World

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Justin Timberlake may be  riding a new wave of movie stardom as his new film, “In Time,”  sees its release in theaters but the  singer-dancer-actor still thinks he’s an ordinary man.

(Reuters) – Actress Scarlett Johansson has addressed  her recent nude photo scandal in an interview with Vanity Fair  magazine on Tuesday, saying there was nothing wrong with her  taking the pictures because they were for her then husband,  Ryan Reynolds.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – British singer Adele has  dismissed rampant speculation in the media that she has throat  cancer following the cancellation of her remaining tour dates  and promotional appearances in 2011, due to surgery.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Actor Hugh Grant, known for  films such as “Notting Hill” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” has  welcomed a baby girl into his life following a brief affair  with an unidentified woman, his spokeswoman said yesterday.

ATHENS, (Reuters) – Greece’s cabinet decided early today to back Prime Minister George Papandreou’s proposal  for a referendum on a European Union aid deal, a government  spokesman said.

MOBILE, Ala., (Reuters) – The owner of a large  southwest Alabama car dealership derided as “Taliban Toyota” by  a competitor has been awarded $7.5 million in damages after a  jury trial for his slander claim.

CHICAGO/NEW YORK, (Reuters) – MF Global Holdings Ltd  failed to protect customer accounts by keeping them separate  from its own funds, said a top U.S.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Syria said yesterday it had  reached a deal with an Arab League committee tasked with finding  a way to end seven months of unrest and starting a dialogue  between President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Britain and the United States  rejected calls from China and Russia for greater Internet  controls yesterday at the opening of a major cyberspace conference, but Western states faced accusations of double  standards.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Under pressure from Hindu  hardliners, a prestigious university has dropped a scholarly  text on the Ramayana epic from its history syllabus, in the  latest sign of conservatives’ deep influence over a globalising  India’s cultural battles.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil will get $8 billion in  financing from the World Bank to push its campaign to uproot  extreme hardship deeper into some of the country’s poorest  areas, the bank said yesterday.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A crisis facing U.S.  Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain threatened to  escalate yesterday even as he declared himself the victim of a  “smear campaign” over allegations of sexual harassment.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said yesterday it had stopped funding UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, following its vote to grant the Palestinians full membership.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s ruling National Tran-sitional Council has elected little-known academic Abdul Raheem al-Keeb as the new interim prime minister to guide the country as it emerges from a bitter civil war towards a new constitution and democratic elections.

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe denied speculation his health is failing and hinted at taking action against Swiss firms in retaliation for his wife and aides being denied visas to visit Geneva, the official Herald newspaper reported yesterday.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Devastation from a rare and deadly October snowstorm lingered in the US Northeast where 1.6 million homes were still without power yesterday, schools were closed and downed trees and powerlines snarled traffic.

DOHA (Reuters) – The Arab League awaited a response from Syria yesterday to its proposal to end seven months of increasingly violent unrest against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule and to start talks between Syrian authorities and their opponents.

AMMAN, (Reuters) – The Arab League handed Syrian officials a plan for ending seven months of increasingly violent unrest against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, and Assad told Russian Television he would cooperate with the opposition.

(Reuters) – Law enforcement officials in Arizona  seized thousands of pounds of narcotics and arrested at least  70 suspected drug smugglers with apparent ties to a violent  drug cartel in Mexico, an official involved with the  investigation in the U.S.

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombians elected one-time  guerrilla Gustavo Petro as Bogota mayor, the Andean nation’s  second most powerful post after the presidency, in a poll yesterday devoid of the bloodshed that marked campaigning.