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Sands China (1928.HK), the Macau-based casino operator run by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, said 2010 net profit more than tripled, driven by surging demand in the world’s largest gaming market.

The company said on Tuesday net profit rose to $666.5 million from $215 million a year ago, above a consensus forecast of $606 million from 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Sands, 70 percent owned by U.S. gaming giant Las Vegas Sands (LVS.N), said net revenue rose 26 percent to $4.1 billion in 2010.

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned on Tuesday after admitting to copying part of a doctoral dissertation, stunning Angela Merkel and depriving her conservatives of their brightest star.

Guttenberg, 39, was the most popular member of Chancellor Merkel’s cabinet. His loss deals a severe blow to her Christian Democrats (CDU), who were crushed in a vote in Hamburg last month and must fight three more state elections this month.

“I deeply regret his resignation,” said Merkel, praising his political talent. “I accepted it with a heavy heart. Like many other people in our country, I’m very saddened by this.”

“I was always ready to fight but I’ve reached the limit of my powers,” Guttenberg told journalists in a hastily arranged briefing at the Defense Ministry.

“I informed the chancellor in a very friendly conversation that I’m resigning from political offices and requested to be relieved. It’s the most painful step of my life,” added Guttenberg, who had often been mentioned as a future chancellor.

“I’m not only leaving because of my error-filled doctorate, although I can understand this would be reason enough for many in the academic community. The reason is because of the question whether I can still live up to the highest expectations I put on myself.”

The United States is urging Gulf ally Oman to show “restraint” and engage in dialogue in response to several days of anti-government protests that have turned violent and deadly.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday Washington “regrets” the killing of several people in the protests and has contacted the Omani government to encourage dialogue to resolve the unrest.

He says the United States also continues to engage Oman to undertake reforms that improve economic opportunities and widen public participation in a peaceful political process.

The rare demonstrations in the normally peaceful sultanate also spread to the capital, Muscat.

Sultan Qaboos announced several steps Sunday to try to ease the public desire for protests. He pledged to create 50,000 government jobs, provide a monthly benefit of $390 to the unemployed

A refugee crisis is looming on the Libyan-Tunisian border as thousands of foreign workers try to escape the fighting with concern also growing over how long food stocks inside Libya can last, aid agencies have warned.

The UN high commission for refugees said 140,000 people have now fled Libya – half of them crossing into Egypt and half into Tunisia. Most refugees are Egyptians who had been working there. On the Egyptian border they have dispersed to their home towns and villages.

On the Tunisian side, local authorities’ efforts to deal with them are being overwhelmed as between 1,000 and 2,000 people cross every hour, according to aid workers there.

Tunisia has tried to stem the flow to clear more space for tents and stock up on food supplies, prompting a backlog of around 20,000 refugees on the Libyan side waiting to get through, with rising fears for their wellbeing as they have little food and are left exposed at night to the cold.

The death toll in the Christchurch earthquake has now risen to 154 and is expected to increase further, Christchurch police have confirmed. “These buildings have a red sticker because they are dangerous and could collapse at any time,” said Superintendent Russell Gibson.

“We are also very aware of a growing frustration by people who have cars within the CBD they want to retrieve, and businesses that they want to check on,” said Gibson. “We understand these frustrations but the CBD is still fraught with danger and any access has to be controlled.

At this stage our focus has to remain on the rescue operation.” Teams from Thailand and Israel have also arrived. There are now more than 170 people involved in the identification process.

The death toll in the Christchurch earthquake has now risen to 154 and is expected to increase further, Christchurch police have confirmed. “These buildings have a red sticker because they are dangerous and could collapse at any time,” said Superintendent Russell Gibson. “We are also very aware of a growing frustration by people who have cars within the CBD they want to retrieve, and businesses that they want to check on,” said Gibson. “We understand these frustrations but the CBD is still fraught with danger and any access has to be controlled. At this stage our focus has to remain on the rescue operation.” Teams from Thailand and Israel have also arrived. There are now more than 170 people involved in the identification process.

President Barack Obama told the nation’s governors that the budget debate in Washington will be critical to the nation’s economic future because the U.S. must keep building a skilled workforce and a strong infrastructure.

Obama said “everybody will need to give up something” to bring state and federal budgets into line. Still, he said, government workers shouldn’t be “vilified” or have to give up rights.

Obama, speaking to a gathering of the governors at the White House, said that while federal spending must be brought under control “we can’t sacrifice our future” by cutting money that goes to education and encouraging innovation.

Germany has hit back at explosive remarks by Turkey’s prime minister, who told his compatriots that they should learn Turkish before German and resist assimilation into German society.

During a visit to Germany, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told 10,000 members of Germany’s large Turkish community of his “growing unease” about the way immigrants are treated in Germany.

“You must integrate, but I am against assimilation … no one may ignore the rights of minorities,” he said, adding that individuals should have the right to practise their own faith.

“Our children must learn German but they must learn Turkish first,” said Erdogan.

South Korea’s military has dropped leaflets on North Korea that tell of pro-democracy revolts in the Middle East with the intention of provoking a movement against Kim Jong Il’s regime, a South Korean lawmaker said.

The leaflets detail popular uprisings that toppled Egypt’s government and sparked a bloody crackdown in Libya, explaining that “a dictatorial regime is destined to collapse,” Song Yong Sun, a member of the National Assembly’s defense committee, said in an e-mailed statement today.

The leaflets travel in balloons that distribute their cargo when they burst, according to her office. South Korea has sent over 3 million leaflets across the border in renewed “psychological warfare” since North Korea shelled one of its islands in November, killing four people, the statement said. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency hasn’t reported on demonstrations in the Middle East.

Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was back before the courts on Monday on charges of tax fraud. This is one of four court cases slated to be resumed after Italy’s Constitutional Court last year stripped him of automatic immunity while in office.

This is not the first time the 74-year-old Prime Minister has faced judges who have, over the past 20 years, tried to pin him down for fraud, tax evasion and other business misdeeds. But his barrage of lawyers has proved more than efficient in keeping him out of jail — either winning him acquittals or delaying proceedings until the statute of limitations kicked in rendering the proceedings null and void.