France has deployed some 4,500 troops in a three-week ground and air offensive to break the Islamist rebels' 10-month grip on major northern towns. The mission is aimed at heading off the risk of Mali being used as a springboard for jihadist attacks in the wider region or Europe. ...

NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Parents and neighbors of the children killed in last month's Connecticut school shooting implored state lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday to ban the powerful rifle and high-capacity magazines used in the massacre. As parents, first responders and town officials spoke at the Newtown high school, many in the audience of about 600 people gave standing ovations and wept. "We lost our son Benjamin" to an "unstable, suicidal individual who had access to a weapon that has no place in a home," said David Wheeler. ...