Shorts (left)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hundreds of women and children Wednesday protested cuts in a U.N. food-assistance program, the latest in a growing backlash by Palestinian refugees and their offspring in this forlorn coastal strip against the agency that for decades has provided them with nutrition, education and health services.
Standoff on debt has yet to rattle Asia
HONG KONG — When the U.S. government was borrowing heavily four years ago to cover costs related to the global financial crisis, Wen Jiabao, then the prime minister of China, strongly and publicly warned Washington to make sure Chinese investments in Treasury securities were safe.
UN backs peace effort in Central African Republic
The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday aimed at stabilizing the Central African Republic, a dangerous and dysfunctional country that has descended into near-total chaos over the last half year.
Bank of England retains low interest rate
LONDON — Britain’s central bank decided on Thursday to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low in the face of more evidence that the country’s economic recovery was gaining speed.
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Three Americans won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for discovering the machinery that regulates how cells transport major molecules in a cargo system that delivers them to the right place at the right time in cells.
Libya condemns US for seizing terror suspect
TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya’s fragile interim government condemned the United States on Sunday for what it called the “kidnapping of a Libyan citizen” from this capital city a day earlier, and Libyan lawmakers threatened to remove the prime minister if the government was involved.
First black councilman can’t savor victory
Sidney Johnson — whose clandestine undercover work for the FBI helped convict five elected officials from his county for bribery — decided to try his hand at elective politics.
Airbus loosens Boeing’s US grip on Japan’s market
TOKYO — In selling planes to airlines, Boeing has long counted on the United States as its local market. Its big rival, Airbus, holds the home-field advantage in Europe. And the two compete head to head virtually everywhere else.
Boston weather inexplicably reasonable
It is now October, also known as that peculiar month when Bostonian weather somehow seems inexplicably reasonable.
Shorts (right)
WASHINGTON — After back-to-back terms ending in historic rulings that riveted the nation, the Supreme Court might have been expected to return to its usual diet of routine cases that rarely engage the public.
Netanyahu ridiculed after an appeal to Iranian youths
TEHRAN, Iran — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel tried to take his campaign against the Iranian leadership to Iran’s young population last week, saying that if they were truly free, they would be able to wear jeans, listen to Western music and participate in free elections.
Greek ex-minister convicted in bribery case
ATHENS, Greece — In a landmark verdict Monday, a former Greek defense minister and co-founder of the country’s once-mighty Socialist Party, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, was found guilty of setting up a complex money-laundering network to cover the trail of millions of dollars in bribes he is said to have pocketed from government weapons purchases.
Rebel feuding in Syria affects northern border town
BEIRUT — A group of powerful rebel brigades in northern Syria is struggling to defuse an armed standoff pitting insurgents against an al-Qaida affiliate for control of a strategic town near the Turkish border. The conflict over the town, Azaz, has shuttered a Turkish border crossing long used to supply the rebel movement and heightened tensions between rebels who seek the ouster of President Bashar Assad and extremists who want to erase Syria’s borders and found a transnational Islamic state.
The end of a sunny week brings possibility of rain
We enjoyed beautiful weather in Cambridge this week thanks to a high pressure system that brought sunny skies and daily high temperatures ranging from the mid 70s°F (low 20s°C) to low 80s°F (mid 20s°C). Looking forward, a warm front is expected to stall south of New England today. Showers associated with this front should steer clear of Cambridge during the day, but expect to see cloudier skies today than what we’ve been used to lately. As for the weekend, the chance of showers increases tomorrow. Even if we don’t see any rain, we should see cloudy skies and cooler temperatures, with a high of around 72°F (22°C). The warm front should lift through the region on Sunday, with muggy weather and an increased chance of showers close behind.
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ROME — Having floated for at least two days in the choppy Mediterranean to reach Europe, a rickety trawler overstuffed with African migrants fleeing war and poverty was nearing a Sicilian island, not even a quarter-mile away. But it was still dark and no one had yet spotted them. So to signal their position, someone set a match to a blanket.
Shorts (left)
WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner has privately told Republican lawmakers anxious about fallout from the ongoing government shutdown that he would not allow a potentially more crippling federal default as the atmosphere on Capitol Hill turned increasingly tense Thursday.
Wall Street seeks to soothe, while preparing for trouble
Wall Street is preparing for the government to bounce its first check.
Majority disapprove of shutdown over health law
A wide majority of Americans disapprove of shutting down the federal government over differences about the 2010 health care law, including a majority of those who oppose the law, according to the latest CBS News poll.
Turkey announces proposals aimed at mending relations with Kurds
ISTANBUL — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a package of measures Monday that appeared intended to revive the stalled peace process with the country’s ethnic Kurds, who have fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.