Malaysian Police Officers Killed in Ambush

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Gunmen ambushed and killed five Malaysian policemen as fears mounted that armed intruders from the southern Philippines had slipped into at least three coastal districts on Borneo island, officials said Sunday. Two of the attackers were also fatally shot Saturday night, escalating tensions in eastern Sabah state, where Malaysia's biggest security crisis in recent...

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Venezuelan Official Confirms Chávez Receiving Cancer Treatments

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez is receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatments in the aftermath of his most recent cancer surgery, a government official said for the first time on Friday. Mr. Chávez has not been seen and has not spoken in public since his Dec. 11 surgery in Havana, including after officials said he was flown back to Venezuela and installed in a military hospital...

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Muay Thai Fighter Somluck Kamsing Returns to Home Ring

Rob CoxSomluck Kamsing, right, fought Jomhod Kiatadisak last month in Bangkok as part of a string of comeback fights there. BANGKOK — Before his Olympic gold medal, before his sponsorship deals, his movies and his music, Somluck Kamsing was one of thousands of young muay Thai fighters from Isan, Thailand’s poorest region. “My family worked all day to be able to eat at night,” he said. ...

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European Union Agrees on Plan to Cap Banker Bonuses

BRUSSELS — Bankers in Europe face a cap on bonuses as early as next year, after an agreement on Thursday to introduce what would be the world’s strictest pay curbs in a move politicians hope will address public anger at financial-sector greed. The provisional agreement, announced by diplomats and officials after late-night talks between E.U. member representatives and the bloc’s parliament,...

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Asian-American Diversity in Potential California Race

Jim Wilson/The New York TimesRo Khanna, a possible challenger to Representative Michael H. Honda, spoke at this rally in San Jose, Calif., against gun violence. CUPERTINO, Calif. — Home to Apple, Google and other high-tech pioneers, the 17th Congressional District here recorded a political first in last fall’s elections, becoming the first majority Asian-American district in the mainland United States....

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Gaza Militants Fire Rocket Into Israel, Police Say

JERUSALEM (AP) — A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck Israel on Tuesday as tensions are mounting in the region weeks ahead of President Barack Obama's visit. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said remains of the rocket were found south of the city of Ashkelon, in southern Israel. The attack caused damage to a road but no injuries, he said. It was the first such projectile from the Palestinian...

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Fashion Review: Sleeves and Straps Are Barely There at Oscars

Sleeves were in short supply and straps were so unrepresented on dresses at the Oscars on Sunday night that they might as well have been outlawed. But hold the envelope a moment: The verdict on this year’s red carpet is not all that bad. At least it wasn’t the usual monotonous parade of princess dresses. ...

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Political Memo: Fault-Finding Grows Intense as Cuts Near

WASHINGTON — First the White House and Congress created a potential fiscal crisis, agreeing more than a year ago to once-unthinkable governmentwide spending cuts in 2013 unless the two parties agreed to alternative ways to reduce budget deficits. Now that those cuts are imminent — because compromise is not — they have created one of Washington’s odder blame games over just whose bad idea...

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Iraq President’s Health Is Improving, Doctor Says

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is now able to talk, his doctor said, adding he was hopeful the Kurdish statesman would soon be fit to return to Iraq from Germany, where he has been receiving medical treatment for a stroke. A peace-maker who often mediated among Iraq's Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions, 79-year-old Talabani was flown abroad in December in critical...

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Pistorius Returns to Bail Hearing

PRETORIA, South Africa — Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, returned to court on Friday for the fourth straight day of hearings about whether he should be granted bail in a case that has riveted the nation. News reports said he slipped into the courthouse, his head covered by a jacket, some time before the start of hearings that have packed...

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Vleteren Journal: Cult Beer Westvleteren 12 Gives Belgian Town a Lift

Jock Fistick for The New York TimesA bar near St. Sixtus, where monks make Westvleteren 12, rated by some as the world’s best. VLETEREN, Belgium — On the face of it, this quaint Belgian town has few attractions — a charming brick parish church; a tall wooden windmill at the town’s main intersection. But it has the world’s best beer. In the past few years, several Web sites that ask beer drinkers...

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Bulgarian Government Is Reported Set to Resign

The government of Bulgaria will resign Wednesday afternoon following a week of sometimes violent protests, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said in a surprise announcement to Parliament. "The people gave us power and today we are returning it," he said, according to local news reports. The mass protests were triggered by electricity price increases and corruption scandals, including one over...

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Pistorius Returns to Court Seeking Bail on Murder Charge

PRETORIA, South Africa — Prosecutors accused Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star, of premeditated murder on Tuesday, saying he opened fire four times on his girlfriend through a closed bathroom door after putting on his prosthetic legs and walking more than 20 feet from a bedroom. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said Reeva Steenkamp, the victim, had been in a tiny room measuring roughly...

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Killing Off TV Characters Carries Risk

The shocking ending of this season’s “Downton Abbey” — shocking at least for those who managed to avoid the news when the finale was shown in Britain in December — most likely left thousands of the show’s fans mourning the loss of a beloved character and angry with the show’s creators for erasing him from their lives. The plot twist, though, was just the latest in a long tradition of television...

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Millionaire Stanley Marsh 3 Settles Abuse Lawsuit

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — Stanley Marsh 3, an eccentric millionaire artist best known for his Cadillac Ranch art display along an interstate highway in the Texas Panhandle, has settled lawsuits from 10 teenagers who said he paid them for sex acts, lawyers for both sides announced Saturday. In a prepared statement, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Anthony Buzbee, and Mr. Marsh’s lawyer, Kelly Utsinger,...

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Supreme Court to Hear Monsanto Seed Patent Case

Aaron P. Bernstein for The New York TimesVernon Hugh Bowman, an Indiana farmer, is challenging Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, over genetically modified crops. With his mere 300 acres of soybeans, corn and wheat, Vernon Hugh Bowman said, “I’m not even big enough to be called a farmer.” Yet the 75-year-old farmer from southwestern Indiana will face off Tuesday against the world’s...

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Meteorite Fragments Are Said to Rain Down on Siberia; 400 Injuries Reported

MOSCOW – A shower of falling objects, tentatively identified as fragments of a meteorite, was reported in Siberia early on Friday, damaging buildings across a vast swath of territory. More than 400 people were reported to have been injured, most from breaking glass. But four hours after the objects fell to earth, emergency officials had reported no deaths. Yelena Smirnykh, a spokeswoman...

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Woman Found Fatally Shot at Home of Pistorius

Emilio Morenatti/Associated PressOscar Pistorius, the South African Olympic and Paralympic track star, has been arrested after a woman was shot dead at his home. JOHANNESBURG — South African police and media reports said on Thursday that Oscar Pistorius, a Paralympic gold medal sprinter nicknamed Blade Runner, was being questioned after his girlfriend was fatally shot at his home in Pretoria, possibly...

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California Fugitive Is Believed to Have Died in Blaze

Alex Gallardo/ReutersPolice officers searched for Christopher J. Dorner on Tuesday at a checkpoint in Yucaipa, Calif. BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. — After a shootout and a forest standoff on Tuesday afternoon, Christopher J. Dorner, the former Los Angeles police officer sought in the region’s largest manhunt, was apparently killed in a cabin as it burned down around him, but officials said they needed time...

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DealBook: Barclays to Cut 3,700 Jobs in Restructuring Overhaul

LONDON – Barclays announced on Tuesday that it would cut 3,700 jobs and close several business units, as the British bank reported a loss in the fourth quarter of last year.The major restructuring of Barclays’ operations follows a series of scandals at the bank, including the manipulation of key benchmark interest rates, which led to the resignation of the firm’s former chief executive, Robert E....

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