World

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – South Korean rapper Psy’s infectious viral hit song, “Gangnam Style,” made history yesterday as the first ever video on YouTube to reach 1 billion views, adding yet another record to the song’s juggernaut journey into mainstream pop.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – British actor Hugh Grant has accepted a “substantial sum” after settling his phone-hacking damages action against the publishers of the now defunct News of the World, his lawyer said yesterday.

(Reuters) – House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner faced an embarrassing setback yesterday when he failed to unite his Republican lawmakers behind an effort designed to extract concessions from President Barack Obama in year-end “fiscal cliff” talks.

(Reuters) – The 15-nation U.N. Security Council yesterday unanimously authorized the deployment of an African-led military force to help defeat al Qaeda and other Islamist militants in northern Mali.

FREETOWN,  (Reuters) – A vaccination provider set up with money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has put on hold some $6 million earmarked for Sierra Leone after an audit showed misuse of previous funds, a document seen by Reuters showed.

SANGBULIMA, Sierra Leone, (Reuters) – In sight of a crumbling 18th century slave trade fort overgrown with jungle, a conveyor belt pours ochre-red iron ore into the belly of a bulk carrier moored on the muddy Sierra Leone River.

ENCINITAS, Calif.,  (Reuters) – Ravi Shankar’s daughters, Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar, along with the wife of late Beatle George Harrison said their final goodbyes to the Indian sitar virtuoso yesterday at a public memorial service in Encinitas, California.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The U.S. National Film Registry on Wednesday named 25 films to be preserved as cultural treasures, ranging from Audrey Hepburn’s 1961 classic “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” to Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” and the sci-fi action movie “The Matrix.”

LAS VEGAS, (Reuters) – A 20-year-old beauty queen who plays the cello and is a breast cancer advocate was crowned Miss Universe yesterday, the eighth time an American has won the pageant where the world’s most beautiful women parade in bikinis and ball gowns.

SEOUL,  (Reuters) – South Korea’s first woman president, Park Geun-hye, will have her job cut out when she takes office in February with the economy slowing, her father’s autocratic rule still an issue for many and North Korea as unpredictable as ever.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed to press for tighter gun laws early next year, as he sought to turn national outrage over the Connecticut school massacre into action to ban assault weapons and ensure better background checks on gun buyers.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Talks to avoid a U.S. fiscal crisis stalled yesterday as President Barack Obama accused opponents of holding a personal grudge against him while the top Republican negotiator called the president “irrational.”

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Syrian rebels have captured at least six towns in the central province of Hama, activists say, in an operation aimed at putting pressure on President Bashar al-Assad from the north as insurgents close in on the capital from its southern suburbs.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya was grossly inadequate to deal with a Sept.

TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – Honduras’ congress passed a law on Tuesday to purge the police of corruption, a victory for the ruling party and President Porfirio Lobo after a recent conflict with the Central American country’s highest court.

ZURICH/NEW YORK  (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors charged two former UBS traders yesterday with taking part in a multi-year scheme to manipulate Libor and other benchmark interest rates, making them the first individuals to be criminally accused in the international scandal.

OSLO,  (Reuters) – Norway, which has led developed nations by investing billions of dollars to slow tropical deforestation, announced plans yesterday to step up its efforts as part of “first aid” to slow climate change.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Jessica Chastain carries the weight of starring in one of the year’s most anticipated films, “Zero Dark Thirty,” about the decade-long hunt and eventual killing of Osama bin Laden.

 (Reuters) – Rani Mukerji, the pretty girl in the “Khandala” song, has played a firebrand reporter, an angel, a deaf-mute, con artist and even a cricket-obsessed woman disguised as a man — since her Bollywood debut in 1997.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – The fracturing of Mexico’s criminal establishment in the government-led crackdown on drug traffickers created between 60 and 80 new cartels, the nation’s attorney general said yesterday, far more than were active six years ago.