Freelance Medical Writing

France and Germany want the EU to agree on a common position ahead of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on September 24-25, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday.

The two leaders said after talks in the German capital that they were sending a joint letter to current EU presidency holder Sweden urging the bloc to hammer out on a common line.

Sarkozy added they had proposed an European Union meeting for September 17.

Liquor company Brown-Forman Corp. reports earnings for its first quarter on Wednesday before the market opens. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

OVERVIEW: Brown-Forman has seen weaker sales as the recession cuts into consumer spending on alcohol. Some higher-priced brands have suffered sales slowdowns as consumers head for less-expensive brands of wines and spirits.

Sales fell 12 percent for the company’s fourth quarter and were down 3 percent for the year, dragged down as well by the strong dollar.

Japan’s next prime minister began forming a government on Monday as investors worried the untested Democratic Party would overspend in a bid to revive the economy or would ruffle ties with Tokyo’s closest ally, Washington.

Sunday’s historic election win by Yukio Hatoyama’s party breaks a deadlock in parliament and will usher in a government that has promised to focus spending on consumers, cut wasteful budget outlays and reduce the power of bureaucrats.

The defeated Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was left to lick its wounds after its worst election performance since the conservative party was founded in 1955. The party had ruled Japan for almost all of the last half-century.

Authorities will need to conduct toxicology tests, expected to take weeks, to determine what killed celebrity disc jockey DJ AM, a medical examiner’s office spokeswoman said Saturday.

An autopsy Saturday of the 36-year-old was inconclusive, said the spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that police found a crack pipe and prescription pills in the apartment where they discovered DJ AM’s body Friday evening. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

The Material Girl has opened a visit to the Holy Land with a spiritual touch.

Madonna headed to Jerusalem’s Old City late Sunday where she toured an ancient tunnel near the Western Wall — the holiest site where Jews can pray.

The 50-year-old pop star arrived in a black Mercedes van and was escorted into the tunnel by police. She made no comment to reporters and was whisked away about a half hour later.

Madonna isn’t Jewish, but she’s a follower of Jewish mysticism and has even taken the Hebrew name Esther.

“The Bold and the Beautiful” won drama series honors at the Daytime Emmys on Sunday, the CBS soap opera’s first such victory in 22 years on the air.

It was a poignant victory for executive producer Bradley Bell, whose late father William J. Bell co-created “The Young and the Restless,” a show that was honored seven times in the same category. The younger Bell’s mother, Lee Phillip Bell who worked closely with her husband and also on her son’s show, cheered him on.

“It’s incredibly exciting because I grew up going to visit that show,” Bell said backstage. “It’s sweeter after 22 years, it didn’t come in five or 10 or 15 years. I think my dad is here in spirit. He would probably say, `It’s about time.’ I took out the expletive.”

Bombings targeted a Pakistani police station and set a NATO fuel convoy ablaze Sunday, killing 16 cadets in the northwest’s Swat Valley and threatening the supply line to international forces in Afghanistan in a separate attack near the border.

The two blasts hours apart and hundreds of miles from each other came as Pakistani officials said the Taliban were ramping up strikes to avenge recent setbacks, including the loss of territory to the military and the death of their top leader in a CIA missile strike near the Afghan border.

Pakistan’s military has in recent months intensified its fight against the al-Qaida-linked extremists, who threaten stability in the nuclear-armed nation and are suspected of helping plot attacks against U.S. and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have ruled Zimbabwe since the country’s liberation from white-minority rule in 1980. During this nearly 30-year tenure, Zimbabwe has gone from being a regional breadbasket to a net-recipient of food aid, with one of the highest inflation rates in human history.

Mugabe’s harsh treatment of political opponents has also caused many Western countries to cut off development aid and to apply targeted sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle.

Despite the coalition agreement, tensions among the ruling partners have risen recently. Work has largely stopped as the parties bicker over issues of powersharing and control of ministries.

The fact that the book is named after a street in London’s upmarket Primrose Hill, home to the rich and famous, underlines Weldon’s belief that no one is likely to be spared.

“It seems to me a perfectly possible outcome within four years,” said Weldon, a leading British author most commonly associated with the feminist movement.

“Unless we are very, very lucky, there will be a double dip, there will be inflation, there will be a collapse of the currency so you go back to bartering between nations,” the 77-year-old told Reuters in an interview.