Bhutan
Beloved ruler marries his commoner bride
PUNAKHA - The beloved king of the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan married his commoner bride Thursday in an ancient Buddhist ceremony at the country's most sacred monastery fortress.
King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, wearing the raven crown, came down from his golden throne in front of a huge statue of Buddha to place a smaller, silk brocade crown upon the head of his bride, Jetsun Pema. Monks chanted in celebration as she took her seat beside him as the new queen of the country.
The wedding has captivated the nation, which had grown impatient with their 31-year-old bachelor king's lack of urgency to find a bride and start a family of his own since his father retired and handed power to him five years ago.
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Mexico
Officials: 7 confirmed dead from hurricane
MEXICO CITY - Seven people were confirmed dead in the Mexican states of Colima and Jalisco Thursday as authorities reported that Hurricane Jova had caused more damage than initially presumed.
Numerous rivers had burst their banks, cutting off communities from the outside world, reported the newspaper El Universal, citing civil protection authorities. More than 100,000 residents had been taken to safety.
Jova reached Mexico's Pacific coast Wednesday night, quickly losing strength after that. The U.S. National Hurricane Center reported Thursday that it had been downgraded to a depression.
Greece
Acropolis closed as strikes spread
ATHENS - Unions and protesters shut down the Acropolis, halted public transport and occupied government buildings on Thursday, intensifying their confrontation with the Greek government as it scrambles to push more painful cuts through parliament.
Greece's largest labor union, the GSEE, sided with protesting public servants and announced plans to strike on Oct. 19 and 20, in opposition to the Socialist government's "ineffective and catastrophic policies," it said.
Stores and even farmers markets are also due to close on the first day of the strike.
France
Prosecutor drops Strauss-Kahn case
PARIS - French prosecutors say Dominique Strauss-Kahn did something to a writer that qualifies as sexual assault, but they can't send him to trial because it happened too long ago and they are dropping the case.
Thursday's announcement is a legal victory, but a moral embarrassment for the suave, assured, and married economist who earlier this year led the International Monetary Fund and was on track to seek the French presidency.
The Paris prosecutor's office said it has dropped an investigation into writer Tristane Banon's claim that he tried to rape her during a 2003 interview for a book the then-23-year-old was writing.
Math teacher sets self on fire in schoolyard
MONTPELLIER - A high school math teacher in southern France sprayed herself with a flammable product and set herself alight in the schoolyard during recess Thursday, France's education minister said.
The motives behind the incident, which took place early Thursday in the Mediterranean city of Beziers, were not immediately clear.
The teacher, whose name has not been released, was flown via helicopter to nearby Montpellier and hospitalized with serious burns.
Britain
Accusations might bring new WSJ probe
LONDON - Britain's newspaper auditor said Thursday that it may move to investigate The Wall Street Journal's European circulation figures after a former employee accused it of propping up its subscriptions by effectively paying for its own papers via third parties.
The Wall Street Journal Europe's publisher, Andrew Langhoff, has already resigned over the paper's links to the Netherlands-based Executive Learning Partnership, a consultancy that former program manager Gert Van Mol says was receiving payments and getting press in return for buying up thousands of copies of the Journal's papers.
Wire reports
