World News Headlines

MESA, Arizona (Reuters) - Mitt Romney is fighting his way back into the driver's seat in the Republican presidential race, putting in a strong debate performance in Arizona and gaining in polls against conservative rival Rick Santorum. An aggressive Romney repeatedly put Santorum on the defensive in a CNN debate on Wednesday …

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ever since their first awkward encounter - a hastily arranged meeting in a custodian's office at a Washington airport in 2007 - Iran has been one of the few issues on which Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu have been able to find some common ground. Nearly five years ago, neither man was …

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel apologised to the relatives of victims of a neo-Nazi killing spree on Thursday, asking for their forgiveness for botched investigations that left their murderers undetected for more than a decade. Merkel addressed the families of the victims - eight Turks, a Greek and a …

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin evoked Russia's historic 1812 victory over Napoleon Bonaparte on Thursday in a patriotic speech to tens of thousands of people intended to show he has real support and counter opposition protests ahead of presidential elections. Addressing his supporters in a Moscow sports stadium, the …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Simultaneous early morning attacks on mostly Shi'ite targets across Iraq killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens on Thursday in one of the bloodiest days of violence since U.S. troops pulled out in mid-December. The attacks that appeared to pitch al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim insurgents against Shi'ites …

NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - Afghanistan's decade-long conflict has forced more than half a million people to flee their homes -- many of whom are at risk of disease, hunger and possible death in city slums across the impoverished country, Amnesty International warned on Thursday. Increasing attacks by militants, as well as airstrikes …

ATHENS (Reuters) - Ruediger Bolz has 350 students coming through the doors of his German language institute in central Athens each day - 20 percent up on a year go. The rush among Greeks to learn German may seem odd after the war of words between the two countries, with Athens fuming at German accusations of financial mismanagement …

KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan soldier joined protests on Thursday against the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base and shot dead two foreign troops, western military sources said. The killings came hours after the Taliban urged Afghans to target foreign military bases and kill Westerners in retaliation …

PARIS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy, burdened with the worst polls of any modern French leader seeking re-election, may be able to save his bid if he can produce a political miracle in the next few weeks: convincing voters that he is, in fact, the challenger. It would be an unprecedented upset. Never in the history …

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The heir to Sweden's throne, Crown Princess Victoria, gave birth to a baby girl on Thursday, an event which could boost a monarchy damaged by a string of embarrassing allegations against the king. Newspaper headlines in the last two years have been dominated by the alleged philandering and playboy …

GENEVA (Reuters) - Syrian forces have shot dead unarmed women and children, shelled residential areas and tortured wounded protesters in hospital under orders from the "highest level" of army and government officials, the United Nations said on Thursday. Independent U.N. investigators called for perpetrators of such crimes …