Prosecutors begin their case against two top Murdoch deputies – A prison nightmare could soon be over for a man believed to have been falsely convicted in the deaths of seven cops – And writing about the wrong thing will get you jailed in Saudi Arabia.

Prosecutors told a London juror that Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson have to have known about phone hacking performed by their underlings at Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids. The court also heard that three other “News of the World” journalists, and a private detective, had already admitted conspiring to hack phones.  Brooks and Coulson deny the hacking charges.  The trial could last as long as six months.

The US National Security Agency has been hacking the data links connecting Google’s and Yahoo’s data center.  Millions of records were gleaned daily from the Internet giants' internal networks, according to documents smuggled out of the US by fugitive leaker Edward Snowden and reported by the Washington Post.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto says he was parson Alberto Patishtan, an indigenous teacher whose supporters say is a political prisoner and scapegoat for the government’s failures.  Patishtan was arrested and jailed after a clash in which seven police officers were killed in the restive Chiapas region, where the Zapatista rebels are active.  Patishtan is under guard in a Mexico City hospital, being treated for a brain tumor.  He has consistently maintained his innocence.

A Saudi Arabian columnist is being detained and questioned after writing in support of ending his country’s ban on female driving.  Human Rights Watch says Tariq al-Mubarak is being held without access to a lawyer.  When his friends were informed they could pick him up at the investigator’s office, they too were detained and questioned for a time. 

Qatar has given a red card to a statue depicting French footballer Zinedine Zidane’s famous head butt to the chest of Italy’s Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final.  It was removed from public viewing because Muslim conservatives complained it violated their religious tenets against idolization.  Islamic piety prohibits statues of human beings and animals.  The Qatar Museum Authority had purchased the statue for permanent display, after it was displayed in France and Italy, where there were absolutely no reported of anyone suddenly converting to idolatry after seeing it.

Rescuers found the bodies of 87 people in the dessert in Niger.  They died of thirst after their vehicles broke down, trying to cross the Sahara to get to ports where they could then attempt to take boats to Europe.  The vehicles were traveling together three or four weeks ago.  One broke down in the desert, the second broke down after turning around to go back to base and get spare parts.

A cop caught on video brutalizing a female prisoner is charged with aggravated battery and official misconduct.  Images of soon to be ex-cop Michael Hart’s shameful act of cowardice as he shoved the defenseless woman head-first into a concrete bench went viral around the world, far beyond the sleepy suburb of Skokie, outside Chicago.  The victim Cassandra Fuerstein needed facial reconstructive surgery and still suffered vision problems.