First set of US troops leave Afghanistan 
Kabul, July 15
The first American soldiers of about 10,000 due to leave Afghanistan this year have flown home, military officials said today, kicking off a gradual drawdown due to be completed in 2014.

London, July 15
Reeling under sustained criticism, media baron Rupert Murdoch and his family today went into damage-limitation mode by promising to "apologise" to the nation, and accepted the resignation of former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks.

The ferocity of public criticism over phone-hacking threatened to hit Murdoch's media empire beyond Britain, with the US and Australia opening inquiries and the powerful media company taking serious knocks on the stock exchange for indulging in dubious news gathering practices.

James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, today listed the measures the company is taking to deal with the issue, including tendering an apology. The apology will be published in an advertisement in all national newspapers.

He wrote in an email to staff of News International, which owns four newspaper titles in the UK: "This weekend, News International will run advertisements in all national newspapers".

"We will apologise to the nation for what has happened. We will follow this up in the future with communications about the actions we have taken to address the wrongdoing that occurred".

Earlier, Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International under whose editorship of News of the World murdered teenager Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked, apologised and resigned from the post.

Her resignation was welcomed by ministers and MPs, many of whom felt it should have happened much earlier.

Tom Mockridge, CEO of Sky Italia, has been named as the next chief executive of News International.

Brooks said in her resignation letter: "As Chief Executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place".

She added: "I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate".

According to James Murdoch, the company has now formed an "independent management and standards committee", which will have direct governance and oversight from News Corporation board members.

He wrote: "We made the difficult and necessary decision to close the News of the World. A number of other executives have now left the company. "News Corporation also withdrew its proposal to acquire the shares in BSkyB it does not own. This is a strong signal that our top priority in the UK is to address the issues facing News International".

Murdoch added: "Next week, my father and I will appear before the CMS (culture, media and sport) select committee and will speak to them directly about our determination to put things right.

"The company has made mistakes. It is not only receiving appropriate scrutiny, but is also responding to unfair attacks by setting the record straight". — PTI 

Beirut, July 15
Syrian security forces killed at least 28 protesters today as hundreds of thousands flooded the streets nationwide in the largest anti-government demonstrations since the uprising began more than four months ago, witnesses and activists said. In a significant show of the uprising’s strength, thousands of protesters turned out in the capital, Damascus the seat of the regime’s power which has been relatively quiet so far.

The crowds also turned out in areas where the government crackdown has been most intense, a sign that President Bashar Assad’s forces cannot smother the increasingly defiant uprising.

The protests stretched from Damascus and its suburbs to Hasakeh and Idlib province in the north, Daraa in the south and Latakia on the coast. Thousands converged on the flashpoint cities of Homs and Hama in central Syria, among other areas across the nation of 22 million.

“All hell broke loose, the firing was intense,” an activist in Daraa told The Associated Press, asking that his name not be published for fear of government reprisals.

The uprising is the boldest challenge to the Assad family’s 40-year dynasty in Syria, one of the most authoritarian states in the Middle East.

Today’s casualties included seven people in Damascus, three in the northwestern city of Idlib, three in the central city of Homs and one in the southern city of Daraa, according to the Local Coordinating Committees, which have a network of sources on the ground. — AP