Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her deputy were reported Sunday to have turned down an offer from Economics Minister Michael Glos to resign.
The newspaper Bild am Sonntag said the chancellor and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted Glos to remain in office until general elections are held on September 27.
Glos, a member of Merkel's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), offered to resign on Saturday, but the offer was promptly turned down by his party boss, Horst Seehofer.
Washington - The US Senate spent much of Saturday debating the economic stimulus package on which lawmakers had reached a compromise a day earlier in a bid to pull the United States out of recession.
A bipartisan group of senators put forward a tentative deal late Friday on a 780-billion-dollar recovery plan. The compromise would strip some 150 billion dollars out of an earlier version of the legislation before the Senate.
Wellington - Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who lead the country for nine years until she was defeated in November's election, is a candidate for the post of administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), it was reported on Sunday.
The man who beat her, Prime Minister John Key, confirmed to the Sunday Star-Times that the government was supporting her bid to succeed Turkey's Kemal Dervis, who is due to retire at the end of his four-year term in August.
Berlin/Munich - In a surprise move, German Economics Minister Michael Glos offered to resign Saturday, less that eight months before the country votes in a general election, but the offer was promptly turned down by his party boss.
In a letter to Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Horst Seehofer, the 64-year-old Glos cited age reasons and the need for the CSU, after disappointing state election results last fall, to renew itself ahead of next fall's general elections.
Algiers - Algerian Presidnet Abdelaziz Bouteflika has set a date of April 9 for presidential elections, and has invited several international groups to send observers, Algiers said Saturday.
A presidential palace statement said Bouteflika had named former justice minister Mohamed Teguia to head the election commission for the voting.
He also invited the Organisation of Islamic Conference, the Arab League and the African Union to send observers to monitor the elections, the statment said.
Sana'a, Yemen - Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa paid a brief visit to Sana'a on Saturday in the first leg of a tour aimed at healing the rifts among Arab states exposed by the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Moussa held talks with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on "efforts to achieve inter-Arab reconciliation and solidarity," Yemen's state news agency Saba reported.
Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her deputy were reported Sunday to have turned down an offer from Economics Minister Michael Glos to resign.
Washington - The US Senate spent much of Saturday debating the economic stimulus package on which lawmakers had reached a compromise a day earlier in a bid to pull the United States out of recession.
Wellington - Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who lead the country for nine years until she was defeated in November's election, is a candidate for the post of administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), it was reported on Sunday.
Berlin/Munich - In a surprise move, German Economics Minister Michael Glos offered to resign Saturday, less that eight months before the country votes in a general election, but the offer was promptly turned down by his party boss.
Algiers - Algerian Presidnet Abdelaziz Bouteflika has set a date of April 9 for presidential elections, and has invited several international groups to send observers, Algiers said Saturday.
Sana'a, Yemen - Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa paid a brief visit to Sana'a on Saturday in the first leg of a tour aimed at healing the rifts among Arab states exposed by the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
