Evening Edition

But he said police should first complete its probe of the “absolutely disgusting” allegations concerning the News of the World, the top-selling Sunday newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International.

In his first statement on the affair, Murdoch condemned the claims as “deplorable and unacceptable” and said his company would “fully and proactively co-operate with the police”.

The Verizon Center in the US capital’s Chinatown was transformed into little Tibet, with vendors selling handicrafts from the Himalayan land and intricate mandalas hanging incongruously underneath advertisements for fast food.

Tibetan monks and nuns folded their hands with reverence and American supporters broke into an impromptu song of “Happy Birthday to You” as the Dalai Lama came on stage to mark the start of a 10-day ritual known as a kalachakra.

Now imagine that this storm is still unfolding, eight months later.

One of the most violent weather events in the Solar System began to erupt on Saturn last December and is still enthralling astronomers, the British journal Nature reported on Wednesday.

Troops also wounded more than 80 people as they pushed through improvised roadblocks put up by residents after massive anti-government protests in the city of some 800,000 people, the National Organisation for Human Rights said.

It said at least 22 people were killed on Tuesday, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said later on Wednesday that at least 23 had been killed in 24 hours.

The 25-basis-point increase in lending and deposit rates underscored China’s quiet confidence that the world’s second-biggest economy is resilient enough to endure tighter monetary policy and is not threatened by the hard landing that some investors fear.

Analysts suggested China was close to, or even at the end, of a cycle of rate rises and the latest move was a pre-emptive strike before another big jump in inflation in data next week heightens depositors’ worries about low yields.

Rep Eric Cantor, the No. 2 official in the Republican-led House of Representatives, said that his party could agree to close some tax breaks in a trillion-dollar budget deal as long as they were offset with tax cuts elsewhere.

“Any discussion about loopholes must be accompanied by offsetting tax cuts,” Cantor said at a news conference one day before he and other congressional leaders meet with Obama at the White House.

Responding in parliament to allegations that the News of the World eavesdropped on voicemail for victims of notorious crimes, including child murders and suicide bombings, Cameron said he was “revolted” and would order inquiries, probably into both the specific case and more widely into Britain’s cut-throat media.

The opposition, keen to highlight Cameron’s own ties to Murdoch and to two former editors at the eye of the storm, noted that any inquiry would not start, let alone finish, for months if not years. Critics accused the Conservative government of trying to bury the embarrassment of the long-running saga.

The U.S. Treasury says it will be forced to default on its obligations if Congress does not raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, which caps how much it can borrow, by August 2.

The Treasury has not specified which bills it wouldn’t pay, but the prospect of its missing interest or principal payments on any outstanding debt is a terrifying one for Wall Street.

At a news conference on her second day as International Monetary Fund managing director, Lagarde acknowledged an array of immediate issues confronting the Fund, including Europe’s debt crisis, but she also said she was focused on the need for the IMF to change with the times.

Institutions like the IMF must better reflect the shifting balance of power in the global economy, she said, adding the idea of creating a top-ranking post at the IMF to give a higher profile to emerging markets was “not a bad idea.”

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the decision to cut Lisbon’s rating by four notches so soon after it became the third country to receive an EU/IMF bailout was fuelling speculation in financial markets.

The cost of insuring all weaker euro zone states’ debt against default rose after Moody’s announced the downgrade on Tuesday.

Clemens is accused of lying under oath to the House Government Reform Committee in 2008 when he denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs during his record-setting career as a major league pitcher. The trial began with an intensive jury selection process expected to last into next week.

Prosecutors and the defense read the panel a list of people who may be called as witnesses or mentioned at the trial that included some of the biggest names in baseball, including those who have been at the center of the steroid scandal such as Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco. The list also included baseball commissioner Bud Selig, New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, former Yankees manager Joe Torre, former players union director Donald Fehr and several other officials and teammates from the four major league teams Clemens played for.

With some 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., educators increasingly find themselves caught between their obligation to educate each child and conflicting guidance, or simply no direction at all, about whether to help such students beyond the classroom.

Law officers and lawmakers in some states want schools to help spot illegal immigrants. Federal authorities remind school officials that every child is entitled to an education. National education groups echo that but recommend that schools avoid getting involved when it comes to students’ citizenship issues.

In a bid to defuse rising anger, the Interior Ministry announced that hundreds of high-ranking police officers will be sacked for their role in the harsh crackdown on anti-government protests earlier this year that left nearly 850 people dead. Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawi said in a statement that it will be the largest shake up in the history of his ministry.

Justice for those who killed demonstrators has become a rallying point for the protest movement, nearly five months after Hosni Mubarak was ousted in an uprising after a nearly three-decade rule marred by complaints of widespread corruption and police abuse.

Details of the U.S. drawdown are still being worked out, but thus far the only major combat unit designated to depart Afghanistan and not be replaced is a Marine infantry battalion set to leave in late fall, officials said. That means the military could retain virtually all its current combat power until the fighting goes into a seasonal lull and still meet President Barack Obama’s order to reduce the force by 10,000 by year’s end.

It is possible, though unlikely, that new U.S. commanders arriving in Kabul this month will speed up the drawdown.

Almost no one, it seems, was safe from a tabloid determined to beat its rivals, whatever it takes.

The focal point is the News of the World – now facing a spreading advertising boycott – and the top executives of its parent companies: Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, and her boss, media potentate Rupert Murdoch.