GERMANY

Asian shares nudged up Wednesday but were capped by concerns that Europe's financial strains could intensify without a global response, as Spain warned that it was being shut out of credit markets.

The European Central Bank is expected to hold back from policy moves when it meets on Wednesday, instead urging governments to address the euro zone's crisis, but it could indicate a readiness to cut interest rates as early as next month given a weakening economy and Spain's banking troubles.

Sixty-eight years after the D-Day invasion, the beaches of Normandy are now pilgrimage sites -- a treasure trove of history amidst a prosaic land.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to have altered dramatically her long-held opposition to euro zone nations sharing responsibility for the debts of the monetary union's most troubled banks.

The Canadian Psycho Luka Rocco Magnotta, who allegedly dismembered a Chinese student in Montreal before fleeing to Europe, will appear before a German judge in Berlin, a day after he was arrested. This will begin the first stage in extradition back to Canada.

The euro zone avoided recession with zero growth in the first quarter, but it seems to have run out of luck. Recent data out of the single currency bloc has led economists to conclude with confidence that a recession is looming and the European Central Bank may not act Wednesday.

Seventeen diplomats were labeled persona non grata in Syria on Tuesday and asked to leave the embattled country immediately.

Bernard Thibault, the secretary of the Communist-backed Confédération Générale du Travail, one of France's largest unions, warned that at least 45,000 jobs (and maybe as many as 90,000) will be jettisoned by some 46 companies.

Spain said on Tuesday that credit markets were closing to the euro zone's fourth biggest economy as finance chiefs of the Group of Seven major economies were to hold emergency talks on the currency bloc's worsening debt crisis.

Finance chiefs of the Group of Seven leading industrialized powers will hold emergency talks on the euro zone debt crisis on Tuesday in a sign of heightened global alarm about strains in the 17-nation European currency area.

German police arrested fugitive murder suspect Luka Rocco Magnotta at an internet cafe in Berlin on Monday.

The euro has one advocate: billionaire investor George Soros, who said in a speech that he expects the currency to survive with the aid of Germany.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy proposed on Saturday that the 17 countries in the euro zone create a common fiscal authority, with each surrendering a significant amount of its national sovereignty to send a signal to financial markets about the certainty of their single-currency experiment.

Volkswagen AG (Frankfurt: VOW) U.S. sales grew 28.4 percent in May, the company's best May since its heyday as a 70s era-icon.

Got an extra long weekend to explore the British capital where Queen Elizabeth II will be celebrating her 60th year on the throne with a massive Diamond Jubilee party? Come explore London amid the royal hoopla.

Some 110,000 people were added to the unemployment rolls of the 17-nation euro zone in April, the statistical office of the European Union reported Friday, once again setting a record high, as every country in the common currency agreement save for Austria, Germany and Ireland reported a deteriorating labor condition. The unemployment rate held steady at 11 percent.

With the premiere of Rupert Sanders' Snow White and the Huntsman starring Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron, many are wondering if the folk tale popularized by the Brothers Grimm and Walt Disney about the girl with hair as black as ebony and skin as white as snow is based on a real person. According to a German scholar named Eckhard Sander, Snow White was indeed real: She was a woman named Margarete von Waldeck, whose life paralleled the folk story.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick is calling for the issuiing of a supranational euro bond that would be backed by credit guarantees from stronger euro zone economies while providing cheaper funding to struggling ones.

Futures on major U.S. indices point to a higher opening Thursday, ahead of the ADP National Employment Report and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) report on Initial Jobless Claims.

Where to watch live coverage of USA Vs. Brazil, plus a detailed preview, prediction and probable lineups.

Only two of the 35 wealthiest countries have rates of relative childhood poverty above 20 percent. The United States shares the dubious honor with a former Communist dictatorship