Evening Edition

Lord Justice Brian Leveson, the judge appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron to lead the probe, said the inquiry would start by looking at media ethics and press regulation.

The first public hearings would be held in September, he announced.

The 38-year-old son and heir apparent of News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch had faced calls from some shareholders to resign over the crisis surrounding alleged wrongdoing at his father’s now defunct News of the World newspaper.

“The role of the chairman was discussed at some length today and ultimately James Murdoch received the unanimous support of the board,” the source told AFP after a BSkyB board meeting.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the coordinated assault that began with suicide bombings on official buildings in the local capital Trinkot and the base of a militia commander who provides security to NATO convoys heading towards the country’s besieged south.

The latest unrest comes at a critical juncture in the nearly 10-year war on Taliban-led insurgents, as thousands of US surge troops prepare to go home and other Western nations announce limited withdrawals of soldiers.

Amid growing criticism that it took officers too long to halt a killing spree by Anders Behring Breivik that left 76 dead, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg vowed that a commission of inquiry would get to the truth.

European Union experts were meanwhile set to talk to Norwegian counterparts in Brussels to discuss measures in hand to prevent another bloodbath, a diplomat told AFP, adding it would be an “exchange of information”.

The House of Representatives was to vote later Thursday on a two-step plan forged by Speaker John Boehner to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit even though a majority of senators have vowed to block it and the White House has said it will veto the bill.

With only five days to go before an August 2 deadline when the US Treasury says it will no longer be able to borrow funds to pay its bills, stock markets remained nervous that a fragile economic recovery after the 2008 global financial crisis could be at risk.

Breivik, 32, killed a total of 76 people, in a bomb attack in central Oslo and then in the shooting rampage at the island summer camp for the ruling Labour Party’s youth wing.

“The search at Utoeya (island) has been completed,” police Chief of Staff Johan Fredriksen told a news conference.

All of Norway’s main parties say they have seen a jump in membership since Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik killed 76 people last Friday in a bombing and shooting attack he saw as a “crusade” against Islam and multiculturalism.

An emotional Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has since then urged Norwegians to respond to the violence, in which Breivik gunned down youth members of his ruling Labor Party at a summer camp and planted a bomb outside Stoltenberg’s offices, with more of what he says Norway does best — openness and democracy.

The 8 billion euro ($11.4 billion) auction was conducted in volatile markets made more feverish by rumors, denied by Italian politicians, that Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti was preparing to resign.

The pressure on Italian stocks and bonds reflected both concern about Rome’s ability to cut its sovereign debt — second only to Greece’s in Europe at 120 percent of annual output — and doubts over whether last week’s summit of euro zone leaders found a durable solution to the Greek debt crisis.

Thursday’s meeting of the BSkyB board was its first since the crisis forced News Corp to close the News of the World newspaper, drop a $12 billion bid for BSkyB and offer up James and his father Rupert to answer questions in the UK parliament.

Several shareholders had demanded he step down to avoid conflicts of interest, fearing contamination from the scandal that acquired new dimensions earlier this month when it was revealed that a murdered schoolgirl had had her phone hacked.

The divergent views, from San Francisco Fed President John Williams and Jeffrey Lacker, the Richmond Fed president who is known for his hawkish views on the need to ward off inflation, underscore the deep divides among policy makers at the central bank as they prepare for their next meeting August 9.

The Fed has kept short-term interest rates near zero for two and a half years and has bought $2.3 trillion in long-term securities to boost the economy further, including a round of bond-buying that ended at the close of June.

Some of Exxon’s refineries in Asia-Pacific and its international oil and natural gas production — including from its liquefied natural gas project in Qatar — were affected by downtime, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company said.

“The second quarter was a big maintenance and turnaround quarter for us in general across the regions,” David Rosenthal, an investor relations executive, told analysts on a conference call.

The maneuvers in the divided Congress signaled no immediate end to the feuding that has brought the United States to the brink of an economic crisis. There were still hopes a compromise could be hammered out five days before an August 2 deadline to raise the U.S. government borrowing limit.

World markets, unnerved by the risk of a U.S. default and a credit downgrade, were watching anxiously. Top U.S. financial executives added their voices to a chorus of calls from the business community for Congress to make a deal that would banish the specter of default.

European officials at an emergency counter-terror meeting see a continent-wide threat from right-wing extremists amid mounting Islamophobia – and warn of possible copycats.

Two visions of the Norway atrocity emerged Thursday, as Europe gropes for answers following a tragedy that claimed the lives of 78 people.

Levels of right-wing violence across Europe have been generally low and there are no clear indications of imminent danger from networks of extremists, security officials said. But they expressed concern that Norway attacker Anders Behring Breivik could inspire imitators among the continent’s extremist, anti-immigrant fringe. Particularly worrying are similar loners who give no clues of their intentions to others before acting, officials said.

European Union counterterrorism officials held a special meeting with Norwegian representatives Thursday dedicated to preventing future extreme-right attacks, saying they would try to share information faster and better understand what triggers the rare radical to turn to violence.

While it wasn’t clear what the exact allegations are, a government watchdog group representing Anchorage-based scientist Charles Monnett said investigators have focused on his 2006 journal article about the bears that garnered worldwide attention.

The group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, filed a complaint on Monnett’s behalf Thursday with the agency, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

The announcement was made despite disagreements in the U.S. intelligence community about the extent of direct links between the Iranian government and al-Qaida, officials said. Most analysts agree there is a murky relationship between the two and at least some cooperation.

But Thursday’s allegations go further. Treasury said its exposure of the clandestine agreement would disrupt al-Qaida operations by shedding light on Iran’s role as a “critical transit point” for money and extremists reaching Pakistan and Afghanistan.

With opening statements set to begin, the 55-year-old ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints said he had spent extensive time training his lawyers, but they weren’t able to present “a pure defense.” He then pleaded for more time to prepare the case by himself.

Jeffs burned through seven attorneys in six months and prosecutors had complained his frequent switching of counsel was a delay tactic. But special prosecutor Eric Nichols, representing the Texas attorney general’s office, said he’d be willing to stop the trial until Monday if Jeffs represented himself.

The company’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division said the change affects Extra Strength Tylenol sold in the U.S. – one of many products in short supply in stores due to a string of recalls.

Starting sometime this fall, labels on Extra Strength Tylenol packages will now list the maximum daily dose as six pills, or a total of 3,000 milligrams, down from eight pills a day, or 4,000 milligrams. Beginning next year, McNeil will also reduce the maximum daily dose for its Regular Strength Tylenol and other adult pain relievers containing acetaminophen, the most widely used pain killer in the country.