World

(The views expressed here are Lawrence Summers’ own)   By Lawrence Summers   CAMBRIDGE, Mass., 

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela is creating a new  agency to limit profit margins for companies operating in areas  such as food and medicine, the vice president said on Monday,  in the latest effort to boost state control over the economy.

LONDON, (Reuters) – A phone-hacking scandal centred  on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp cost Britain’s top policeman his job and renewed questions yesterday about Prime  Minister David Cameron’s judgment.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – With time running short in  U.S. debt talks, Republican and Demo-cratic senators sought yesterday to craft a plan that could avert an unprecedented  government debt default while making modest cuts in the  deficit.

TOKYO, (Reuters) – Japan’s second-biggest retailer  said yesterday it had sold beef from cattle that ate  nuclear-contaminated feed, the latest in a series of health  scares from radiation leaking from a quake-crippled nuclear  power plant.

ADEN,  (Reuters) – Yemeni forces backed by armed  tribesmen launch-ed an offensive to retake Zinjibar, capital of  southern Abyan province, officials said yesterday, after months  of fighting with Islamist militants who seized the city.

BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – The EU will protect existing  investment in its $13 billion biodiesel sector even as it acts  on new evidence that suggests making the fuel from food crops  can do more harm than good in fighting climate change.

LONDON, (Reuters Life!) – The British Library has  launched an appeal to help it buy the oldest book in Europe, an  “almost miraculous” survival from the Anglo Saxon period over  1,000 years ago.

MONTEVIDEO,  (Reuters) – Former Uruguayan dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry, convicted of killing political opponents  during his reign, died of respiratory failure yesterday at age  83.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Criminals in Jamaica have ruthlessly murdered more than 1,500 children and teenagers since the turn of the 21st century.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – The final “Harry Potter”  film shattered box office records worldwide with a whopping  $168.6 million in U.S.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – China accused the United States yesterday of “grossly” interfering in its internal affairs and damaging relations after President Barack Obama met exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House.

FRONT LINE NEAR BIR GHANAM, Libya (Reuters) – Ten Libyan rebels were reported killed and 172 wounded in an attack on the eastern oil port of Brega yesterday, while insurgents drove back forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in the west.

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly two-thirds of the $86 million raised by President Barack Obama for his re-election effort in recent months came from small donations of under $200 or less, according to filings released on Friday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) – A new controversy over Oscar winner Jane Fonda’s Vietnam War activism caused the actress to come out swinging against home shopping TV network QVC yesterday, over what she described as its caving in to “extremist” pressure to cancel her appearance.

LONDON (Reuters) – “It was the kind of place you get out of and you never want to go back again.”

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s public battle with cancer has added to his global fame but it may also weaken his already waning influence in Latin America and beyond.

ISTANBUL, (Reuters) – Rebel leaders won recognition  as the legitimate government of Libya from the United States and  other world powers yesterday in a major boost to the rebels’  faltering campaign to oust Muammar Gaddafi.

NEW YORK/LONDON, (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch  apologized to victims of criminal phone hacking by one of his  tabloids and accepted the resignations of News Corp’s  top two newspaper executives, Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton.

AMMAN,  (Reuters) – Syrian forces killed at least 32  civilians yesterday, including 23 in the capital Damascus, in an  intensifying crackdown on protests against President Bashar  al-Assad, activists said.