Governor moves to take fiscal control of Penn. capital
The fate of Pennsylvania’s financially troubled capital city, Harrisburg, took another twist in a long road Thursday, when Gov. Tom Corbett signed a bill permitting him to place the city into receivership.
Debt plan is delayed over French-German disagreement
FRANKFURT, Germany — The grand plan is on pause.
Obama’s jobs bill, now piecemeal, nears Senate fight
WASHINGTON — For the second time in 10 days, the Senate moved Thursday toward a showdown over Democratic efforts to take up a jobs bill championed by President Barack Obama.
Shorts (right)
KIEV, Ukraine — President Viktor F. Yanukovich of Ukraine suggested Monday that he is not bending to international pressure to free his political rival, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, despite his desire to complete a deal that would integrate the country with Western Europe.
Shorts (left)
AMMAN, Jordan — King Abdullah II of Jordan, under growing pressure to accelerate political reform and genuine anti-corruption measures, fired his government Monday, eight months after doing so for similar reasons in the early days of the Arab Spring.
US considered cyberwarfare in Libya attack plan
WASHINGTON — Just before the U.S.-led strikes against Libya in March, the Obama administration intensely debated whether to open the mission with a new kind of warfare: a cyberoffensive to disrupt and even disable the Gadhafi government’s air-defense system, which threatened allied warplanes.
Putin defends his decision to seek a return to the presidency
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin confronted criticism over his decision to seek a return to the presidency next year, warning in a television interview shown Monday of a return to the volatility of previous decades should Russia swerve from its current course.
Bank forecasts Eastern Europe will grow more slowly due to debt crisis
FRANKFURT, Germany — A major development bank sharply reduced its growth forecast for Eastern Europe on Tuesday and warned of risks to the region’s banks, another example of how the sovereign debt crisis is radiating outside the eurozone.
Pattern of beautiful weekends and rainy midweeks to continue
Fall has arrived in full force in Cambridge, accompanied by its variable sometimes-gorgeous and sometimes-miserable weather. After two beautiful weekends in a row, it looks as though we will continue the pattern of midweek rain and clouds on Wednesday to Thursday and then go on to have yet another sunny and pleasant weekend.
Supreme Court to hear two human rights cases
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a pair of cases on whether corporations and political groups may be sued in U.S. courts for complicity in human rights abuses abroad.
Shorts (left)
A bankruptcy court on Thursday approved the hiring of a chief restructuring officer at the California energy company Solyndra. R. Todd Neilson, who served as the bankruptcy trustee for the boxer Mike Tyson and the rap impresario Suge Knight, will now lead Solyndra as it struggles to emerge from bankruptcy.
Wall Street protesters clean up, hope to avoid eviction
NEW YORK — Young people in knit hats and jeans scurried around Thursday wielding brooms and trash bags, moving mountains of sleeping bags, backpacks and jackets out of the way.
Weather
Today looks to be a wet and gloomy Friday. A large low pressure system centered over Michigan will pull warm, moist air from the Atlantic Ocean into the New England region. Significant rainfall is possible as thunderstorms will be embedded within the rain bands.
Dennis Ritchie, programming trailblazer, dies at 70
Dennis M. Ritchie, who helped shape the modern digital era by creating software tools that power everything from search engines like Google to smartphones, was found dead Wednesday at his home in Berkeley Heights, N.J. He was 70.
Shorts (right)
NEW YORK — The fallen hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam received the longest prison sentence ever for insider trading on Thursday, capping an aggressive government campaign that has ensnared dozens and may help deter the illegal use of confidential information on Wall Street.
Drone strike in Pakistan kills Haqqani commander
WASHINGTON — A CIA drone strike Thursday killed a high-level commander in the Haqqani network, the militant group that has been the largest killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.
Massachusetts clears big hurdle in approval of casinos
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Senate passed a bill Thursday that would legalize casino gambling, paving the way for three resort-style casinos and one slots parlor in the state.
Obama obliquely warns Pakistan about long-term relations
President Barack Obama cast some doubt on the long-term relationship between the United States and Pakistan on Thursday, saying his administration was concerned about the Pakistani government’s commitment to U.S. interests because of ties between anti-U.S. militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s own intelligence service.
Shorts (left)
Mitt Romney appeared Thursday to be rapidly consolidating support among some of the Republican Party’s most sought-after uncommitted donors, who have joined Bush administration veterans and other stalwarts of the Republican establishment in backing the former Massachusetts governor as the Republican presidential field settles.
Anti-tax pledges lose their allure as eyes turn to reform
WASHINGTON — Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah has signed a pledge never to raise taxes. He signed another pledge too, one that made it nearly impossible to vote for a bill to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. But right before that vote over the summer, in a meeting with scores of his Republican colleagues, he stood up and proclaimed that he would never sign another pledge. While some pledges, like marriage vows, may always carry weight, strict anti-tax pledges may be losing their sheen.