President Obama will visit wounded GIs and their families at Landstuhl Regional Medical Facility in Germany next week, the White House announced.

The stop could be a makeup for Obama’s decision last year as a candidate not to visit Landstuhl when he went to Germany as a candidate.

The stop on June 5 will come during an already scheduled trip next week to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany and France.

Landstuhl, the White House notes, “supports our service men and women stationed in Europe, and serves a leading and vital role in the care and recovery of personnel medically evacuated from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other forward-deployed posts within the U.S. European Command, Central Command and Africa Command areas of responsibility.”

President Barack Obama will travel to Russia, Italy and Ghana this July, the White House announced Saturday.

From the White House release:

The President is scheduled to travel to Moscow, Russia, July 6 to 8 at the invitation of President Medvedev. The summit meeting will provide an opportunity for the United States and the Russian Federation to deepen engagement on reducing nuclear weapons, cooperating on non-proliferation, exploring ways to cooperate on missile defense, addressing mutual threats and security challenges, and expanding the ties between American and Russian society and business.

The President will then attend the G-8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, from July 8 to 10. The Summit and related meetings with world leaders from emerging and African economies will provide an opportunity for the United States to engage with its partners on a broad range of issues. The President will also chair a meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate while at L’Aquila.

The President and Mrs. Obama will visit Accra, Ghana, from July 10 to 11. While in Ghana, the President will discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues with Ghanaian President Mills. The President and Mrs. Obama look forward to strengthening the U.S. relationship with one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa, and to highlighting the critical role that sound governance and civil society play in promoting lasting development.

The audience at President Obama’s town hall meeting in Strasbourg is a blend of French and German, particularly young people.
The White House says:
-1000 Tickets were distributed through German groups;
-1,100 tickets were distributed through local schools to Lycee (high school) students;
-1000 tickets were distributed by the Strasbourg city government;
-340 tickets were distributed to the Atlantic Youth Council – a trans-European group of students that study NATO, among other issues
There were some empty seats as Obama greeted the audience in French; the rest of the room greeted him with applause and cheers.

What’s the difference between a Barack Obama event in the United States and one in France?
The president and Mrs. Obama arrived in Strasbourg, France Tuesday morning, headed toward a NATO summit.
But the highlight on his schedule Thursday was a U.S.-style town  hall meeting with Obama.
It has all the feel of a U.S. campaign event, with heavy security outside, a stage in the middle inside and a podium set up with teleprompter for Obama’s opening remarks before he starts taking questions.
But there are two big differences as more than 1,000 people started arriving at the gym-like hall.
First, the introduction was in French. That wouldn’t work in Iowa.
Second, there’s no blaring rock music to pump up the crowd. Instead, there’s a sole woman playing a folk guitar and singing songs. Nobody looks very pumped up yet.
But that will surely change the moment Obama walks in. Earlier, he was greeted with cheers and waves when he and Mrs. Obama were welcomed to France and greeted outside the Palais Rohan by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Sarkozy.

We think we have backbiting and political posturing in Washington. Well, Barack Obama is about the meet some real pros as he arrives in London this evening for this week’s G-20 summit on the economy in Europe.
Oh, the foreign leaders aren’t likely to stab Obama in the back. He’s way too popular in their countries.
But they’re sniping at one another and doing all they can to posture for political purposes at home.
First, there was the leak of the group’s anticipated final statement to the German magazine Der Spiegel. That leak said the final agreement will call for a combined $2 trillion in spending to stimulate the world economy. The Brits blame the Germans, saying they want to torpedo the British-hosted summit.
Then there’s the report that French President Nicholas Sarkozy threatened to skip the meeting if he couldn’t win tough new regulations of banks and finance.
“If there's no progress in London, there'll be an empty chair. I'll get up and leave," Sarkozy said, according to a front page story Tuesday in Le Figaro.
And what about the little Spain-versus-Netherlands spat?
Seems neither made the list of the G-20 and fought one another for a vacant seat. Spain, with the world’s 8th largest economy, didn’t make the original list because it’s a “latecomer” to democracy, as London’s Guardian newspaper puts it. Netherlands simply didn’t make the cut.  
Spain argued its way into the summit as an add-on. Then, said the Guardian, “everyone took pity” and said the Dutch were invited, too.

London is very excited about President Obama coming to town Tuesday evening for the G-20 economic summit.
Local papers and newscasts are filled with stories about him, his wife, even his car. Did we know that his armored car carries shotguns, tear gas, a night vision camera and bags of Obama’s blood, type AB? 
Among the other things Londoners are learning today:
-Air Force One will not fly into Heathrow Airport as President Bush did a few years back, because that was “as bit of a nightmare” for commercial flights. It will fly into Stansted Airport for security reasons;
-The president and First Lady will stay at Winfield House, the residence of the U.S. ambassador. Sold to the government for $1 after World War II by American heiress Barbara Hutton, it has the second largest private gardens in London (after Buckingham Palace);
-The president’s Secret Service code name is Renegade. The Guardian newspaper notes, in a way that would delight the conspiracy cabals in the United States, that the word renegade comes from an old Spanish word for a Christian who’s converted to Islam;
-That Secret Service agents wear sunglasses…get ready for this …to shade their eyes from the sun.

President Obama has chosen St. Patrick’s Day to announce his intended nominee for Ambassador to Ireland: It’s Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who endorsed Obama in last year’s race and whom the president, in a release today, called “an unwavering supporter of Irish peace, culture, and education.” Rooney's been involved in the Irish peace process for more than three decades. The White House release noted among other accomplishments that Rooney is a co-founder of the American Ireland Fund, founded an annual prize for Irish literature and is an honorary Commander of the British Empire for his contributions to peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

President Obama and his wife will spend March 31-April 5 visiting the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic, the White House said today. The stops, some anticipated for several weeks now, include a London summit with G-20 leaders, NATO meetings in Franch and Germany and EU meetings in the Czech Republic. The White House has declined to say anything specific about Obama's plans to speak in a major Muslim city, something he was aiming to do in his first 100 days in office.