International Headlines

Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:02:07 -0400
>TOP STORIES as of 0900 GMT -- 21 July, 2010

> CLINTON, GATES CRITICIZE N. KOREA DURING TRIP TO SOUTH
Top U.S. officials visit S. Korea in a rare meeting to show U.S.
support for the key Asian ally over the sinking of its warship,
which a probe said North Korea was responsible for.

> STORM BARRELS TOWARD SOUTHERN CHINA
A tropical storm is intensifying and making its way toward
southern China, coming on the heels of major flooding and
landslides in the country's center.

> BRITISH PM: I UNDERSTAND U.S. ANGER AT BP
As tests continue Tuesday on BP's ruptured oil well in the Gulf
of Mexico, scientists are weighing a new option for permanently
sealing it.

> AFGHANISTAN TO ASSUME SECURITY BY 2014
Afghanistan is "determined" to be responsible for its own
security operations by 2014, President Hamid Karzai has told an
international donors conference in Kabul.

> VENEZUELA OWNS PART OF OPPOSITION TV
Venezuela will name a government representative to the board of
opposition broadcaster Globovision, Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez said in speech Tuesday.

> FRENCH FOOTBALLERS QUIZZED IN SEX PROBE
Two members of the French national soccer team, Franck Ribery
and Karim Benzema, were being questioned by French police
Tuesday in connection with an alleged underage prostitution
ring, French police said.

> EXITING OFFICIAL: U.N. SLIPS INTO IRRELEVANCE
A departing senior U.N. official has released a rare rebuke of
her boss's performance -- saying the United Nations is "drifting
into irrelevance" under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's
management.

> GOLDMAN PROFITS PLUMMET BY 83 PERCENT
Goldman Sachs reported a steep drop in quarterly profits on
Tuesday as the exceptional trading conditions that followed the
2008 financial crisis evaporated, exacting a toll on Wall
Street's most powerful profit engine.

BUSINESS
~~~~~~~~~~~
> COURT APPROVES BAIL FOR CONRAD BLACK
An U.S. appellate court rules that jailed media mogul Conrad
Black can be released on bail. A judge will now set the bail
conditions for Black, who is serving a six-and-a-half-year
prison term for fraud.

> CHINA NOW WORLD'S BIGGEST ENERGY USER
China overtook the U.S. last year to become the world's biggest
energy user, the International Energy Agency reveals.

> OIL SPILL WILL 'FOREVER CHANGE' INDUSTRY
Interior Department regulators designing disaster contingency
plans didn't prepare for a calamity the size of the current Gulf
of Mexico oil spill crisis because of a lack of precedent, a
former interior secretary said Tuesday.