Calm returns to Wall Street, but Europe remains a worry
For a day at least, Wall Street was able to work through its worries about the world economy.
Europe evaluates Ebola measures as possible cases emerge
PARIS — Several new suspected cases of Ebola were reported in Europe on Thursday, amid heightened fears that measures to prevent the virus from spreading here are insufficient and that more people, especially health personnel attending to Ebola patients, are at risk of contamination.
Pentagon says global warming presents immediate security threat
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon released a report Monday asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security, with increased risks from terrorism, infectious disease, global poverty and food shortages. It also predicted rising demand for military disaster response as extreme weather creates more global humanitarian crises.
British Parliament recognizes Palestinian state
LONDON — Against a backdrop of growing impatience across Europe with Israeli policy, Britain’s Parliament overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution Monday night to give diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state. The vote was a symbolic but potent indication of how public opinion has shifted since the breakdown of American-sponsored peace negotiations and the conflict in Gaza this summer.
Republican-majority Senate is starting to look likelier
The polls have shown Republicans faring quite well over the last couple of weeks, and they now appear to lead in the polls in enough contests to win 52 seats, with Iowa, Colorado and the six Democratic-held states won by John McCain in the 2008 presidential election and Mitt Romney in 2012.
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Prime Minister Viktor Orban continued his steady consolidation of power in Hungary in local and municipal elections on Sunday with his governing Fidesz party winning control of all county assemblies and all but one of the largest cities, including the capital, Budapest.
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Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader whose unexplained absence from public view for more than a month raised intense speculation that he was ill or deposed, apparently has been seen.
Warm air precedes late-week storm
The storm system that spawned severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes over the Mississippi River Valley yesterday will arrive in New England later this week, bringing the potential for heavy rainfall to the Institute on Thursday and Thursday night. Until then, the Boston area will be wedged between an offshore high pressure system and the approaching cold front. This setup will result in considerable pre-frontal warming, with temperatures expected to exceed 70°F (21°C) on each remaining day this week, whereas normal highs for this time of year are around 62°F (17°C).
Egypt cracks down on new student protests
CAIRO — Egyptian security forces are tightening their crackdown on student activism by arresting scores of students at the start of the school term in an effort to crush a renewed wave of protests against the military-backed government that took power last year.
Vatican signals more tolerance toward gays and divorce
VATICAN CITY — In a marked shift in tone likely to be discussed in parishes around the world, an assembly of Catholic bishops convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican released a preliminary document Monday calling for the church to welcome and accept gay people, unmarried couples and those who have divorced, as well as the children of these less traditional families.
Pleasant weather in store for Columbus Day
The period of seasonable and clear weather that Cambridge experienced this week will briefly come to an end as a low pressure system develops off the New England coast this evening. High clouds will overspread the region this afternoon and gradually thicken as moist air begins to stream northeast. Highs this afternoon should reach the lower 60s°F with winds out of the west. Rain will hold off until early tomorrow morning as an area of precipitation associated with the low rides along a stalled front to our southeast. Scattered showers should continue into the afternoon before clearing begins tomorrow evening. Expect highs tomorrow in upper 50s°F and northerly winds.
Parts of law limiting vote in North Carolina struck down
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a brief, unsigned order reinstating provisions of a North Carolina voting law that bar same-day registration and counting votes cast in the wrong precinct. A federal appeals court had blocked the provisions, saying they disproportionately harmed black voters. In a dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said she would have sustained the appeals court’s determination that the two provisions “risked significantly reducing opportunities for black voters to exercise the franchise.”
Russia seeks to play sanctions tit for tat
MOSCOW — The Russian Parliament on Wednesday took the first major step to authorize the Kremlin to seize foreign assets and use them to compensate individuals and businesses being hurt by Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
As growth in Germany fades, Merkel hints at shift in policy
As evidence grows that the German economy, the largest in Europe, is beginning to stall, Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed a growing willingness to use government spending to stimulate growth, a possible shift in position that could ripple across the entire eurozone.
Beijing youth see little to cheer in Hong Kong protests
BEIJING — The pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong would seem to have universal appeal, a David and Goliath tale, starring young idealists, polite and considerate in their defiance, standing up to a mighty authoritarian government with a history of mercilessly crushing dissent.
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Patrick Modiano, a French novelist whose works often explore the traumas of the Nazi occupation of France and hinge on the themes of memory, loss and the puzzle of identity, won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. In an announcement in Stockholm, the Swedish Academy cited Modiano’s ability to evoke “the most ungraspable human destinies” in his work.
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ISTANBUL — With the United States continuing to pressure Turkey to do more in the fight against the Islamic State, Turkey’s position has hardened around an idea it has pushed for years as a strategy to confront the chaos of the Syrian civil war: a buffer zone along its frontier with Syria.The idea is emerging as a possible way to end the standoff between the United States and Turkey, and U.S. military planners are said to be looking at how to implement such a plan, which would require a no-fly zone and stepped up combat air patrols to take out Syrian air defense systems.
Easier time in health marketplace is promised
WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials said Wednesday that consumers would have a much easier time buying health insurance in the federal marketplace this fall, and although they promised that HealthCare.gov would not crash, they provided few operational details to back up their confidence in the revamped website.
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Another death has been added to the toll from accidents involving General Motors cars with a defective ignition switch.
Promise seen in deals with Iraqi tribes against Islamic state
BAGHDAD — After enduring weeks of abuse by insurgents of the group called Islamic State, members of the Aza tribe struck a secret deal last month with local police and military officials: The authorities would supply weapons to two tribal regiments totaling about 1,150 fighters, and in return the tribe would help government security forces fight Islamic State.