ELECTIONS

Greek officials held talks on Saturday with European Union and International Monetary Fund negotiators to free up urgently needed bailout loans, but the government and the lenders were reported to be at odds.

U.S. actor Sean Penn joined thousands of Egyptian activists who packed downtown Cairo on Friday demanding that military rulers speed up the transfer of power to civilians and end emergency laws once used by Hosni Mubarak against his opponents.

Republican appropriators in the House of Representatives released a draft spending bill that blocks funding to Planned Parenthood unless the group certifies that it will stop providing abortions.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain believes he can win the support of many Southern black voters. Don't believe for a minute that he can't.

Missouri Republicans have backed down from their threats to hold their presidential primary in February, electing to hold a caucus on March 17 instead -- but in other states, the mad rush for early primaries continues, to the detriment of voters.

Democrats seem split on their enthusiasm more than a year before the 2012 elections, with a poll showing that 44 percent are less excited about voting.

In Saudi Arabia, the woman sentenced to flogging for driving a car has been pardoned by King Abdullah.

Mongolia's quest to renegotiate a 2009 deal to develop the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold deposit might create a crisis of trust for foreign investors, but analysts said the decision could help it through a difficult legislative session starting next week.

Germany's parliament approved new powers for the euro zone's crisis fund on Thursday but it was not clear if Angela Merkel got enough votes from her coalition to silence rebels worried about funding a series of bailouts of countries like Greece.

In what can be termed as a swift and unprecedented reversal on some of its time-tested conservative social codes, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah has reportedly revoked a flogging sentence handed to a Saudi woman for driving.

The Obama administration on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to back the centerpiece of Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare overhaul -- the requirement that all Americans have health insurance.

India is moving quickly on a plan to open its $450 billion retail sector to global players such as Wal-Mart, the country's industry secretary said on Wednesday, in a sign the government may be pressing ahead with a key reform.

Zimbabwe is hurting investor confidence and stalling recovery by promoting a law to force the transfer of foreign-owned firms to local ownership, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Wednesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a battle for her political survival on Thursday when some of her coalition, worried about throwing good money after bad by bailing out Greece, could humiliate her in a parliament vote on euro-zone rescue schemes.

Polls point to a minority government in Canada's economic powerhouse of Ontario after provincial elections next week, amid disillusionment with the ruling Liberals and disappointment with their main rivals.

Zimbabwe is hurting investor confidence and stalling recovery by promoting a law to force the transfer of foreign-owned firms to local ownership, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday defended Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram who is facing heat in the 2G telecoms case that has rocked the Congress-led coalition government.

Under the Saudi’s conservative laws, women needed the permission of a male guardian to work, to marry, to divorce, to travel abroad, and to undergo certain kinds of surgery.

Zimbabwe will soon probe foreign-owned firms to establish their level of compliance with a law requiring them to sell at least a 51 percent shareholding in their Zimbabwean operations to locals, an official said on Tuesday.

Egypt's parliamentary election will start on November 28, a military source said on Tuesday, launching the process of handing back power to civilian rule nine months after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising.

Putin, who leads the dominant United Russia Party, is almost guaranteed of victory .