Washington, July 30
Facing a deadline to avoid a ruinous US default, congressional leaders today braced for a tense weekend of negotiations to try to reach a compromise on a measure to increase in the country's $14.3 trillion debt limit.

Senate Democrats aimed to seize the initiative by pushing their deficit-cutting plan, but entrenched differences remained less than 100 hours before the government says it will no longer be able to borrow to pay its bills.

A sour mood prevailed on Capitol Hill as Senate Democratic leaders accused their Republican counterparts of refusing to talk to them after Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he wanted to negotiate directly with the White House. Back-channel talks held out the best hope for a compromise.

President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to strike a deal and avert what he has said would be an "inexcusable" default. "There are multiple ways to resolve this problem," Obama, a Democrat, said in his weekly address. "Congress must find common ground on a plan that can get support from both parties in the House. And it's got to be a plan that I can sign by Tuesday."

The debt saga shifted to the Senate late on Friday after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a deficit-cutting bill, breaking weeks of political inertia. The Democratic-controlled Senate quickly killed that bill, as expected, but its earlier approval by the House lifted hopes that it could form part of a final compromise.

With the hope of picking up Republican votes, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid modified his plan, taking elements of an earlier proposal put forth by McConnell. But he declined McConnell's offer to vote on it immediately, a sign that Reid does not yet have enough support.

The Senate now is expected to hold that vote early on Sunday morning, setting up final passage on Monday morning, shortly before US financial markets open.

Unless Congress raises the debt ceiling, the government would be barred from further borrowing after Tuesday, according to the U.S. Treasury, and could quickly run out of money to pay all its bills. "The country's in crisis. This is not a time for politics as usual," Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat, told a news conference. — Reuters

Tripoli/Brussels, July 30
NATO said today that it had bombed three satellite dishes in Tripoli to stop “terror broadcasts” by Muammar Gaddafi, but Libyan state TV remained on air and condemned what it said was the targeting of journalists.

In a video statement titled “NATO silences Gaddafi’s terror broadcasts”, NATO spokesman Colonel Roland Lavoie said NATO had disabled the ground-based satellites in a precision airstrike. Libyan state television continued to broadcast, however, and early on Saturday was showing a repeat of a political talk show from the previous evening.

The Libyan Broadcasting Corporation issued a statement saying three employees were killed and 15 wounded in the strike. “We are not a military target, we are not commanders in the army and we do not pose a threat to civilians,” said Khalid Bazelya, an LBC official, reading the statement to reporters.

“We are performing our job as journalists representing what we wholeheartedly believe is the reality of NATO aggression and the violence in Libya,” he said.

“The fact that we work for the Libyan government or represent anti-NATO, anti-armed gangs views does not make us a legitimate target for NATO rockets.”

Lavoie expressed scepticism about the casualty report. “At this stage we have no evidence whatsoever to suggest there is any foundation to these allegations,” he said, adding that the strikes had been carried out in the middle of the night to avoid casualties. Agencies. — Reuters

London, July 30
Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Britain came under more pressure with Scotland Yard today widening its ongoing investigations into phone-hacking to instances of computer hacking.

Under probe on various fronts, the claim of leading lights of the Murdoch empire that they were not aware of phone-hacking was belied by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was employed by the News of the World.

A statement issued on his behalf said: “As an employee he (Mulcaire) acted on the instructions of others. There were also occasions when he understood his instructions were from those who genuinely wished to assist in solving crimes. Any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue”.

Scotland Yard said a new team had been set up to investigate matters not covered by its phone-hacking inquiry, Operation Weeting.

A spokesman said there had previously been a “consideration of allegations” of computer hacking rather than an investigation, but now “some aspects of that operation are being moved towards investigation”.

Meanwhile, members of the Culture, Media and Sport committee of the House of Commons voted against recalling News International chairman James Murdoch to give more evidence on phone hacking.

Labour MP Tom Watson, who has been in the forefront to highlight the phone-hacking issue, had wanted Murdoch and two ex-News of the World (NoW) executives to appear before the committee.

The former NoTW men dispute Murdoch’s claim to have been unaware of an email suggesting hacking was widespread.

The committee, however, will ask for more details, and chairman John Whittingdale said that it was “very possible” Murdoch would be asked to reappear after that.

Whittingdale told the BBC: “The areas where I’m particularly keen to get additional information is from (former legal manager) Tom Crone, (former editor) Colin Myler and (former legal director) Jon Chapman, where they say the evidence we were given by James Murdoch was wrong”.

He said: “So what we’ve agreed to do is to ask them to give us those extra details. When we have received that response we may well wish to call them in and take oral evidence.

“On the basis of that I think it’s very possible we will want to put those points to James Murdoch.” The Labour Party has also published a list of the shadow cabinet’s meetings with the media.

Party leader Ed Miliband had already published the list of his meetings with newspaper proprietors and editors since he became Labour Party leader in September 2010. — PTI

Washington, July 30
US has cautioned Indian students, who are planning to come to America, to be alert to the existence of predatory visa fraud rings and fraudulent document vendors.

The statement gains significance in the wake of raid on yet another US university on the alleged charges of visa fraud.

“We caution them to be alert to the existence of these so-called predatory visa fraud rings and fraudulent document vendors,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news conference.

Toner said the US is looking into the issue of raid by federal authorities at University of Northern Virginia (UNVA).

“We are following the case closely, and we’re in communication with Indian officials on it,” he said.

“We have briefed the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the US Department of Homeland Security and the State Department have been in contact with the Indian Embassy here,” he said.

“This is an investigation that’s ongoing, so I’m limited in what I can give in terms of details. But it’s important to note that a hundred thousand Indians are receiving a good education at certified US institutions each year, and we certainly welcome the contribution of Indian students wishing to study in the United States,” Toner said. — PTI

Kathmandu, July 30
Nepal's five-month old Communist-led government was today hit by a fresh crisis after the Maoists recalled their ministers from the cabinet and set Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal a 24-hour deadline to reshuffle his team. The largest coalition ally UCPN (Maoist) now wants its new representatives in the government and is pressing for an immediate reshuffle.

The Maoists took this decision during the party's Standing Committee meeting held at the party headquarters today, spokesman Dinanath Sharma said.

However, he made it clear that the Maoists were not withdrawing support to the Khanal-led government immediately. — PTI