The Democratic-led Senate easily cleared a hurdle to averting a government shutdown after a Republican lawmaker ended a 21-hour speech aimed at using the measure to derail President Barack Obama’s signature health care overhaul. Senators voted unanimously Wednesday to allow a temporary spending bill ...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz escalated his conflict with fellow Republicans Tuesday when he stepped up his attacks on President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, complicating House GOP efforts to pass a funding bill that would avert a government shutdown next week. Launching a ...

The strong performance by Angela Merkel’s conservatives in Sunday’s German election was not only a victory for her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) but also vindication of her strategy of transforming a party long dominated by Roman Catholic men. During her eight years as chancellor, ...

Chancellor Angela Merkel led her conservatives to a stunning victory in Germany’s election Sunday, a personal triumph that cements her position as Europe’s most powerful leader. However, she will need to reach out to center-left rivals to form a new government after her coalition ...

With the arduous campaign to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg in its final stage, New Yorkers now have their choices before them: stick with policies that have kept the city relatively safe and prosperous, or break from a past some residents complain has nurtured income ...

A British member of the European Parliament has been temporarily disowned by his right-wing party after referring to a room of party delegates Friday as “sluts.” Godfrey Bloom found himself in hot water at the conference of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) when ...

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a temporary funding bill to keep the government running Friday but tied it to an attempt to cripple President Barack Obama’s landmark health care overhaul — a risky ploy that threatens a partial shutdown of the government ...

In novelist Victor Pelevin’s pungent satire on contemporary Russia, “The Sacred Book of the Werewolf,” its narrator, a 2,000-year-old shape-shifter, kisses Alexander, a brutish but alluring officer with the FSB, the Russian security service — who is a werewolf, like all his colleagues. In ...