PARIS — France handed the presidency Sunday to leftist Francois Hollande, a champion of government stimulus programs who says the state should protect the downtrodden — a victory that could deal a death blow to the drive for austerity that has been the hallmark of Europe in recent years.
WASHINGTON — The military is under-reporting the number of times that Afghan soldiers and police open fire on American and other foreign troops.
BEIRUT — Two weeks into a cease-fire agreement, there still was no peace in Syria: Security agents in Damascus collected the remains of 10 people killed in a suicide bombing. Activists reported troops firing on protesters. Video showed a crowd carrying a slain boy to U.N. observers as proof of regime violence.
NEW YORK — The Nasdaq composite index shot 2 percent higher Wednesday, powered by a surge in Apple. The iPhone maker’s stock climbed $50 after the company once again blew past Wall Street’s profit forecasts.
FRANKFURT, Germany — Europe’s plan to fix its debt crisis by imposing budget cuts frayed Monday. Heavy selling rocked financial markets, uncertainty gripped two governments, and the economic outlook darkened across the continent.
BEIRUT — Syrian forces used live fire, tear gas and clubs to beat back tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets across the country Friday in powerful and often jubilant displays of defiance. But a U.N.-brokered truce largely held up without the widespread, bloody offensives that have pushed the nation toward civil war.
How better to get settlers to move into uncharted and untamed lands than to promise them the sustainability and wealth that comes from the ownership of land? Give them the land for free on the promise that they will go and settle that land, turning it from wilderness to useable farmland, timberland or pasture. The policy worked for America, it worked for the Spanish in Florida and it worked for Mexico in parts of what is now the American Southwest.
NEW YORK — The stock market suffered its worst loss of the year Tuesday because of uncertainty about coming corporate earnings reports and concerns that the borrowing costs of Spain are creeping close to a crisis level.