Obama still a winner in Europe, poll shows

LONDON -- The U.S. presidential election remains too close to call, but there’s one place where the polls show President Obama blowing Mitt Romney out of the water: Europe.

A survey of seven European nations, including longtime U.S. allies Britain and France, has found that Obama would win more than 90% of the vote if the respondents could cast ballots in Tuesday’s race. The survey was conducted by YouGov, a respected British-based polling organization that has also tracked Obama’s and Romney’s numbers within the U.S.

“No doubt many Americans are not overly concerned about who Europeans think they should vote for,” said Joe Twyman, YouGov’s director of political and social research. “On the other hand, history has shown that when a president is unpopular with the people of Europe, it can have a far-reaching
effect on how those people view the whole United States.”

The poll, which covered Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, found that Romney failed to garner more than 10% support in any of those countries. In Sweden and Denmark, the former Massachusetts governor fared even worse: Only 1 in 20 people named him as their choice.

The results attest to Obama’s enduring popularity on this side of the Atlantic even as he has struggled to maintain support at home.

Eurozone unemployment figures hit a new high

 

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LONDON — Europe’s economic gloom deepened Wednesday on the back of news that unemployment in the 17-nation Eurozone hit another record high in September as the region’s debt crisis continued to sap the confidence of business owners, investors and consumers alike.

About 18.5 million people were out of work in the Eurozone in September, adding up to a jobless rate of 11.6%. That figure exceeds August’s record of 11.5% and follows the worrisome trend of the past half-year, during which unemployment has either remained static or worsened with each successive month.

The grim picture painted by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency, comes as the continent’s debt crisis sits on the cusp of entering its fourth year with no full resolution in sight. Lawmakers in Greece, where the crisis began, are still grappling with another punishing round of austerity cuts demanded by international lenders, while Spain is keeping markets on tenterhooks over whether it will become the latest country to seek a bailout from its European partners.

According to Eurostat, there were 2.2 million more people out of work in September than a year ago in the 17 nations that share the euro currency. Since then, a number of those economies have tumbled back into recession, government debt ratios have risen, commercial lending has dwindled and investors have taken flight.

Germany unveils memorial to Holocaust's Roma victims

BERLIN -- A memorial dedicated to Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust was unveiled in the center of the German capital Wednesday after years of delay caused by a dispute between the artist and the city over costs and design.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel inaugurated the new monument, joined by President Joachim Gauck and dozens of Roma survivors of World War II. The memorial features a small pedestal jutting out from the center of a round pool of water on which a fresh flower is to be placed daily. A poem titled "Auschwitz," by Italian Santino Spinelli, is engraved around the pool's rim, which is circled by jagged stones laid in the grass.

The memorial, designed by Israeli artist Dani Karavan, is in the Tiergarten, Berlin's largest urban park, which lies across the street from the Reichstag, the German Parliament building.

The exact number of Roma, also known as Gypsies, killed in the Holocaust is unknown, but experts estimate that up to 500,000 could have died. The Nazis deemed the Roma racially inferior and shipped them to concentration camps, where many were killed and subjected to medical experiments.

German government drafts measure to keep circumcision legal

BERLIN -- The German government finalized its draft of a measure Wednesday to protect circumcision after a local court threw the practice into a legal quagmire in June.

The bill would allow circumcision to be carried out as long as it is performed in accordance with medical standards, does not put the child’s health in jeopardy and parents are notified of potential risks. Trained practitioners can also perform circumcisions on boys up to 6 months old even if they aren’t doctors, guaranteeing that mohels, Jews trained to perform the procedure, can do so in accordance with Jewish law.

The draft legislation by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet should help remove the legal uncertainties around the practice for religious communities in Germany, said Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who drew up the bill.

The measure came in response to a court ruling in the city of Cologne this summer that made circumcision illegal, saying it caused children bodily harm. The issue arose after a 4-year-old Muslim boy suffered complications from the practice.

German leader Merkel greeted by protesters in Greece

ATHENS -- Visiting the epicenter of Europe's debt crisis for the first time since the troubles began three years ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday tried to assure recession-racked Greeks that she understood their suffering but encouraged them not to abandon the road of austerity and painful spending cuts.

“I know that the path to recovery has been difficult,” Merkel said after two hours of talks with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. “Still, the strides that have been made are worth being completed.”

Her words failed to placate many of the 30,000 people who swarmed Athens to protest a visit by the woman they blame for pushing Greece down the road to economic ruin through her relentless emphasis on austerity in exchange for emergency aid.

Just minutes before Merkel arrived in downtown Athens, protesters dressed as Nazi officers rolled into Syntagma Square, outside the Greek Parliament building, in a military jeep festooned with swastika-stamped flags.

Then, as the German leader gave only qualified support for Greece's continued membership in the Eurozone, the club of 17 nations that use the euro currency, militant protesters fired a flurry of firecracker-like projectiles at the police outside Parliament.

German leader Angela Merkel enters the lion's den: Greece

ATHENS -- With Europe's debt crisis deepening, German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Greece on Tuesday to signal her support for a country where many blame her personally for driving their economy into the ground.

As the tough-talking German leader disembarked from a private jet, boarding a motorcade bound for central Athens, she swiftly shuttled into a lion's den of rage and resentment over the policies of austerity that she has insisted on as the price of emergency loans to keep cash-strapped Greece afloat.

Authorities deployed about 7,000 plainclothes police officers, snipers and commandos to lock down the Greek capital and fend off potential attacks from protesters angry over Merkel's visit, her first to this country since the European debt crisis began here three years ago. The visit is to last just seven hours.

As Merkel was being driven into downtown Athens, protesters dressed in Nazi uniforms rolled into Syntagma Square, outside the Greek Parliament building, in a military jeep festooned with swastika-stamped flags.

Since the visit was announced last week, opposition political parties, trade unions and anarchists have rallied Greeks to walk out of their jobs and join a string of protests that kicked off Monday and are set culminate later Tuesday when Merkel meets with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Must Reads: Raccoons, vigilantes and free speech

From raccoons ravaging Germany to the relatives of the last Chinese emperor, here are five stories you shouldn't miss from this past week in global news:

In China, last emperor's kin hold rare reunion

Vigilante justice brings terror to 2 African nations

At U.N., free speech divides West and Muslim nations

In Damascus, Syria, life is disappearing from the streets

Unfortunately for Germany, it's 'a wonderland for raccoons'

-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles

Photo: Philippine Muslims shout slogans during a demonstration near the gates of the presidential  palace in Manila on Friday. A group of Filipinos opposed to an anti-Islam video recently filed a petition to order the government to ban it. Credit: Amiel Meneses / European Pressphoto Agency

Fearing violence, Germany closes embassies in some Muslim countries

BERLIN -- Germany joined France and other nations in closing embassies in some Muslim countries on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, in the wake of violence sparked by unflattering depictions of the prophet Muhammad in Western media.

With a German satirical magazine planning its own anti-Islam cover for next week, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin issued a warning to its diplomats in the Middle East and other Muslim areas.

"We have increased safety measures and boosted the number of security personnel in the region," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters Thursday. Although many German embassies in the Muslim world routinely close on Fridays, officials are braced for protests during this week's day of prayer.

Westerwelle said the decision to close individual embassies would be made at short notice depending on their locations. Last week, protesters in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, set the German Embassy ablaze in anger over the amateur anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims."

Earlier this week, the German satirical magazine Titanic said the cover of its October issue, which hits newsstands Sept. 28, would show the wife of former German President Christian Wulff with a Muslim fighter. Bettina Wulff, whose husband was forced to resign seven months ago amid a corruption scandal, has recently published a memoir revealing personal details of her time as first lady.

The forthcoming Titanic issue's cover reads: “West rises up: Bettina Wulff makes film about Muhammad."

Westerwelle said the cover "pours oil on the fire" lit by "Innocence of Muslims," which ignited violent protests across the Muslim world. Earlier this week, France announced that it would close some of its official buildings around the globe Friday over fears of a backlash against satirical cartoons of Muhammad in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

"Freedom of expression does not allow for freedom to insult, offend or vilify other faiths," said Westerwelle. He added that responsibility comes along with freedom.

In several German cities Muslims are planning demonstrations this weekend against "Innocence of Muslims" and its crude portrait of Muhammad. Germany is home to 4 million Muslims. On Friday, 800 people are expected to take to the street in Freiburg, and 1,000 people are expected in Karlsruhe on Saturday, according to city officials quoted in the German daily Die Welt.

In an interview with Spiegel Online, Titanic's editor in chief, Leo Fischer, defended the coming magazine cover, saying that his publication was simply reacting to the news and poking fun at Islam the way it has done before with the pope and other religious leaders.

"I consider the view that European Muslims are nothing more than sword-swinging crazies to be racist," Fischer told Spiegel. "I am relying on their understanding -- and on their indifference."

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French missions abroad on alert after cartoons mock Muslims

-- Renuka Rayasam

Photo: Demonstrators protest the anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims" outside the German Embassy in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, last week. Credit: Abd Raouf / Associated Press

World powers to meet with Iran on gridlocked nuclear talks

The six world powers that have been trying to come to an agreement with Iran over its disputed nuclear program are having a face-to-face meeting Tuesday with Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator -- but not because there’s been any progress toward a deal.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and the point person for the six powers group, will meet Tuesday in Istanbul, Turkey, with Iran's Saeed Jalili to discuss the status of their gridlocked talks, diplomats said.

More specifically, Ashton will ask Jalili whether Iran is ready to replace its earlier proposal -- termed a “nonstarter” by the United States -- with an offer that might finally get talks moving.

“This is a chance for Lady Ashton … to see what the Iranians are thinking,” Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, told reporters. “We’re going the extra mile to offer them a face-to-face meeting to see what’s up.”

In discussions last spring, Iran said it would agree to halt production of its medium-enriched uranium if the six countries would recognize Iran’s right to enrich uranium to a low level, and would grant the Islamic Republic relief from sanctions. But the offer fell far short of the demands of the six countries -- Britain, France, Germany, United States, Russia and China.

The group’s political directors made no progress with Iran at their last meeting, held in Moscow in June. Since then, the two sides have held lower-level technical meetings. But diplomats said the lower-level meetings haven’t brought the two sides closer together.

Germany's supreme court OKs European bailout fund

BERLIN -- Germany's supreme court has rejected petitions to block ratification of Europe's $640-billion rescue fund, giving the go-ahead for a key element of European leaders' strategy for combating the continent's long-running debt crisis.

The constitutional court was petitioned by 37,000 Germans who argued that the European Stability Mechanism, or ESM, contravened the country's constitution.

In what was viewed as one of the most important decisions in the court's 61-year history, the justices dismissed the petitions but imposed some significant conditions on the use of the ESM, namely a limit to Germany's liabilities.

The court ruled that a cap of 190 billion euros, about $245 billion, had to be set on Germany's contribution before the ESM was ratified. If the German parliament decides to back further funds, it can still do so. But the court's proviso will go some way to appease German taxpayers whose enthusiasm for the euro has waned significantly over their growing dissatisfaction that their money is being used to prop up debt-laden, reform-shy economies in southern Europe.

“The review has concluded that the laws that were challenged, with high probability, do not violate the constitution,” Andreas Vosskuhle, the court's president, said as onlookers in the courtroom stood to hear the verdict read out. “Hence the motions for a temporary junction are to be rejected."

Markets reacted positively to the news, with the euro reaching a four-month high against the dollar out of apparent relief that some of the conditions to be imposed on the bailout fund appear to be less cumbersome than had been feared.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to react to the ruling when she addressed the Bundestag later in the day. The ruling amounts to a considerable boost for her and her government, which championed the rescue fund.

Members of the German parliament expressed relief that the Bundestag's backing of the bailout fund and Europe's fiscal pact, which imposes budgetary discipline on its signatories, had not been toppled by the court.

“Finally the ESM can start to operate,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier, head of the opposition Social Democrats, said.

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German judges may hold Europe's fate in their hands

'Get lost, you rich idiot!' French howl as tycoon eyes Belgium

U.S. casino mogul Adelson gambles on Madrid as site of EuroVegas

-- Kate Connolly

Photo: Andreas Vosskuhle, the president of Germany's constitutional court, arrives at the court Wednesday ahead of a key ruling on the legality of Europe's permanent bailout fund. Credit: Thomas Kienzle / AFP/Getty Images