World

LONDON, (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron,  defending his integrity to parliament in emergency session yesterday, said he regretted hiring a journalist at the heart of  a scandal that has rocked Britain’s press, police and politics.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The White House signaled on  Wednesday it could support a short-term increase in the U.S. 

CHENNAI, India, (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State  Hillary Clinton pushed one of her simplest but potentially most  transformative diplomatic priorities in India yesterday:  clean cooking stoves.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo  Chavez, humbled by a cancer that has upended the OPEC nation’s  politics, has set clemency proceedings in motion for convicted  opposition activists suffering from health problems.  

CONAKRY (Reuters) – Guinean President Alpha Conde escaped two attacks on his residence yesterday that killed at least three people and left his home riddled with bullets, in assaults which authorities linked to former senior officers in the army.

ALMATY (Reuters) – A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Central Asia’s densely populated Ferghana valley, the US Geological Survey said yesterday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The FBI arrested at least 14 people yesterday as part of a wide-ranging investigation of the Internet vigilante hacking group Anonymous, a law enforcement source said.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan yesterday appointed its first woman and youngest foreign minister within weeks of important talks with India.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s Solicitor General’s office banned a former agriculture minister from public service for 16 years yesterday over a subsidy scandal, the latest involving appointees of former President Alvaro Uribe.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – News Corp Chief  Executive Rupert Murdoch and his son James face questions from  parliament today in a phone-hacking scandal that has rocked  Britain’s establishment right up to Prime Minister David  Cameron.

TRIPOLI, (Reuters) – Libyan and U.S. officials met  face-to-face, but while Tripoli said it was seeking talks with  no preconditions, Washington said it delivered a clear message:  Muammar Gaddafi must go.

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO,  (Reuters) – Cisco Systems  plans to cut 15 percent of its jobs and sell a factory as part  of a plan to cut annual expenses by $1 billion as the network  equipment maker tries to revive its fortunes.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – In many ways, it’s the  perfect weapon for a war-weary nation that suddenly finds  itself on a tight budget.

LIMA,  (Reuters) – Peru’s leftist President-elect  Ollanta Humala has launched a “shock of confidence” to show  investors he has shed his radical past and will prudently lead  one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

(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.