Exit polls showed conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party leading in German parliamentary elections Sunday but falling short of the majority she needed to form a center-right coalition as the nation's first female chancellor. Gerhard Schroeder refused to concede defeat and said he could still theoretically remain in power if talks with other parties were successful. "I feel myself confirmed in ensuring on behalf of our country that there is in the next four years a stable government under my leadership," he said to cheering supporters at his Social Democrat party headquarters. But Merkel claimed her party received a mandate from...
