Obama, in Berlin, calls for U.S., Russia to cut nuclear warheads

BERLIN — President Obama on Wednesday called for reducing the number of deployed U.S. strategic nuclear warheads by one-third if the Russian government agrees to a similar cut, reviving a goal outlined early in his presidency to work toward a world without nuclear weapons. Read full article >>

Head of Russian news website faces prison

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — There was a time when a wily and adept journalist had room to maneuver in this Russian city, between the competing camps of the mayor and the governor. Aksana Panova took full advantage of that, and her news Web site, called ura.ru, made a name for itself as splashy and outspoken. Read full article >>

G-8 leaders call for Syrian peace talks, sidestep issue of whether Assad should go

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — Leaders of the Group of Eight nations called Tuesday for a negotiated resolution to the worsening conflict in Syria, but in a concession to Russia, they did not declare that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must resign. Read full article >>

Syrian refugees find little help in Greece

Thousands of Syrians fleeing war and misery are making their way to Europe, and many are coming through Greece, whose Mediterranean islands stretch within tantalizing reach of home. Once they get here, many wish they’d never come. Read full article >>

Obama and Putin fail to resolve differences over Syria

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — President Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladi­mir Putin, failed to resolve on Monday their significant differences over how to bring about an end to Syria’s civil war, as each leader steps up military support for opposite sides in the worsening conflict. Read full article >>

Deadlock in Julian Assange saga continues

LONDON— British and Ecuadoran officials said Monday that they had failed to make a breakthrough in the standoff over Julian Assange, the controversial Wiki­Leaks founder who has spent the past year holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy. Read full article >>

The Guardian: Britain, United States spied at summits

LONDON — British and U.S. spy agencies monitored the e-mails and phone calls of foreign dignitaries at two international summits in London in 2009, the Guardian newspaper reported Monday, citing documents it received from former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. Read full article >>

Turkish police seal Istanbul’s Taksim Square from protesters

ISTANBUL — Police sealed Istanbul’s central Taksim Square on Sunday, a day after they cleared it in a tear-gas-filled conclusion to two weeks of anti-government protests in Turkey. Clashes between protesters and the police lasted far into the night around Istanbul and the country, as confrontation prevailed over a compromise that had briefly seemed attainable only hours earlier. Read full artic

Netanyahu helps dedicate upgraded Holocaust exhibit at Auschwitz

OSWIECIM, Poland — For decades, the Communist-era memorial to Jewish victims at the barracks known as Block 27 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex of Nazi death camps stood dilapidated and mostly ignored. Read full article >>

Putin discusses economic issues ahead of summits

MOSCOW— President Vladimir Putin could put it like this: “It’s the economy, comrade.”Russia is enjoying a turn in the economic limelight this year. In September, he hosts a G20 summit in St. Petersburg, where President Obama will be a much-sought guest despite regular outbreaks of anti-Americanism here. Read full article >>

In Istanbul’s shadow, Russian opposition rallies in protest

MOSCOW — Chastened by theprotests in Istanbul, Muscovites rallied Wednesday in a show of support for the 12 opposition defendants on trial for their actions a year ago in a clash with Russian police. Read full article >>

Russians shrug at Putin divorce

MOSCOW — Talk about a tabloid dream. The president of your country goes splitsville right on national television after years of scoffing at rumors that his marriage has turned colder than Siberia. Stop the presses and pull out the big headline type. Read full article >>

Moscow mayor sets his resignation, and his return

MOSCOW — The mayor of Moscow said Tuesday that he will resign two years early so that elections can be held in September. He intends to run in those elections and is likely to be named acting mayor until then. He is also expected to win. Read full article >>

U.S. blacklists global network of Iran-linked companies

BERLIN — The workers at a gas tank factory in Dinslaken, Germany, had questioned the strange goings-on at their company ever since its Iran-linked owners bought it a decade ago. On Tuesday, they got an answer. Read full article >>

Russia, E.U. tussle over ‘Magnitsky list’ visa restrictions

MOSCOW — Russian and European Union officials meeting at a summit Tuesday discussed liberalizing visa rules for many Russians, an issue that brought objections from politicians concerned about human rights abuses. Read full article >>

Turkish premier, president clash over reply to protests

ANKARA, Turkey — As riot police used tear gas against protesters for a fourth straight day in Istanbul, Turkey’s president and prime minister displayed wide differences Monday in their responses to those taking to the streets. One death was reported. Read full article >>

U.S., NATO allies to consider Libya military training mission

BRUSSELS — U.S. officials will discuss this week with NATO allies the possibility of establishing a military training mission for Libya’s fledgling security forces, defense officials said Monday, as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Brussels for a meeting of defense chiefs. Read full article >>

Russia’s foe is America’s, say GOP visitors

MOSCOW — Russia has an enthusiastic and perhaps unlikely friend in Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, the Republican leader of a congressional delegation here, who said Sunday that radical Islam has the United States and Russia “by the throat” and that the two countries had better learn to cooperate. Read full article >>

Questioning the right to tweet

After the recent slaying of a British soldier in a suspected Islamist extremist attack, angry social media users took to Twitter and Facebook, with some dispatching racially and religiously charged comments that got them quickly noticed on the busy boulevards of the Internet. Read full article >>

Russian forces arrest mayor of Dagestan city where Tsarnaev lived

MOSCOW — The mayor of Dagestan’s largest city, who has survived 15 assassination attempts and employs a large security force to protect him, was arrested on murder charges Saturday by heavily armed forces in armored personnel carriers and helicopters, Russian officials said. Read full article >>

Russian FSB describes its Tsarnaev letter to FBI

MOSCOW — Russian security officials told a congressional delegation this week that the Boston Marathon bombing could have been prevented if the United States had acted on information Moscow had provided, one of the congressmen said Friday. Read full article >>

Elysee wine sale enlivened by protests

PARIS — “We don’t want your vinegar, Hollande!” yelled a young protester as he rushed past startled bidders and lunged toward the platform where the auctioneer was busy selling a treasure trove of wines from the famed cellar of the Elysee Palace. Read full article >>

Chechen’s father says FBI killed son to keep him quiet

MOSCOW — The father of the Chechen man who was fatally shot by an FBI agent last week said agents questioned his son for hours on end about one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing and then killed him to keep him quiet. Read full article >>

Russian NGO deemed ‘foreign agent,’ fined

MOSCOW — A judge in the Russian city of Kostroma ruled Wednesday that a local civic organization, which earlier this year held a roundtable discussion with a U.S. diplomat, was a foreign agent and found it guilty of failing to register as such. Read full article >>

Russian test answers posted online amid clash between politicians and academics

MOSCOW —Answers to Thursday’s nationwide high-school graduation exams in Russia have been posted online, leaving the politically embattled Education Ministry scrambling for a quick fix. It was not clear late Wednesday whether the answers are the correct ones, but at a time when academic standards are increasingly clashing with political imperatives, it was plain that someone is trying to unde

Manhunt continues for assailant who stabbed French soldier in neck

PARIS —French police pursued a nationwide manhunt Sunday for a tall, bearded assailant who wounded a uniformed soldier in the neck with a box cutter in what authorities said was an attempted assassination. Read full article >>

French soldier stabbed in neck by robed attacker

PARIS — A uniformed French soldier on an antiterrorism patrol in the western suburbs of Paris was wounded in the neck Saturday by a robed assailant wielding a box cutter, police and subway authorities said. Read full article >>

Interpol snubs Russia on request to arrest human rights critic William Browder

MOSCOW — Interpol has refused a request from Russia to put William Browder, a U.S.-born investment banker who has organized a worldwide campaign to punish Russia for human rights abuses, on its arrest list. Browder was a major proponent of the U.S. Magnitsky law, which imposes visa and financial sanctions on Russians deemed to have violated human rights. Read full article >>

IMF chief Christine Lagarde to be witness, not suspect, in French arbitration case

PARIS — Christine Lagarde, director general of the International Monetary Fund, wound up more than 25 hours of interrogation Friday night without any accusation being leveled against her for a contested decision to accept arbitration in a multimillion-dollar business case in 2008, during her tenure as France’s finance minister. Read full article >>

Britain’s David Cameron faces conservative backlash

Republicans weighing a shift to the center ahead of the next presidential race will find a cautionary tale on this side of the Atlantic, where British Prime Minister David Cameron is paying the price for his foray outside of strictly conservative territory. Read full article >>