Tweet BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel is insisting that a heavy state election defeat for her party in Germany’s most populous region won’t weaken her as she grapples with a deepening European debt crisis…. Read the rest here: Merkel: Election loss won’t alter Europe policy  Read More →

Tweet RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Gulf Arab leaders have had no problems speaking in a common voice about efforts to fend off opposition inspired by the Arab Spring and the ambitions of their rival, Iran. On Monday, the region’s envoys will examine whether to carry that unity to the next level with proposals that foresee a super-state... 

Tweet TOKYO (Reuters) – The assembly in a western Japanese town that hosts a nuclear plant agreed on Monday it was necessary to restart two off-line reactors, its chairman said, the first such nod since all the country’s stations were halted after the Fukushima crisis. See the rest here: Japan assembly agrees to restart reactors,... 

Tweet LONDON (AP) — The girls slumped in wheelchairs look barely conscious, their blond heads lolling above the plastic vomit bags tied like bibs around their necks…. Link: Britain bedeviled by binge drinking  Read More →

Tweet BEIJING (AP) — China accused the Dalai Lama of being deceitful Monday after he reportedly alleged that Chinese agents trained Tibetan women to assassinate him by planting poison in their hair for him to touch during blessings…. Excerpt from: Dalai Lama alleges poison plot; China cries foul  Read More →

Tweet VIENNA (Reuters) – Spat at in public by a fellow Libyan who called him a thief, watching his back on long walks through Vienna, eating poorly; Muammar Gaddafi’s fugitive oil supremo was a troubled man in the months before he was found drowned in the Danube two weeks ago. Read more: Drowned Libya oil chief feared going home  Read More →

Tweet PARIS (Reuters) – Francois Hollande will arrive at his first appearance as French president in one of Citroen’s flagship cars, handing the struggling company some welcome television exposure. Read more here: Hollande’s DS ride foreshadows auto industry test  Read More →

Tweet AMMAN (Reuters) – Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad shelled the town of Rastan on Syria’s main northern highway on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding 40 in an offensive to retake the area from Free Syrian Army rebels, opposition sources said. More: Syrian army shells Rastan, nine killed: rebels  Read More →

Tweet KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A plane crashed into a mountain in the Himalayas while trying to land at an airport in northern Nepal on Monday, killing 15 people and critically injuring six…. The rest is here: Plane crash kills 15 in Nepal mountains; 6 survive  Read More →

Tweet ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United States says it has been holding intense negotiations with Pakistan to get the country to reopen its border to supplies meant for NATO troops in Afghanistan…. View post: US, Pakistan negotiate reopening NATO supply line  Read More →