Chen Guangcheng is pleading for the U.S. to allow him to leave China. He had said on Wednesday that he wanted to stay in the country. Before that, he had spent nearly a week at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing after escaping from house arrest.

The governments of Bolivia and Argentina have recently seized privately-owned Spanish companies and nationalized them. Members of Argentina's congress are expected to support the president's expropriation.

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a strategic partnership agreement in the Afghan capital Kabul. The deal put a spotlight on a future Afghanistan that does not include a massive number of American and NATO troops.

Bolivia and Argentina's nationalization of Spanish companies hasn't gone over well in Madrid. Spanish officials say Bolivia and Argentina will pay the price in the long run, as investors become weary of doing business if their assets could ultimately get seized.

Greeks go to the polls Sunday in a climate of intense voter anger at politicians they blame for turning their country into an international economic pariah. Protest votes could fill Parliament with an array of new parties. Most surprising is the growing popularity of the xenophobic Golden Dawn, which espouses a neo-Nazi ideology.

It's a big day in British politics. Voting is underway in local elections that will, in part, be a verdict on the performance of the beleaguered government of Prime Minister David Cameron.