Gandhi takes over faltering Congress party

NEWDELHI — Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India’s most famous political dynasty, has taken over as president of the main opposition Congress party while facing a stiff challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalists.

Mr. Gandhi took the baton from his mother, Sonia Gandhi, on Saturday at a party function at a time when it’s losing power to Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014. Mr. Gandhi’s party has suffered humiliating defeats in recent state elections despite his active campaigning to win back support.

Sonia Gandhi in her speech described her son as a new hope for the party.

He will be taking on Mr. Modi when he seeks a second five-year term in 2019. Mr. Modi has vowed to create a Congress-free India while working for the rise of Hindu nationalist forces.

Sex scandal downplayed

21st Century Fox Saturday sought to tamp down a furor over Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch’s comments that downplayed the magnitude of the sexual harassment scandal that has roiled Fox News for the past 18 months.

During an interview Thursday with Sky News to discuss the Murdoch family’s sale of most of Fox to Walt Disney Co., Mr. Murdoch was asked how harmful sexual harassment allegations at Fox News had been to the business of the parent company — and whether the scandal had stalled Fox’s campaign to gain full control of the Sky pay-TV service.

“It’s all nonsense,” Mr. Murdoch said. “There was a problem with our chief executive (Roger Ailes) over the years, isolated incidents. As soon as we investigated, he was out of the place in hours … well, three or four days. And there has been nothing else since then.”

But there have been more allegations and firings since then, including the ouster of commentator Bill O’Reilly and afternoon show host Eric Bolling, who was fired last summer after allegedly sending lewd photographs and text messages to female colleagues.

Wealthy couple dead

Mystery has shrouded the unexplained deaths of an enormously wealthy Canadian couple, who gave away much of their fortune from a generic drug business.

The bodies of the couple, Barry and Honey Sherman, were found Friday inside their mansion in an upscale neighborhood of northern Toronto.

Aside from describing the deaths as “suspicious,” police in Toronto offered little information. Brandon Price, a homicide detective, told reporters that investigators were not “currently seeking a suspect,” a statement he said had been made to “alleviate some of the concerns in the neighborhood.”

Ancient library reopens

ST. CATHERINE’S, Egypt — Egypt reopened on Saturday an ancient library which holds thousands of centuries-old religious and historical manuscripts at the famed St. Catherine Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in South Sinai.

The inauguration ceremony, attended by Egyptian and western officials, comes after three years of restoration work on the eastern side of the library that houses the world’s second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts, outnumbered only by the Vatican Library, according to Monk Damyanos, the monastery’s archbishop.

“The library is now open to the public and scholars,” said Tony Kazamias, an adviser to the archbishop.