BERLIN – Following a now-familiar script, Europe again averted disaster in its debt crisis when German lawmakers rallied behind Chancellor Angela Merkel to approve a stronger euro zone bailout fund yesterday.
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AMMAN – Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hurled rocks and tomatoes at U.S. ambassador Robert Ford’s convoy as he visited an opposition figure in Damascus yesterday in an attack the U.S. said was “wholly unjustified”.
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TRIPOLI – Desperate civilians are fleeing the besieged Libyan coastal city of Sirte where the battle to dislodge fighters loyal to ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi has caused heavy casualties, U.N. and other sources said.
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WASHINGTON – As the dust settles after six months of fighting in Libya, U.S. officials are stepping up efforts to identify Islamic militants who might pose a threat in a post-Gaddafi power vacuum.
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ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s intelligence chief yesterday denied U.S. accusations that the country supports the Haqqani network, an Afghan militant group blamed for an attack on the American embassy in Kabul.
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SANAA – Gunfire hit a protest camp in southern Yemen late yesterday, after fighting in northern districts of the capital broke a truce aimed at ending the worst violence since a revolt against President Ali Abdullah Saleh began eight months ago.
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CAIRO – Political parties from across Egypt’s political spectrum threatened to boycott elections scheduled to start in November unless the country’s military rulers amend the election law.
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JIUQUAN, China – China successfully launched an experimental craft yesterday paving the way for its first space station amid a blaze of national pride, bringing the growing Asian power closer to matching the United States and Russia with a long-term manned outpost in space.
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WASHINGTON – With billions of dollars in Medicaid spending at risk in Congress, U.S. states are forming a loose confederacy to oppose any federal cuts that could damage state budgets already awash in red ink.
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MITROVICA, Kosovo – Serbs reinforced barricades in northern Kosovo’s divided city of Mitrovica yesterday and NATO peacekeepers were out in force, two days after 20 people were injured in clashes.
