WORLD

Hurricane Irene shut down the neon lights on Broadway, and substantially reduced commercial activity over the weekend -- including canceling thousands of flights, but the storm's economic damage will likely be far less than originally predicted. In particular, New Yorkers, for the most part, feel like they were spared.

Uncounted thousands remain vulnerable to continued flooding.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 2012 Republican presidential candidate, has renewed his attack on government entitlements, likening Social Security to a Ponzi scheme.

Dozens of homes in the Diamond State were damaged or destroyed by fierce winds; while many roads remain impassable due to fallen tree limbs and power lines.

The Khamis Brigade, which is known to be fiercely loyal to fallen Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, killed around 50 detainees and then set the Tripoli warehouse where they were lodged on fire on Aug. 23. The Khamis Brigade is run by Gaddafi’s youngest son Khamis, and is often considered to be the most dreaded militia in the country. Khamis Gaddafi was reportedly killed in a NATO airstrike on a military outpost at Zlitan near Misrata in the beginning of this month, but the Khamis Brigade has de....

Here is a brief rundown of important events around the world Monday morning, August 29, 2011.

Abdelbaset Ali al - Megrahi, who was convicted over the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, is harking on death's door. The Libyan citizen jailed for 270 counts of murder for the bombing of Lockerbie is currently under the care of his family members at his Tripoli home in Libya.

China's fast-growing consumerism and lax policing of ivory laws are the latest threats to wild elephant populations, said an author of a recent report on endangered species.

The hardline Chinese official removed last week as Communist Party chief of restive Tibet has been made head of the province in the center of contention over China's Catholics, giving him an influential role in another sensitive religious issue.

A U.S. and European push to impose U.N. Security Council sanctions on Syria for its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators is meeting fierce resistance from Russia and China, U.N. diplomats said.

A court in southwest China has charged three Tibetan monks with intentional homicide for hiding a fellow monk and preventing him from getting treatment after he set himself on fire, state news agency Xinhua reported Friday.

Japan’s ruling party, Democratic Party of Japan, elected Yoshihiko Noda as its new head. Ever since the party took power two years ago, he will become the third Prime Minister.

Syrian armor surrounded a town near Homs Monday after the defection of tens of soldiers from the area, activists and residents said, in the latest operation to counter dissent within the military.

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, a fiscal hawk, will become Japan's sixth prime minister in five years after winning a ruling party vote Monday, an outcome likely to please investors worried about a bulging public debt.

Switzerland's banking industry may have to slash 10,000 jobs by the end of next year, particularly at Swiss subsidiaries of big foreign banks, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported.

The Libyan convicted in the 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, has been found in Tripoli and appears at death's door, CNN reported Sunday.

A Pakistani court ordered the confiscation of exiled former president Pervez Musharraf's property and the freezing of his Pakistan bank accounts over accusations that he failed to provide security for assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a lawyer said on Sunday.

Libyan rebel forces were converging on Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte Monday morning, hoping to deliver the coup de grace of their revolution but uncertain if the fallen strongman was holed up there.

Sipping coconut water and honey, Anna Hazare ended a hunger strike on its 13th day on Sunday, a protest that had sparked huge rallies across the country, exposed a weak government and ushered in a new middle-class political force.

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is the richest person in the world for the second year in a row, Forbes said on Wednesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday warned that flooding from Hurricane Irene could worsen as rivers flood their banks and said federal recovery efforts would last a few weeks.

More than 470,000 Long Islanders lost power due to Irene

Granted, if Irene had crossed closer to Manhattan, I’d be singing a different tune.

At least five storm-related deaths have been recorded in the state.

Massachusetts residents were spared the bulk of the wrath of Hurricane Irene, as it was downgraded to a tropical storm Sunday morning as it entered the Bay State. Nevertheless, the storm uprooted hundreds if not thousands of trees and power lines, and caused extensive flooding.

Many roads remain across the state, especially in the South, are still closed or impassable.

Libyan forces closed in on Muammar Gaddafi's home town Sunday, vowing to seize it by force if negotiations failed, and their leaders ruled out any talks with the deposed ruler.

President Barack Obama held a conference call on Saturday evening as Hurricane Irene pounded the U.S. East Coast and scoured north toward New York.

U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the eurozone crisis and financial-market turbulence on Saturday and vowed action to bolster the global economy, the White House said in a statement.