Florida Sinkhole Growing as Engineers Investigate

Chris O'Meara/Associated PressAn engineer wore a safety line Saturday outside the house in Seffner, Fla., where a bedroom and its occupant fell into a sinkhole. SEFFNER, Fla. (AP) — Engineers worked gingerly on Saturday to find out more about a slowly growing sinkhole that had swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom, believing the entire house could succumb to the unstable ground. Brian...

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U.S. Finds Erdogan Comments on Zionism ‘Offensive,’ Official Says

ANKARA (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday the United States found a comment by Turkey's prime minister, likening Zionism to crimes against humanity, "objectionable", overshadowing their talks on the crisis in neighboring Syria. Kerry, on his first trip to a Muslim nation since taking office, met Turkish leaders for talks meant to focus on Syria's civil war and bilateral...

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After Pledging Loyalty to Successor, Pope Leaves Vatican

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI left the Vatican by helicopter on Thursday afternoon to spend the final hours of his nearly eight-year, scandal-dogged papacy at the papal summer residence. Onlookers in St. Peter’s Square cheered, church bells rang and Romans stood on rooftops to wave flags as he flew from Rome to Castel Gandolfo, a hilltop town southeast of the city where popes have summered for...

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Conservative Justices Voice Skepticism on Voting Law

WASHINGTON — A central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 may be in peril, judging from tough questioning on Wednesday from the Supreme Court’s more conservative members. Justice Antonin Scalia called the provision, which requires nine states, mostly in the South, to get federal permission before changing voting procedures, a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” Chief Justice John...

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Scientist at Work Blog: Getting to the Bottom of It All

Michael Becker, a doctoral student at McGill University, was a scientific diver on an expedition to Lake Untersee in Antarctica.If you’re going where there’s no air to breathe, you better be organized.Any kind of underwater diving involves process for that very reason. There’s the early-morning wake-up, the weather check, the gear check (masks, fins, regulators … check). And then there’s the dive...

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Syria Willing to Talk With Armed Opponents, Foreign Minister Says

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria’s government is willing to hold talks with members of the armed opposition on ending the country’s nearly two-year-old civil war, the Syrian foreign minister said on Monday. It was the first time that a high-ranking Syrian official signaled that the government was open to talking with Syrian rebels who have taken up weapons against the armed forces. Syria’s president,...

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African Nations and U.N. Offer Plan to Stabilize Congo

NAIROBI, Kenya — Leaders of several African countries and United Nations officials on Sunday announced a new “framework” to tackle instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war-torn country that has become synonymous with suffering and has eluded countless attempts to build a lasting peace over the years. The new effort calls for greater cooperation between Congo’s neighbors — several...

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Emory University President Revives Racial Concerns

ATLANTA — A reception Friday at Emory University to celebrate the work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the years after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could have been more poorly timed, but not by much. All week long, the president of Emory, James W. Wagner, had been trying to rewind a column that he had written for the university magazine. In it,...

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In Drought-Stricken Heartland, Snow is No Savior

Matthew Staver for The New York TimesThin mountain snow in Colorado and across the West could signal another summer of drought and wildfire. DENVER — After enduring last summer’s destructive drought, farmers, ranchers and officials across the country’s parched heartland had hoped that plentiful winter snows would replenish the ground and refill their rivers, breaking the grip of one of the worst dry...

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India Ink: Two Explosions Kill at Least Eleven in India

Two blasts near a bus stop killed at least 11 people and injured dozens in the south Indian city of Hyderabad on Thursday night, in what officials said may be a coordinated terrorist attack.“Two blasts took place in Diksukh Nagar in old Hyderabad,” Sushil Kumar Shinde, India’s home affairs minister, told journalists in New Delhi. The blasts came from two bicycles at two sites 150 meters away from...

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In Cyprus Trial, Man Says Hezbollah Scouted Israeli Targets in Europe

LIMASSOL, Cyprus — A man on trial here admitted Wednesday to being a member of the militant group Hezbollah, staking out locations Israelis would frequent and acting as a courier for the group inside the European Union. In a little-watched proceeding in a small courtroom here, the defendant, Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, 24, described how he would be picked up in a van to meet with his handler, whom...

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Syrian Army Rocket Kills 19 and Levels Buildings in Aleppo, Rebels Say

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian antigovernment activists said Tuesday that an army rocket had leveled several buildings in a rebel-held neighborhood of Aleppo, killing at least 19 people and possibly leaving dozens more buried under rubble. The attack appeared to cause one of the worst civilian tolls in the embattled city since its university was hit in a multiple bombing a month ago. News of the...

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Drug Makers Increasingly Join Fight Against Doping

Now, a growing number of pharmaceutical companies are trying to prevent their drugs from the same fate by joining with antidoping officials to develop tests to detect the illegal use of their drugs among athletes. Two major drug makers, Roche and GlaxoSmithKline, have begun evaluating every new drug candidate for its potential to be abused by athletes and have agreed to share information about...

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Crowds at St. Peter’s Cry ‘Viva il Papa’ to Benedict

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday asked the tens of thousands of people who had flocked to St. Peter’s Square to see one of his last public appearances to pray for him and his successor. Riccardo De Luca/Associated PressAn emotional crowd of well-wishers greeted Pope Benedict XVI as he gave his weekly blessing in St. Peter's Square on Sunday. Franco...

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Explosion in Crowded Market Kills Dozens in Pakistan

Banaras Khan/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPakistani paramedics on Saturday examined the bodies of bombing victims at a hospital in the western city of Quetta. KARACHI, Pakistan — A devastating explosion ripped through a crowded market in the western city of Quetta on Saturday, killing at least 47 people and wounding more than 200, the police said. The attack occurred in a neighborhood...

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Venezuela Releases First Pictures of Chávez

CARACAS, Venezuela — The Venezuelan government on Friday released photographs of President Hugo Chávez for the first time since he had surgery in Cuba more than nine weeks ago. Venezuelan Ministry of Information, via Reuters.President Hugo Chávez smiles with his daughters, Rosa Virginia, right, and María Gabriela, while recovering from cancer surgery in Havana, in this photograph...

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City Room: Live Video: Mayor Bloomberg's Final State of the City Address

Watch Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg deliver his final State of the City address from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.Also, New Yorkers, we are interested in the State of Your Block. Please tell us how your block has been doing, or tweet at us using the hashtag #NYCblock.Below: Twitter highlights from the mayor’s speech: “The strike is a lost cause” @MikeBloomberg on bus driver strike— Michael Paulson...

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Tech Companies and Immigrant Advocates Press for Broad Changes in Law

SAN FRANCISCO — What do computer programmers and illegal immigrants have to do with each other? When it comes to the sweeping overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws that Congress is considering this year, the answer is everything. Silicon Valley executives, who have long pressed the government to provide more visas for foreign-born math and science brains, are joining forces with...

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