World

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Almost two weeks after the  bankruptcy of commodities firm MF Global, customers at rival  firms are all asking the same question: How safe is my money?

ROME – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is expected  to resign on Saturday, making way for an emergency government  and ending one of the most scandal-plagued eras in Italy’s  post-war history.

BELFAST,  (Reuters) – Ireland’s former richest  man, Sean Quinn, was declared bankrupt yesterday after having  bet the family fortune on the shares of Ireland’s most  notoriously profligate bank just before it collapsed.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Mexican Interior Minister  Francisco Blake was killed in a helicopter crash yesterday, a  blow to the government as it fights powerful drug cartels.

ATHENS, (Reuters) – Greece named banker Lucas  Papademos as head of a new crisis government on Thursday, ending  the country’s chaotic search for a leader to save it from  default, bankruptcy and expulsion from the euro zone.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala, (Reuters) – Alabama’s Jefferson  County filed for bankruptcy court protection yesterday in  the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Reducing salt in the diets of the  general population may not have an overall positive health  impact, according to a review of more than 160 scientific  studies published yesterday.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska,  (Reuters) – A storm forecast to be  one of the worst on record in Alaska lashed the state’s western  coastline yesterday, tearing roofs off buildings and pushing  water and debris into communities, authorities said.

(Reuters) – A deal on forming a Greek national unity  government collapsed as the country headed towards an economic  abyss and revived early today the chances of former  European Central Bank vice president Lucas Papademos heading the  coalition.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexico’s security forces are  committing widespread human rights violations such as torture  and forced disappearances in their battle against drug cartels,  a report by Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

TOKYO, (Reuters) – Japanese police have launched an  investigation into the financial scandal engulfing Olympus Corp, a newspaper said yesterday, as a major investor  joined increasing calls for a wholesale clean-out of the board.

LONDON, (Reuters) – A vaccine or new drugs against  malaria could be developed,    British scientists said, after  they made a critical discovery about the way the most deadly  species of malaria parasite invades human red blood cells.

ROME,  (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio  Berlusconi said yesterday he would resign after suffering a  humiliating setback in parliament that showed a party revolt had  stripped him of a majority.

VIENNA, (Reuters) – Iran appears to have worked on  designing an atomic bomb and may still be conducting relevant  research, the U.N.

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – A key U.N. Security  Council committee could not reach consensus on whether  Palestine should be accepted as a U.N.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., (Reuters) – A black asteroid as  big as an aircraft carrier zoomed past Earth on Tuesday,  delighting astronomers who trained telescopes on the ancient  body in hopes of learning more about its composition and  origin.

MANAGUA/GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Two veterans of Cold War conflicts that ravaged Central America in the 1980s won elections in Nicaragua and Guatemala on Sunday, highlighting the heavy footprint the wars left on the region.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – A mudslide has killed 37 people in Colombia and buried homes in the central city of Manizales after torrential rains, the government said yesterday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jackson’s personal doctor was found guilty yesterday of involuntary manslaughter in the singer’s death following a six-week trial that captivated Jackson fans around the world.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of poor Americans hit a record 49 million in 2010, or 16 percent, according to new data released yesterday that showed poverty rates for the elderly, Asians and Hispanics higher than previously known.