BERLIN (Reuters) – John Demjanjuk, a retired U.S. engine mechanic convicted for his role in killing 28,000 Jews as a guard at a Nazi death camp during World War Two, died on Saturday aged 91 in a care home in southern Germany, police said.

A Munich court convicted Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk in May 2011 of helping to kill the Jews at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. He was sentenced to five years in prison but freed because of his age.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel, buoyed by an EU summit that crowned her political ascendancy in Europe, will seek Beijing’s support for the ailing euro this week on a China tour showcasing the global reach of German firms and booming trade ties between the world’s top two exporters.

With most of Europe now signed up to a German-inspired pact for stricter budget discipline, Merkel wants China to contribute via the IMF to a financial firewall to stem contagion from the euro zone’s debt crisis, though she seems unlikely to succeed.

ATHENS (Reuters) – At the end of a sunny day on the Acropolis last month, Svein Davoy gazed awe-struck at the columns of the Parthenon gleaming in the twilight.

“It’s marvelous. This is where Western civilization began. I will certainly tell my friends to come to Greece and see all this,” enthused Davoy, 63, an economist from Norway.

ATHENS (Reuters) – International lenders have welcomed a written pledge from Greece’s conservative party leader to back austerity measures, the prime minister was quoted as saying on Thursday, a move that should unlock loans needed to avoid national bankruptcy.

In a further boost for technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, a cabinet minister said the lenders would send a troika mission back to Athens next month to hold talks on Greece’s new 130 billion euro (112 billion pound) bailout plan.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s creditors failed on Saturday to persuade the leader of the main conservative party to drop his refusal to sign a pledge that he will back austerity measures under a bailout deal aimed at saving the country from financial ruin.

Antonis Samaras, leader of New Democracy, one of three parties in a new national unity coalition struggling to avert a disastrous default, says there is no need to provide a written guarantee because his word can be trusted.

ATHENS, Nov 19 (Reuters) – International lenders will
press

Greece’s fractious political parties on Saturday to give
written guarantees that they will back austerity measures under
a bailout deal aimed at saving the country from financial ruin.

The leader of conservative New Democracy — one of three
parties in the new national unity government of technocrat Prime
Minister Lucas Papademos — has stirred dismay in the EU by
refusing to sign any pledge, saying his word is enough.

ROME/ATHENS (Reuters) – The euro zone looks for some respite Wednesday, with Italy due to unveil a technocrat-led cabinet and a new Greek coalition expected to win a confidence vote, as Europe battles to prevent its debt woes from dragging down the world economy.

Former EU commissioner Mario Monti is set to inform Italy’s president that he has assembled a new government, whose most pressing task will be to get a fractious political class to agree to painful structural reforms designed to rescue its debt-laden finances.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s new government should comfortably survive a vote of confidence Wednesday but Prime Minister Lucas Papademos faces a daunting task repairing the shattered public finances, and cracks are already appearing in his crisis coalition.

Polls show Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank, has the backing of three in four Greeks but the need to implement painful tax rises and spending cuts to secure fresh loans and stave off bankruptcy will sorely test that support.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s new government should comfortably survive a vote of confidence on Wednesday but Prime Minister Lucas Papademos faces a daunting task repairing the shattered public finances, and cracks are already appearing in his crisis coalition.

Polls show Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank, has the backing of three in four Greeks but the need to implement painful tax rises and spending cuts to secure fresh loans and stave off bankruptcy will sorely test that support.

ATHENS, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Greece’s new government
should comfortably survive a vote of confidence on Wednesday but
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos faces a daunting task repairing
the shattered public finances, and cracks are already appearing
in his crisis coalition.

Polls show Papademos, a former vice president of the
European Central Bank, has the backing of three in four Greeks
but the need to implement painful tax rises and spending cuts to
secure fresh loans and stave off bankruptcy will sorely test
that support.