Weakened Merkel wins

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term yesterday, but now faces the tricky prospect of forming a coalition with two disparate new partners after voters weakened her conservatives and a nationalist, anti-migrant party surged into parliament.

Ms Merkel’s centre-Left challenger, Martin Schulz, conceded that his Social Democrats had suffered a “crushing defeat” and were expected to record its worst result in post-World War II Germany.