The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness says republicans have been talking privately to a “very significant group of Protestants and unionists”.

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Sinn Fein confirm unionist talks

African Union (AU) forces in Somalia say they have captured a strategic town near the capital, Mogadishu, after Islamist militants pulled out.

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Key Somali militant town ‘taken’

BRUSSELS — European leaders expressed determination to keep Greece in the euro zone early Thursday after a summit meeting and said that, despite a deep divide between France and Germany, they would seek a new European Union “growth pact” designed to stimulate their sagging economies. Read full article > >

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E.U. summit leaders aim to keep Greece in euro zone, agree growth pact

Thousands of Somalis flee fighting as African Union troops advance on Afgoye, a stronghold near the capital of the Islamist militant group al-Shabab.

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Thousands flee Somalia advance

European stock markets have fallen sharply amid concerns over Greece ahead of a European Union summit.

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Shares hit by concern over Greece

European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Wednesday are expected to hear the new French president challenge the EU’s German-led austerity drive.

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EU’s austerity agenda challenged

Thousands of Bahrainis protest outside the capital against a plan to create a union of Gulf Arab countries, with similar demonstrations in Tehran and Dubai.

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Protesters angered by Gulf union

Greater Manchester voters are to be polled over whether they want a referendum on UK membership of the European Union.

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Voters asked about EU referendum

“Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned,” said President Obama in his 2012 State of the Union address , “doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” It was a “rah-rah America!” applause line for a president who needed to get the assembled Republicans out of their seats a few times over the course of the evening. But the line works literally, too. Whenever someone tells me that the United States is in decline, I have no idea what they’re talking about. And neither, I tend to think, do they. Read full article > >

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America’s not perfect, but it’s certainly not in decline

Bahrain’s foreign ministry summons Iran’s charge d’affaires following Iranian comments objecting to a proposed union between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

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Bahrain and Iran in ‘union’ row

RICHMOND — Guns, gays and organized labor. Three outspoken champions of these hot-button issues in Virginia were on the list of people the General Assembly planned to appoint as judges this week. The gun-rights guy, a former Republican state delegate who has pushed for lifting restrictions on concealed weapons in public buildings, got his judgeship. So did the pro-union Democrat, another former delegate, whose grandfather organized coal miners in Southwest Virginia. Read full article > >

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Virginia General Assembly rejects openly gay prosecutor for Richmond judgeship

Days after President Obama expressed his support for same sex unions, his likely challenger, Mitt Romney, has said marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

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VIDEO: Romney rejects same sex marriage

A strike by fuel tanker drivers is averted after drivers vote to accept a peace deal, the Unite union announces.

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Fuel tanker driver strike averted

Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being wasted by delays in the redevelopment of a former army barracks, an Ulster Unionist MLA says.

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Cash ‘wasted’ over barracks delay

About 2,500 prison officers in Scotland join a strike of public sector workers despite a voluntary deal between union and management not to strike.

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Scots prison officers join strike