Friday’s global agenda: Breakthrough in China?

{mosads}The Hill has yesterday’s developments here, here and here.

• Syria: Pressure on the White House to take stronger action in Syria only grew Thursday after security forces raided a college campus and killed four students. 

White House spokesman Jay Carney acknowledged that former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s plan for peace “has not been succeeding” and said stronger measures could become necessary. Meanwhile, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) is wrapping up a tour of the Middle East in which he was due to meet with Turkish, Jordanian and Gulf-state officials about what to do next.

• Euro trouble: French and Greek voters are expected to choose new leaders on Sunday who could renegotiate at least some of Europe’s fiscal austerity measures, with uncertain consequences for the European economy — and the United States.

• Yemen: A nephew of ousted Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh resigned his command of an elite military unit as thousands of protesters demanded that members of Saleh’s family step down from their military posts, in keeping with a U.S.-brokered deal aimed at uniting the army so it can focus on fighting al Qaeda forces.

• India/Pakistan: A suicide bombing in a Pakistani market close to the Afghan border killed 20 people Friday, The Associated Press reports. Next door in India, the relationship with the United States is fraying over trade and other issues, writes The Washington Post.

• Balkans: NATO is calling for calm as Kosovo prepares to vote in Serbian parliamentary and presidential elections on Sunday.

What you might have missed on Global Affairs: 

Iraqi opposition hires D.C. shop to make PM’s power grab an election-year issue.

Official: U.S.-Russia missile defense talks “close to a dead end.”