
Officials: 2 bombings kill 7 people in Iraq
BAGHDAD — Authorities in Iraq say two bombings targeting Shiites have killed seven people around the capital, Baghdad. Police officials say the first attack took place Saturday morning when a bomb exploded near a market in the Shiite section of the town of Mahmoudiya, killing five people and... read more »

Germany’s Left Party Secures First State Governorship
BERLIN—A quarter-of-a-century after the Berlin Wall fell, the successor to East Germany’s ruling party claimed its biggest political prize on Friday when it secured its first state governorship in the reunified country. The election of The Left party’s Bodo Ramelow as premier of Thuringia,... read more »

In Ashton Carter, Nominee for Defense Secretary, a Change in Direction
Ash is rightly regarded as one of our nation’s foremost national security leaders,” Mr. Obama said in announcing Mr. Carter’s nomination in the Roosevelt Room, which was filled with the mandarins of Washington’s foreign policy establishment. “He was at the table in the Situation Room, he... read more »

China ex-security chief’s fall cements Xi’s grip on power
The Chinese Communist Party’s decision to arrest and expel former security chief Zhou Yongkang is a bold step that demonstrates President Xi Jinping’s determination to consolidate power “to a degree unseen” in decades, observers said Saturday. Zhou — who retired from... read more »