A senior U.S. official says American and Russian negotiators meeting in Geneva are closing in on a deal for a key nuclear disarmament treaty, and the United States Senate would likely ratify it.   U.S.

Dutch politician Geert Wilders has appeared in an Amsterdam court on charges of incitement and discrimination against Muslims for his comments about Islam and for an anti-Muslim film he made.  The trial in the Netherlands is being closely watched around the world, because it pits the right to free speech against religious freedom and freedom against persecution. The defendant is Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose remarks against Islam and Muslims, and his anti-Islamic movie, Fitna, have offended many Muslims around the world. At the Amsterdam courthouse where he went on tr

The European Union has chosen its first full-time president - Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy. Leaders of the 27-member bloc also chose a woman for the second top job - British commissioner Catherine Ashton, who will be the EU's new foreign policy chief At a press conference in Brussels, the European Union's President-elect Herman Van Rompuy offered a unifying message in English, Flemish and French -  vowing to listen and take into account all the diverse views of the 27-member block. "Europe must be in every member state's advantage," said  Herman Van Rompuy.

International experts and politicians are in Brussels for a two-day meeting on ways to harmonize European and American policy on Eritrea and other parts of the Horn of Africa.   The meeting is sponsored by Europe External Policy Advisors, a Brussels-based research group.  It is being held amid mounting international concern about Eritrea's human-rights policy and allegations the Eritrean government supports Islamist insurgents in neighboring Somalia. In August, U.S.