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• Freshly inaugurated, French President Hollande visits the White House on Friday and plans to announce a pullout of all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end. That could infuriate NATO allies and embarrass his re-election-minded host -- and may well be logistically impossible.
• Hollande, who has little international experience, will have to muster diplomatic finesse for the political thicket he faces in the United States.
• First, he must defend France's interests while building a relationship with Obama, widely popular in France but seen by some in Hollande's camp as having been too friendly with his predecessor, conservative Nicolas Sarkozy.
• Second, Hollande must convince partners at the Group of Eight economic summit at Obama's presidential retreat, Camp David, that his insistence on rethinking a European austerity treaty won't send the region deeper into debt crisis.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The leaders of eight of the world's biggest economies meet this weekend outside Washington, seeking to keep Europe's debt crisis from spiraling out of control and jeopardizing fledgling recoveries in the U.S. and elsewhere.
• The turmoil in Greece is draining confidence in the 17 countries that use the euro. Borrowing costs are up for the most indebted governments. Depositors and investors are fleeing banks seen as weak. Unemployment is soaring as recession grips nearly half the eurozone countries. And global markets are on edge.
• All that forms a tumultuous backdrop as representatives of the G8 countries -- the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Russia, Italy and Canada -- head to Camp David. Standing in the way of a breakthrough are disagreements over how to bolster Europe's economy and avoid a broader catastrophe.
• In advance of the talks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel struck a conciliatory note this week. She said in a television interview this week that she was open to measures to help stimulate Greece's economy as long as the country honors its commitments to shrink its debts.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner applauded the softer tone emerging among European leaders.
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