Rupert Murdoch humbled by hearing in hack scandal

Rupert Murdoch was humble Tuesday by a committee of lawmakers who grill one of the world's most powerful media moguls and his son on their position in a phone-hacking scandal that has embroiled a few of Britain's top politicians, police and journalists.

Appearing frail and confused, the elder Murdoch at initial seemed repentant — he banged his hands on the table and said the day was the the majority humble of his life — but he became increasingly flustered at what time committee members peppered with him questions, often turning to his son James for answers.

In a tense question-and-answer session by means of lawmakers, Murdoch, 80, said he was "shocked, appalled and ashamed" at the hack of the phone of a murdered schoolgirl through his now-shuttered News of the World tabloid. He said he have seen no evidence that victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack and their relatives be targeted by some of his papers.

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Before The Peace Talks, A Terrorist Attack

It was no accident that the terror attack Tuesday in which four Israelis were waylays in the West Bank and shot dead at point-blank range in their car happened just two days before direct Israeli-Palestinian calm talks were to begin in Washington after a 20-month hiatus.

That was the vision of Jonathan Peled, a spokesman for the Israeli delegation in Washington, moments after news of the slayings blazed across Israeli newspaper websites.

“The terror assault is exactly what we terror most,” Peled told about 200 journalists in a conference call set by the Israel Project, a nonprofit group devoted to calming the press about Israel. “In the absence of talks, all the activist elements spare no effort to destabilize efforts for reconciliation.”

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Somali militants claim responsibility for Uganda bombings

A Somali Islamist militant movement on Monday claimed with responsibility for a trio of bombings that killed at least 74 people Sunday at two venues in the Ugandan capital where crowds had gathered to watch the World Cup final.

"And the best of men have promised and they have to be delivered," said an Arabic statement issued by Al-Shabaab's press office and obtained by CNN. "Blessed and exalted among men (taking) with full responsibility. ...We wage war against the 6,000 collaborators; they have received their response."

The 6,000 is an apparent reference to the African Union peacekeepers in Somalia. Uganda contributes troops to the peacekeeping effort.

"We are behind the attack because we are at the war with them," Al-Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamoud Rage told reporters at a news conference in Mogadishu, Somalia.

"We had given warning to the Ugandans to refrain from their involvement in our country. We spoke to the leaders and then we spoke to the people and they never listened to us."

Rage said young suicide bombers carried out the attacks but did not specify their nationalities. "May Allah accept these martyrs who have carried out the blessed operation and exploded themselves in the middle of the infidels," he said.

However, Police Chief Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura told that reporters arrests have been made in connection with the bombings. He would not say how many people have been arrested or provide details.

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36 pilgrims killed, 138 wounded in Baghdad blasts

The death toll from a string of bomb blasts targeting the Shiite pilgrims on Wednesday in Baghdad rose to 36, while at least 138 others were injured, a local police source told Xinhua.

Six pilgrims were killed and 30 others injured when a roadside bomb went off in Yarmok district in the western Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, adding nine others were wounded in another roadside bomb explosion in Haifa street in central Baghdad.

Earlier, two pilgrims were been killed and 31 others injured in a blast in new Baghdad district, southeastern Baghdad, said the source.

The spate of attacks mainly against Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad began around the sunset, the deadliest one was carried out by a suicide bomber who blew himself up among a large crowd of pilgrims who were marching on foot in Adamiyah district of the northern Baghdad, killing 28 and wounding 68 others, said the source.

Iraqi police and emergency team sealed off the site immediately while ambulances rushed the wounded to the nearest hospitals, added the source.

Meanwhile, another explosive device planted in Altallya district in Baghdad was successfully defused

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Terror Attacks Against U.S. At All-Time High

The pace and number of attempted terror attacks against the U.S. in over the past nine months has surpassed the number of attempts during any previous one-year period, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security report issued on Friday, May 21.

The report notes chillingly that while US officials "lack insights" they believe that "operatives are inside the country and could advance plotting with little or no warning."

The DHS "Intelligence Note," a short, non-classified report, which makes to concrete the concerns of a number of homeland security experts who have discussed with ABC News the pace and nature of the individual attempts. The report notes that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Pakistani Taliban have "expanded their focus" to include the United States.

Homeland Security and law enforcement officials interviewed by ABC News on the condition their names not be used are concerned that the pace will continue to ramp up and that increasingly the attackers will be difficult-to-detect homegrown extremists.

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