WORLD

Jon Huntsman will drop out of the Republican presidential race and will endorse frontrunner Mitt Romney, according to his campaign sources. He has informed his campaign advisers that he is quitting and is expected to make the announcement on Monday during a speech at Myrtle beach, South Carolina.

Romanian riot police used tear gas against protesters who threw rocks and set fire to newspaper stands and rubbish bins in central Bucharest in a fourth day of street demonstrations against government austerity measures Sunday.

Jon Huntsman will drop out of the Republican presidential race on Monday and endorse Mitt Romney, a senior Huntsman campaign official said Sunday night.

The European Central Bank will do all it can to calm the situation after Standard & Poor's downgraded several euro zone members' debt ratings in the past week, ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said on Sunday.

Financial markets are unlikely to be derailed by mass euro zone downgrades, but with Greek debt talks at an impasse, pressure has been loaded on the bloc to shore up its defenses and glimmers of optimism from last week have been firmly doused.

The U.N. chief told Bashar al-Assad Sunday to stop killing your people and the Syrian leader offered an amnesty for crimes committed during a 10-month-old revolt against him.

The United States and Israel have postponed a joint military exercise due to be held in the coming weeks until later in the year, an Israeli security source told Reuters Sunday.

Iran said Sunday it had received a letter from the U.S. government about the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil shipping lane that Tehran has threatened to close if sanctions prevent it exporting oil.

Financial Stability Board Chairman Mark Carney on Sunday rejected calls from the banking industry to delay planned tougher capital rules for lenders, saying such a move would not spur strong growth.

The euro zone's bailout fund can hold onto its AAA rating with Standard & Poor's through higher guarantees from the euro zone's remaining triple A countries or lower lending capacity, a senior euro zone official said Sunday.

Iran said on Sunday it had received a letter from the U.S. government about the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil shipping lane that Tehran has threatened to close if sanctions prevent it exporting oil.

The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, the militant movement that poses the gravest security threat to the country, was believed killed by a U.S. drone strike, four Pakistan intelligence officials told Reuters Sunday.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, scrambling to keep his U.S. presidential bid alive, accused the Obama administration Sunday of overreacting to a videotape that shows four Marines appearing to urinate on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Negotiations between Greece and creditor banks on a deal aimed at cutting the country's towering debt pile are tough but will yield positive results, Germany's foreign minister said during a visit to Athens on Sunday.

The pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future has focused its resources on anti-Gingrich attack ads, even as other GOP candidates have surged in the polls.

Media baron Rupert Murdoch used his new Twitter account this weekend to attack the Obama Administration's opposition to parts of proposed legislation designed to combat Internet piracy.

European leaders promised on Saturday to speed up plans to strengthen spending rules and get a permanent bailout fund up and running as soon as possible, a day after U.S. agency S&P cut the ratings of several euro zone countries' creditworthiness.

Iran's effort to recover some $1.75 billion frozen in a U.S. bank faces a new obstacle due to a law President Barack Obama signed last month, potentially further squeezing Tehran's economy and exacerbating tensions between the two countries.

The United Nations chief told Bashar al-Assad on Sunday to stop killing your people, and the Syrian leader offered an amnesty for so-called crimes committed during a 10-month-old revolt against him.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Myanmar's foreign minister and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a call on Saturday the United States is committed to walking down the path of reform with the Southeast Asian nation.

A man was arrested on Friday night, on suspicion of killing a homeless man in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant in Orange County. Authorities said on Saturday they were extremely confident it is the same man who killed three other homeless people recently.

Ron Paul is being discussed as phenomenon in the U.S. now. The support he is gathering among the younger Republicans as well as the independent voters is creating ripples in the GOP. The Republican leaders look astonished and confused on how to handle the Ron Paul Revolution.

The all-Indian crew of a chemical oil tanker that was hijacked by Somali pirates in August last year has been released, alongwith the ship, Indian authorities said.

Iran warned its Arab neighbors on Sunday not to raise crude output to replace Iranian oil in the event of an embargo by the European Union, Tehran's governor for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was quoted as saying.

Is the SOPA bill dead? After comments by President Obama, many observers predict the Stop Online Piracy Act, and its sister act, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), are dead on arrival.

White House officials raised concerns on Saturday about online-piracy legislation pending in Congress that Facebook and Google Inc. have decried as heavy-handed, but that Hollywood studios and music labels say is needed to save U.S. jobs.

Iran said on Saturday it had evidence Washington was behind the recent killing of one of its nuclear scientists, state television reported, at a time when tensions over the country's nuclear program have escalated to their highest level ever.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has opened a wide lead over his rivals in the South Carolina primary election race, trouncing Newt Gingrich and gaining momentum in his march toward the party's nomination, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.

Myanmar's government said on Saturday 302 of the 651 detainees it freed this week were political prisoners whose release had been sought by the National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.