World

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A congressional panel has approved a measure designed to search and clear the U.S.

THE HAGUE,  (Reuters) – A United Nations-backed court convicted former Liberian president Charles Taylor of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the first time a head of state has been found guilty by an international tribunal since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch called his News of the World tabloid an “aberration”, blaming journalists for hiding a phone-hacking culture from himself, his son James and his protegee Rebekah Brooks, and saying he wished he had shut it down sooner.

LUXEMBOURG,  (Reuters) – France and Germany sought to drum up support among other European countries yesterday for new rules to make it easier to suspend passport-free travel in Europe, reflecting voters’ anxiety over large-scale migration.

BOGOTA,  (Reuters) – Colombia has seized a bounty of assets including luxury cars and real state that belonged to Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, which dominates drug trafficking into the United States, police in the Andean nation said yesterday.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A federal judge yesterday refused to order President Barack Obama’s administration to release photos and video of the U.S.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – An accused Venezuelan drug lord wanted by the United States said yesterday he made monthly payments to a former judge who recently embarrassed President Hugo Chavez with accusations of widespread manipulation in the OPEC nation’s justice system.

BEIJING, (Reuters) – A wiretapping network run by Chongqing officials was detected on a phone call made to Chinese President Hu Jintao in August, a discovery that helped topple the city’s ambitious party chief Bo Xilai, the New York Times reported.

JOHANNESBURG,  (Reuters) – Bribery, theft and other kinds of fraud cost African governments and companies at least $10.9 billion last year, auditing firm KPMG estimated in a study yesterday, a sobering reminder of the challenges facing the fast-growing continent.

BUENOS AIRES,  (Reuters) – Argentina’s Senate yesterday approved a government bill to nationalize the country’s biggest oil company, YPF, clearing the way for likely approval by the lower house next week.

ISLAMABAD, (Reuters) – Pakistan’s Supreme Court today found Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court for refusing to reopen corruption cases against the president, but gave him only a symbolic

LONDON, (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch is used to slipping into Downing Street by the back door for discreet meetings with prime ministers, but there was no such privacy yesterday when he faced a grilling about his political influence in the full glare of the world’s media.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch is used to slipping into Downing Street by the back door for discreet meetings with prime ministers, but there was no such privacy yesterday when he faced a grilling about his political influence in the full glare of the world’s media.

JERUSALEM,  (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support yesterday for the first time for Palestinians to establish a contiguous state, saying their future country should not look like “Swiss cheese”.

MCALLEN, Texas,  (Reuters) – U.S. authorities accused two dozen top bosses of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, including leader Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, of murder, money laundering and racketeering while shipping tons of illicit drugs into the United States.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – A phone-hacking scandal that has rocked Rupert Murdoch’s media empire piled more pressure on British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday with the revelation that one of his ministers gave News Corp executives highly sensitive details to help a controversial merger.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc reported its first quarter-to-quarter revenue slide in at least two years, a sign that the social network’s sizzling growth may be cooling as it prepares to go public in the biggest ever Internet IPO.

GREENSBORO, NC (Reuters) – Prosecutors in the criminal campaign finance case against former US Senator John Edwards yesterday described him as a manipulative politician who refused to let his affair or his mistress’ pregnancy sideline his presidential ambitions.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – A 12th US military service member was linked to a prostitution scandal in Colombia yesterday and the Pentagon suspended the security clearance of personnel implicated in the events ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit earlier this month.

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) – The city commission in Sanford, Florida, rejected the resignation of the police chief who had stepped aside amid withering criticism over his department’s investigation into the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.