World

LONDON, (Reuters) – News International chief  executive Rebekah Brooks was warned by police in 2002 about  serious malpractice and possible illegal activities by reporters  at a newspaper she edited, former British Prime Minister Gordon  Brown said yesterday.

CHICAGO,  (Reuters) – Red-hot food inflation that  has vexed policy makers around the world seemed to take a  breather last month, when corn and wheat prices tumbled on  reports that crop shortages were easing.

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – Three bombs rocked crowded  districts of Mumbai during rush hour yesterday, killing at  least 21 people in the biggest militant attack on India’s  financial capital since 2008 assaults blamed on Pakistan-based  militants.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama  warned yesterday that elderly Americans could suffer first  from a debt default, raising pressure on lawmakers as prospects  for a deal to lift the debt ceiling appeared far from reach.

LONDON, (Reuters) – The British government endorsed  a move in parliament to block Rupert Murdoch’s bid for  broadcaster BSkyB yesterday, casting more doubt on his hopes to  expand in television despite a widening scandal over  phone-hacking by one of his newspapers.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, (Reuters) – The younger  half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of the most  powerful and controversial men in southern Afghanistan, was  shot dead at his home on Tuesday by a senior and highly trusted  family security guard.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – China secured its first top  management post in the International Monetary Fund yesterday,  in a move aimed at recognizing Beijing’s growing clout in the  global economy.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – A U.S. senator called for an  investigation of News Corp following the telephone hacking  scandal at one of its British newspapers, signaling the crisis  could spread to the United States.

LONDON, (Reuters) – “The basic test of a decent  police force is that it catches more criminals than it employs.”

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Former media mogul Conrad Black has been ordered to report to prison on September 6 to serve out his prison sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice, according to US court documents filed yesterday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The UN Security Council voted yesterday to wind down a peacekeeping force in Sudan that was operating in volatile border areas, but said it was willing to keep working there until new security arrangements are agreed.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian court handed down life sentences yesterday to five ultra-nationalists convicted of the racist murders of 27 people, and shorter prison terms to eight members of their group.

SYUKEYEVO, Russia (Reuters) – Russia said there was little hope of finding any more people alive yesterday after an overloaded tourist boat sank in the Volga River, killing 128 people in Russia’s worst river accident in three decades.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – British government lawyers are  drawing up plans to block Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy out the  broadcaster BSkyB, the Independent newspaper said on Monday — a  move that could spare Prime Minister David Cameron a potentially  damaging parliamentary vote.

CANBERRA, (Reuters) – Australia unveiled its most  sweeping economic reform in decades on Sunday with a plan to tax  carbon emissions from the nation’s worst polluters, reviving  hopes of stronger global climate action with the largest  emissions trade scheme outside Europe.

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – Interpol has circulated arrest  warrants for four suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese  statesman Rafik al-Hariri, U.N.-backed

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper  reported yesterday that News of the World journalists had  offered to pay a New York police officer to retrieve the private  phone records of victims of the Sept.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The United States is  withholding some $800 million in military assistance to  Pakistan in a show of displeasure over its cutback on U.S. 

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – Nearly 100 people were missing  after a tourist boat sank in Russia’s Volga river yesterday,  killing at least one person, emergency services officials said.

JUBA (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of South Sudanese danced and cheered as their new nation declared independence yesterday, a hard-won separation from the north that still leaves simmering issues of disputed borders and oil payments unresolved.