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Top editors charged: Eight people, including former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, are to be charged in connection with the illegal accessing of voice mails. Brooks and Coulson are close associates of both media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Prime Minister David Cameron; Coulson was once Cameron’s communications director. Prosecutors say that more than 600 people, including actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as well as crime victims and sports figures, were victims of a phone-hacking conspiracy that included several Murdoch-owned newspapers. Murdoch resigned this week from the board of News International, his British newspaper division, in what analysts saw as a bid to distance his other holdings from the scandal.

Bayreuth, Germany

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Nazi tattoo silences baritone: A Russian opera singer this week bowed out of the Bayreuth opera festival, where he was to sing the principal role in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, because of his swastika tattoo. News of Evgeny Nikitin’s tattoo caused a flood of outrage in the German press, forcing him to leave the production. Nikitin got the Nazi symbol as a teen when he was in a heavy metal band. “It was a major mistake in my life,” Nikitin said. “I was not aware of the extent of the confusion and hurt that these symbols would cause, particularly in Bayreuth and in the context of the festival’s history.” Wagner was a notorious anti-Semite, and his music was promoted by Hitler, who often attended the Bayreuth festival.