International Headlines

Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:01:08 -0400
>TOP STORIES as of 0800 HKT -- 13 July, 2010

> CONTAINMENT CAP ON BP WELL APPEARS TO BE IN PLACE
BP appears to have placed a new containment cap on its well in
the Gulf of Mexico that's been gushing oil since April 20. Tests
are needed to determine its effectiveness.

> CASTRO MAKES RARE TV APPEARANCE
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro will make his first major
public appearance in years Monday when he discusses the Middle
East on a government TV program, the state-run Granma newspaper reported.

> UGANDA TWIN BLASTS KILL 74
A Somali Islamist militant group -- al-Shabaab -- issued a
direct claim of responsibility Monday for a string of three
bombings in Uganda that left at least 74 people dead.

> SWISS REJECT POLANSKI EXTRADITION
Swiss authorities will decide Monday whether to extradite
Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski to the United States to
face child sex charges, the Justice Ministry said.

> MAN KILLS 5 COWORKERS, SELF
New Mexico authorities said a former employee shot and killed
five people at a business Monday in Albuquerque before turning
the gun on herself.

> BRITS SENTENCED IN TRANS-ATLANTIC PLOT
Three Britons recruited as suicide bombers in an al
Qaeda-inspired 2006 plot to blow up airliners as they were
flying across the Atlantic were sentenced Monday to life in
prison, with a minimum of 20 years.

> U.S., N. KOREAN MILITARY TO MEET IN DMZ
High-level military officers from the U.S.-led U.N. Command and
North Korea are slated to meet Tuesday in the village of
Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone between North and South
Korea, the United Nations said Monday.

> TYPHOON FORECAST TO HIT PHILIPPINES
A typhoon was expected to make landfall on the Philippines late
Tuesday, CNN meteorologists say.

BUSINESS
~~~~~~~~~~~

> BP 'PLEASED' WITH CONTAINMENT OPERATION
BP says it is "pleased" with how the operation to place a new
cap on its ruptured undersea well is proceeding, but while
robots replace the old cap, crude is flowing freely.

> CHINA EXPORTS UP 44 PERCENT IN SPITE OF GLOBAL FEARS
China defied widespread fears about a new slowdown in the global
economy to record another surge in exports last month compared
to the same period last year, although the figures will also
draw attention again to whether the Chinese currency remains
undervalued.

> CHINA RENEWS GOOGLE LICENSE
Google said Friday that it has renewed its license with the
Chinese government to continue operating in that country, ending
a standoff over censorship with the search engine.