BAGHDAD / ERBIL / Reuters A delegation representing Iraq’s ruling Shi’ite coalition may meet Kurdish politicians again next week to try to convince them to delay or cancel a plan to hold an independence referendum, a negotiator said. A first round of talks, held last week in Baghdad, brought the two sides closer and a second round could be held …

Bloomberg Angela Merkel’s main challenger, Martin Schulz, sharpened his attack against the German chancellor less than five weeks before the election as his Social Democrats struggle to narrow the gap in polls that give her a dominant advantage. Laying out his pitch in the northern German city of Bremen, where the Social Democrats have governed since 1945, Schulz called for …

Bloomberg North Korea threatened the US on Tuesday, saying it will face “merciless revenge” for ignoring Pyongyang’s warnings over annual military drills with South Korea. The isolated nation said it would be a misjudgment for the US to think that North Korea will “sit comfortably without doing anything,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, citing an unidentified military spoke-sman. …