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World Briefs | EU nations affirm pact
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PARIS -- French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said friendship between their nations is critical to saving the common currency, putting aside until today their differences on solving the euro debt crisis.
The leaders of the European Union's two biggest economies met Sunday in the eastern French city of Reims to celebrate the moment 50 years ago when their predecessors, Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, signed a reconciliation treaty and buried the enmity that had sparked three wars in 90 years.
Resolving divisions between the two countries will be at the heart of euro-area finance ministers' talks in Brussels today and during a subsequent gathering on July 20. The two meetings follow clashes between Mr. Hollande and Ms. Merkel at the June 28-29 European summit, where the German chancellor faced pressure from France, Italy and Spain to agree to greater burden sharing for the currency zone's debt burden.
BERLIN -- Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he is not afraid of meeting the same fate as the deposed and disgraced leaders of Libya and Egypt, saying he has nothing in common with them.
In one of his rare interviews with Western media since the deadly uprising in Syria erupted last year, Mr. Assad said, "Describing what happened to al Gadhafi, this is savage, this is crime," he said, referring to the former Libyan leader who was killed while fleeing opposition fighters.
SEOUL, South Korea -- The top U.S. military commander in South Korea, Gen. James D. Thurman, apologized Sunday for an incident last week during which U.S. military police officers handcuffed three South Korean citizens in a dispute over a parking violation, inciting protests from civic groups.
Although the local news media indicated that vocal and physical protests by the South Koreans might have contributed to their handcuffing, the scene of U.S. service members manhandling South Korean citizens outside their base was almost guaranteed to be seen as outrageous in South Korea.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia says a senior prince and former defense minister has died.
The 78-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Saud was not in line for the Saudi throne, but wielded influence as part of a council of royal family members that helps select the heirs to rule the oil-rich Western ally.
JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said changes in government policy to limit draft deferment for ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens should be done gradually so as not to cause national rifts.
Mr. Netanyahu's vow comes amid public outrage and pressure on his broad unity coalition government.
Russia President Vladimir Putin ordered the head of the country's investigative agency to establish whether enough had been done to warn people about the Black Sea region floods that killed at least 171 people. ... Thousands of hardline Islamists streamed toward Pakistan's capital Sunday to protest the government's decision to allow the U.S. and other NATO countries to resume shipping troop supplies through the country to Afghanistan.
First Published July 9, 2012 12:00 am
