 » There were more casualties in the phone-hacking scandal in Britain. Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International and Les Hinton, a close aide to Rupert Murdoch, both resigned; Mrs Brooks was later arrested. As attention turned to the Metropolitan Police's bungled handling of the affair, two of its most senior officers quit. On July 19th Mr Murdoch, his son James and Mrs Brooks faced questioning from a parliamentary committee. They batted away their gentle interrogators, for the most part, but Mr Murdoch (senior) was less lucky when an interloper attacked him with a plateful of shaving foam.
See article » The Serbian authorities arrested Goran Hadzic, wanted for alleged atrocities committed in Croatia during the Yugoslav conflict in the early 1990s. Mr Hadzic was the last fugitive sought by the UN war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, where he is now likely to face trial. » Enda Kenny, Ireland's prime minister, launched a stinging attack on the Vatican, accusing it of attempting to downplay the sexual abuse of Irish children by Catholic clergy.
Running out of time  » Negotiations on raising America's debt ceiling, which currently stands at $14.3 trillion, trundled on. A supposed deadline of July 22nd looked set to be ignored, but a genuine one of August 2nd is looming. Without authority to borrow more, the government will have to default on payments to someone; whether that would be suppliers, pensioners or bondholders is still unclear. See article » Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, looked increasingly likely to enter the Republican presidential race, after saying that he felt "called" to the job. One of his rivals, Michele Bachmann, was embroiled in an argument over whether her susceptibility to migraines might render her unfit for the Oval Office. See article » The White House announced its nominee for head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Elizabeth Warren, a prominent supporter of financial reform and the architect of the body, who at one time had seemed the natural choice for the job, was not picked, for fear that the Republicans would have blocked her. Instead, the job went to Richard Cordray. See article
Going hungry  » The UN declared a famine in two regions of Somalia, the first for 19 years. Tens of thousands of refugees are attempting to flee to neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia in search of help. The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, appealed to donor countries for $300m in aid over the next two months. An estimated 11m people are affected by the worst droughts in east Africa in several decades. See article » Egypt's interim military government announced a cabinet reshuffle in response to public protests. Just over half the cabinet members were replaced, including the ministers of finance and foreign affairs. » Libyan fighters, with backing from NATO airstrikes, came close to taking control of the key eastern oil hub of Brega. Opposition leaders were also buoyed by their recognition as Libya's legitimate authority by the United States and others, allowing them access to $30 billion in frozen assets. » Three months after his re-election, Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, appointed a new cabinet, bringing back many old faces: too many, according to critics. Reformers have invested their hopes for progress in Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former managing director of the World Bank, who will assume an expanded version of her former post as finance minister.
Back to the island » Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president, went to Cuba for the second time in six weeks for further treatment after an operation for cancer. He handed over some of his powers to the vice-president, Elías Jaua, and to the finance minister, Jorge Giordani. See article » Ollanta Humala, Peru's president-elect, announced that he had asked Julio Velarde to stay on as president of the central bank for the next five years. He also named Luis Miguel Castilla, a member of the outgoing government, as his economy minister. This seemed to confirm that Mr Humala plans to continue the country's successful macroeconomic policies. The Lima stockmarket rose sharply at the news. See article » Chile's president, Sebastián Piñera, reshuffled his government, making eight ministerial changes, after recent protests against education and energy policies. » Also in Chile, a court-ordered autopsy confirmed that Salvador Allende, a socialist president, committed suicide and was not murdered during a military coup that overthrew his government in 1973.
Entertaining His Holiness » China expressed its usual anger over Barack Obama's decision to see the Dalai Lama in Washington, DC, on July 16th. It is customary for American presidents to meet the Dalai Lama, and Mr Obama reiterated America's recognition of China's sovereignty over Tibet. Three days later Xi Jinping, China's president-in-waiting, celebrated the 60th anniversary of Chinese rule in Lhasa by vowing to crush any threat to stability in the region. See article » Dozens of rioters in Hotan, a city in a Uighur-minority part of Xinjiang province, stormed a police station, killing a guard. Fourteen rioters were also killed, along with at least three hostages. Two years ago riots in Xinjiang's capital killed nearly 200 people, most of them Han Chinese. » General David Petraeus stepped down as commander of American and allied forces in Afghanistan to head the CIA. America has begun drawing down its troops, and a New Zealand-led force has left Bamiyan province. A close aide of President Hamid Karzai was assassinated in Kabul, less than a week after Mr Karzai's half-brother was shot in Kandahar.  » The new government of the Indian state of West Bengal signed an agreement to allow some autonomy to its ethnic Nepali population. Under the new plan a Gorkhaland administration will manage farming, health and tourism—but will not constitute a separate state. » Japan won the women's football World Cup final on July 17th, beating the United States 3-1 in a penalty shoot-out in Frankfurt. The Japanese women's league started its season a month late this year, in order to conserve power following the tsunami and nuclear disaster in March. | 
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