President George W. Bush and Senate leaders of both parties vowed on Tuesday to work toward quick approval of a financial bailout plan.

Besides stockholders whose portfolios were ravaged, the one person with the most riding on the bailout bill that collapsed in Congress may have been Senator John McCain.

Union foot soldiers face the challenge of persuading members to vote on the basis of their wallets rather than on issues like abortion, gun rights and race.

Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, is heading into the debate with Joseph Biden Jr. facing challenges about her credentials and signs that her popularity is slipping.

A spokesman for the Somali pirates said they had no idea that the Ukrainian ship they captured was carrying weapons.

The move consolidated the army chief's control over an agency that the United States contends has been helping the Taliban mount operations against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Military action in Bajaur, a tribal area, has pushed 20,000 Pakistanis over the border into Kunar Province.

Another bank bailout and a decision by Ireland to guarantee all bank deposits were only the most visible signs of distress emanating from the U.S. failure to protect its banking system.

The governments' action comes a day after three states bailed out Dexia's rival Fortis. Meanwhile, Ireland backed all deposits in the country's banks.

Unlike the United States, which benefits from the dollar's being the pre-eminent global reserve currency, Britain simply could not get away with borrowing and spending freely to try to stem its crisis.

British bankers, who once lived so high, are being brought low, making them whipping boys.

From the White House and Congress to the presidential campaign trail, the principal players did not rally the votes they needed in the House.

The surprise rejection of President George W. Bush's $700 billion proposal to stanch the bleeding in American markets underscored the failure of the White House and the congressional leadership to sell the country on the need for such a massive program.

Text of a speech given by Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the House vote on the bailout plan on Monday.

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, has reined in the celebratory mood at an annual rally, insisting on a sober front as his party plots its course to Downing Street.

Treasury and Fed officials made it clear after the House vote that they still had a wide range of tools at their disposal. But most of the options are ad hoc.

Previous bank rescues show that some combination of free-market capitalism and existing mechanisms for government assistance can provide solutions to the crisis.

Addressing the issues on the minds of investors on Main Street who are distressed by the fallout on Wall Street.

The EU said its monitors would deploy throughout Georgia on Wednesday, but Russian military officials warned that the monitors would not be allowed to work immediately in the buffer zone that surrounds South Ossetia.

At least 147 people died in Rajasthan State as Hindus gathered to begin one of the most important religious festivals of the year, the police said.

Forty percent of Cairo's 17 million inhabitants get drinking water for no more than three hours a day, according the Egyptian government's National Research Center.

A new exhibit in the Russian Central Armed Forces Museum takes pride in the August victory and points an accusatory finger at the West.

Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga propelled himself into a masterly position, in which light, the eerie colors cast on shimmering dresses, and lightness, as in fluidly draped jerseys, made an extraordinary impact.

It was party time at the Maison Martin Margiela, with the crowning moment when a human birthday cake - the structure carried down the runway in the style of a pantomime horse or Chinese dragon - followed by the entire Margiela staff in their signature white lab coats.

Calm , beauty and - yes - glamour was the feeling at Yohji Yamamoto's show.

President Bush and Senate leaders of both parties vowed to work toward quick approval of a financial bailout plan.

Text of a speech given by Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the House vote on the bailout plan on Monday.

America's political leaders have failed utterly to project any sense of authority and to give the world a reason to believe that the country is being governed.

The crises of 1914 and 1938 have overshadowed America's decision-making ever since.

What will it take to bring the financial panic to an end?

In a time when world leadership appears in short supply, Nicolas Sarkozy makes the case that he can lead a Europe able to take a greater hand in global decision making.

Foreign tourists' descriptions of an Aug. 4 incident in Kashgar that left 16 paramilitary officers dead are at odds with the account given by Chinese officials.

Paul Newman, who died Friday of cancer at his home in Westport, Connecticut, always wore his fame lightly, his beauty too. He learned to use that flawless face so we could see the complexities underneath.

The absolute majority held for decades by the Christian Social Union in Bavaria was swept away in a humiliating defeat.

Using strict geometry, Donatella Versace closed the Italian summer 2009 season with a focus on one of its powerful trends.

With no end in sight to the writers' strike, studios and distribution companies will be searching even harder for movies to fill their threatened schedules.

The Rolling Stones announced Thursday they have signed a deal to release the soundtrack to their Martin Scorsese-directed concert film through Universal Music Group.

As the Writers Guild maintained on Monday that it was unlikely to grant a request from Grammy producers for an interim agreement, talent managers and label executives worried over prospects of a gala drained of major stars.

Jack Nicholson, the legendary ladies' man, says he'd like to fall in love again.

Theater groups have been among the loudest protesters of cuts announced by Arts Council England, the government-financed body that doles out subsidies to the arts.

Michelangelo's heroic David could be on the move after 135 years in the museum designed to showcase the marble masterpiece.

'Castor et Pollux," perhaps Jean-Philippe Rameau's finest creation in its genre, has not been staged by any major opera company in recent years, which is one reason Pierre Audi, artistic director of Amsterdam's De Nederlandse Opera, chose it for a new production, staged by him and conducted by Christophe Rousset.

Four paparazzi have been arrested for reckless driving while chasing Britney Spears' car in California's San Fernando Valley.

Frustrated with the standard tools of his trade, a self-styled"rogue sociologist" befriended a gang leader and began a curious insider-outsider life at a notorious Chicago housing project.

The items, more than 350 sexually explicit works on display at the National Library through March 22, are drawn from a permanent collection created in the 1830s when the library isolated works considered"contrary to good morals."

When news surfaced over the weekend that 50 Cent, Wyclef Jean, Timbaland and other rap stars had been implicated in a steroids investigation, some hip-hop fans were shocked, but to many in the industry the accusations seemed inevitable.

Ang Lee's spy thriller"Lust, Caution" and Peter Chan's historical epic"The Warlords" led with six nominations each in the shortlist for the second Asian Film Awards announced Thursday.

The tragic period romance"Atonement" dominated the race for the British Academy Film Awards, with nominations in 14 categories, including best picture, actor, actress and director.

The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony was reduced essentially to a news conference, and Hollywood's top stars made it a point to be sequestered.

The Afghan Culture Ministry quietly prohibited the importing of"The Kite Runner," a film based on the best-selling novel about childhood betrayal, ethnic tension and sexual predation in Afghanistan.

Fans that cannot get enough of the work of Zhang Ailing, also known as Eileen Chang, are flocking to the theater to see a stage version of her 1944 novella"Red Rose and White Rose," adapted and directed by the director Tian Qinxin of the National Theater of China. Zhang also wrote"Lust, Caution," a novel that became a movie directed by Ang Lee.

The Culture Ministry has quietly banned the import of the film based on the best-selling novel about childhood betrayal, ethnic tension and sexual predation in Afghanistan.

The Hôtel de Ville, or town hall, of Paris is showing"Paris en Couleurs," featuring works from the earliest color plates to contemporary city views. The exhibition runs through March 31.

The most striking group at Globalfest 2008— the five-hour, 12-band showcase of world music on Sunday night at Webster Hall— was the one that traveled lightest: Lo Còr de la Plana, from Marseilles, France.

Inmates spend up to four hours a day practicing a growing repertoire of more than two dozen dances, and YouTube footage shows the prisoners dancing to the Michael Jackson song"Thriller."

"The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Parts 1 and II" at the Gielgud Theatre and"La Cage aux Folles" at the Menier Chocolate Factory, both in London, are worthy remakes of two iconic shows of the'80s.

Stephin Merritt, best known as the guiding light of the Magnetic Fields, is a man of broad tastes.

Daniel Hope has written a book,"Familienstücke: Eine Spurensuche" ("Family Album: Following the Trail"), which folds his personal history into an epic of families displaced to South Africa by famine in Ireland and the Nazis in Germany. Written in German and published by Rowohlt, it reveals secrets swept under the carpet generations ago.

At a Golden Globes ceremony derailed by striking screenwriters,"Atonement" won for best drama and"Sweeney Todd" won for best musical or comedy.

Some bad news for striking Hollywood writers: Election 2008 is a breakaway hit.

"The Korngolds: Cliché, Criticism and Composition," an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Vienna that runs through May 18, is the fourth exhibition in the series"music in transition" devoted to the composers devastated by the Nazis.

What happens next at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has relevance for all major institutions undergoing a generational shift— and all museums in this young century.

General Francisco Franco is long dead, but his shrines continue to divide the generations in Spain.

With the Hollywood writers' strike ensuring that"American Idol" will face even less competition than normal, the outlook for Season 7 of"Idol" appears to be as good as or better than ever.

Martin McDonagh's plays have won wide acclaim, but he had filmmaking in mind all along.

Zarah Ghahramani's rage at the Iranian government was a matter of personal style as much as of principle.

Britney Spears' best chance of regaining visitation rights with her two sons is in court— but whether she'll be there is anyone's guess.

Angel Gonzalez, one of Spain's most prominent poets and member of a literary generation known for its opposition to the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, has died at the age of 82.

A selling show put together last month in the Johnny Van Haeften gallery (it effectively goes on, shorn only of a few paintings) offered some stunning revelations about Old Masters, defying simple notions about clear-cut schools and giving way to a fascinating world, more creative than you ever imagined.

What exactly is a family film, anyway? The rating doesn't always tell the story.

'Walk Hard,' is a cleverly packaged story, written by Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow, about a patently phony musician - John C. Reilly is Dewey Cox - who conquers America's eardrums with a song in his heart, a guitar in his hands and a million clichés in his DNA.

The Metropolitan Museum is bidding goodbye to the Euphronios krater, a 2,500-year-old vessel that has been a showpiece of its collection for more than three decades.

The agreement contains provisions that will allow it to be superseded by any deal ultimately reached with the major players through the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Toni Collette has given birth to her first child, a baby girl, Australian media reported Friday.

Andrew Morton sees a domineering, aggressive character who has joined forces with Scientology to catapult his activities beyond the realm of mere glitter.

With"The Edge of Heaven," Fatih Akin has not abandoned the journeys between Germany and Istanbul that have stood at the center of several of his films.

Overture Films is running on a small budget, but looking like a major studio.

In a twist for the music industry's digital revolution, the new Radiohead album ranked as the top-selling album in the country this week.

Much like man's best friend, the rough-hewn Filipino movie"The Bet Collector" chases its protagonist from step to step, misery to misery, all but nipping at her heels.

Using baling wire, string, masking tape, wood, glass, sheet metal, aluminum foil, wax paper and many other materials, Emery Blagdon constructed snarly, extraordinarily complicated structures.

Lewis has written a biography of the First Amendment and a passionate if discursive essay that ranges across a variety of free speech controversies - from sedition and obscenity to hate speech and secret wiretapping.

The most heartbreaking place I've ever visited is the vast, spare, tree-lined cemetery where half a million people who died in the Nazi siege of Leningrad from 1941 to 1944, most of them civilians, are buried in gently rising, grass-covered mass graves - long, rectangular and symmetrically arrayed, each plot holding thousands of dead. From loudspeakers, tragic music swells over the grounds, where a statue of the Motherland watches over all. In pavilions near the entrance, by an eternal flame, notes and photographs of the victims are collected in glass cases.

Leah Hager Cohen's most recent book is a novel,"House Lights."

Owen Gingerich, an emeritus professor of astronomy and the history of science at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is the author of"The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus."

Before the Iraq invasion, a young imam offered some chilling advice to Muslims at the University of Toronto: if they could not fight the jihad against America with their souls or their sons, they should fight with their money. The Muslim Students Association told campus authorities that the imam did not represent the true spirit of Islam. With that, the case was closed.

In the summer of 2002, as Pentagon strategists were planning the invasion of Iraq, a short distance away, on the National Mall in Washington, the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery was showing one of the most interesting exhibitions of Islamic art seen in the United States for years. The show illustrated a story largely set in the Iraqi cities that would shortly become the targets of the Pentagon's munitions.

Jason Goodwin is the author of"Lords of the Horizon: A History of the Ottoman Empire." His most recent book is an Ottoman crime novel,"The Snake Stone."

Tom Reiss, the author of"The Orientalist," is writing a biography of Gen. Alexandre Dumas.

Essay Fouad Ajami is a professor of Middle Eastern studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and the author, most recently, of"The Foreigner's Gift."

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, is the author of"Infidel."

All the stars will be back again when"High School Musical" makes the jump from the Disney Channel to the big screen, Reuters reported.Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu andMonique Coleman, seen in the hit"High School Musical" (2006) and its sequel, are confirmed to reprise their roles in the movie,"High School Musical 3: Senior Year," when Troy (Efron) and Gabriella (Hudgens) face separation as they go off to college. Once again,Kenny Ortega will direct. The film is to be released in the United States and Europe in October.

The work of M/M (Paris) ranges from books, exhibitions and opera sets to fashion branding and music graphics, all shown in art galleries and museums all over the world.

A guide to art exhibitions showing worldwide.

"Woman on the Beach" is a bittersweet accounting of the geography of desire.

He has been a Yugoslav and a Serb and worked under Tito and Milosevic. So it makes sense that the place where Goran Paskaljevic really likes to work is Ireland.

Josie Ho is a bright star in Asia's burgeoning independent cinema scene, starring in the first Hong Kong film ("The Drummer") to compete at Sundance. And if plans go ahead for her to begin producing movies next year, she could also be a star maker.

With 21st-century pop finesse, Kate Nash managed to start a career by recording songs into her home computer and making some fortunate MySpace links. Now she's atop the British pop charts.

Laughing in the face of the apocalypse and other pesky glitches is key to the three plays in Ethan Coen's"Almost an Evening."

The willingness of the striking Writers Guild of America to take on the most glittering of all entertainment spectacles has sent shock waves through an industry whose idea of political activism has historically been confined to wearing a ribbon on its frock for this or that cause.

Philippe de Montebello, the director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York for 30 years, said Tuesday that will retire by the end of the year. His legacy is a museum much richer in its permanent collection, the public's true heritage, at a time of money madness and a dangerous balkanization of politics and culture.

From 1912 to 1931, the British architect Edwin Lutyens forged a new style of architecture in the newly named Indian capital of New Delhi; among his designs were bungalow-style houses for British officers. Now threatened by development, population and other pressures, the bungalows are at the center of a plan to create a central-city conservation zone.

The Hôtel Drouot, where a majority of Paris auctioneers wield the hammer, should play an important part in altering the current power balance in the international auction system. Recent sales, including Claude Aguttes's auction of the André Lefèvre collection and a PIASA auction of Chinese lacquer wares, demonstrate the trend.

It is telling that last year's most impressive art about the war has tended to be by artists who, like Christoph Büchel, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung and Thomas Demand, were not born in the United States.

The greatest threat to the remarkable legacy of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer may be Niemeyer himself. His decline has been evident since he completed his Museum of Contemporary Art in Niteroi, above.

In 17 scrapbooks Dan Eldon had created meticulous collages of the adventures and passions of his teenage and young adult years growing into a man who saw his camera work as a quest for justice.

Brecht, grandson of the playwright Bertold Brecht, and one of New York's leading pastry chefs, is turning to chocolate making. He has rid his Greenwich Village basement kitchen of mixers, convection ovens and other baking gear.

"November" is a David Mamet play for people who don't like David Mamet. I cannot say I see this as a cause for rejoicing.

"November" is a David Mamet play for people who don't like David Mamet. I cannot say I see this as a cause for rejoicing.

"November" is a David Mamet play for people who don't like David Mamet. I cannot say I see this as a cause for rejoicing.

The time is right for a brain-pincher of a theme show, which is what"Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art" at the International Center of Photography is.

The time is right for a brain-pincher of a theme show, which is what"Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art" at the International Center of Photography is.

The time is right for a brain-pincher of a theme show, which is what"Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art" at the International Center of Photography is.

Another bank bailout and a decision by Ireland to guarantee all bank deposits were only the most visible signs of distress emanating from the U.S. failure to protect its banking system.

The governments' action comes a day after three states bailed out Dexia's rival Fortis. Meanwhile, Ireland backed all deposits in the country's banks.

Unlike the United States, which benefits from the dollar's being the pre-eminent global reserve currency, Britain simply could not get away with borrowing and spending freely to try to stem its crisis.

Stocks staged a broad recovery Tuesday, partly on bargain hunting but also because investors seemed optimistic that the U.S. bailout plan would be approved.

Oil prices rose $1.90 as edgy investors trickled back into the market on hopes that Congress would resurrect a failed financial bailout plan.

Russia's market regulator suspended trade on the stock market seconds after it opened on Tuesday on signs of a fresh rout after U.S. lawmakers rejected a financial industry bailout plan and markets plummeted.

From the White House and Congress to the presidential campaign trail, the principal players did not rally the votes they needed in the House.

The surprise rejection of President George W. Bush's $700 billion proposal to stanch the bleeding in American markets underscored the failure of the White House and the congressional leadership to sell the country on the need for such a massive program.

Text of a speech given by Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the House vote on the bailout plan on Monday.

The cost of borrowing in dollars overnight surged the most on record Tuesday after the U.S. Congress rejected a $700 billion bank rescue plan, heightening concern more institutions will fail.

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank on Tuesday offered up more cash to the market in a move to provide liquidity to the financial system.

Interbank lending slowed nearly to a halt on Tuesday in Hong Kong, where memories are still fresh of a run last Wednesday against the Bank of East Asia, the city's third-largest bank by assets, which survived the run.

The Standard& Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index fell a record 16.3 percent in July from the same month a year ago.

Treasury and Fed officials made it clear after the House vote that they still had a wide range of tools at their disposal. But most of the options are ad hoc.

Previous bank rescues show that some combination of free-market capitalism and existing mechanisms for government assistance can provide solutions to the crisis.

Addressing the issues on the minds of investors on Main Street who are distressed by the fallout on Wall Street.

British bankers, who once lived so high, are being brought low, making them whipping boys.

Many economists and bank executives have advocated new, and perhaps more palatable, alternatives to prevent the financial crisis from spreading.

CEO's of troubled companies seem to always face the conundrum that right before their companies go out of business, they give an interview with a happy face.

U.S. regulators arranged the sale of Wachovia's bank unit to Citigroup to stave off what might have been the second failure of a major bank in a week.

Three days after Wachovia awarded a team of agencies owned by the WPP Group its creative and media assignments, Citigroup bought the bulk of the bank and the ad deal was suspended.

The two governments also signed an agreement to cooperate in aerospace technologies.

The world's biggest drugmaker plans to discontinue early stage development for a range of illnesses from obesity to heart disease.

GlaxoSmithKline, the biggest British drugmaker, said it alerted 850 workers in the United States and Britain of possible job cuts.

The Swedish retailer reported its weakest profit growth since 2003 as consumer fears about the financial crisis affected shopping habits.

Many retailers around the world are struggling as shoppers curb spending in the face of higher food and fuel costs, and of economic uncertainty exacerbated by the collapse of several major banks.

New York was losing ground before the current problems, though there is a chance it could emerge stronger and more attractive as a financial center.

Another bank bailout and a decision by Ireland to guarantee all bank deposits were only the most visible signs of distress emanating from the U.S. failure to protect its banking system.

The governments' action comes a day after three states bailed out Dexia's rival Fortis. Meanwhile, Ireland backed all deposits in the country's banks.

Unlike the United States, which benefits from the dollar's being the pre-eminent global reserve currency, Britain simply could not get away with borrowing and spending freely to try to stem its crisis.

Stocks staged a broad recovery Tuesday, partly on bargain hunting but also because investors seemed optimistic that the U.S. bailout plan would be approved.

Oil prices rose $1.90 as edgy investors trickled back into the market on hopes that Congress would resurrect a failed financial bailout plan.

Russia's market regulator suspended trade on the stock market seconds after it opened on Tuesday on signs of a fresh rout after U.S. lawmakers rejected a financial industry bailout plan and markets plummeted.

From the White House and Congress to the presidential campaign trail, the principal players did not rally the votes they needed in the House.

The surprise rejection of President George W. Bush's $700 billion proposal to stanch the bleeding in American markets underscored the failure of the White House and the congressional leadership to sell the country on the need for such a massive program.

Text of a speech given by Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the House vote on the bailout plan on Monday.

The cost of borrowing in dollars overnight surged the most on record Tuesday after the U.S. Congress rejected a $700 billion bank rescue plan, heightening concern more institutions will fail.

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank on Tuesday offered up more cash to the market in a move to provide liquidity to the financial system.

Interbank lending slowed nearly to a halt on Tuesday in Hong Kong, where memories are still fresh of a run last Wednesday against the Bank of East Asia, the city's third-largest bank by assets, which survived the run.

The Standard& Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index fell a record 16.3 percent in July from the same month a year ago.

Treasury and Fed officials made it clear after the House vote that they still had a wide range of tools at their disposal. But most of the options are ad hoc.

Previous bank rescues show that some combination of free-market capitalism and existing mechanisms for government assistance can provide solutions to the crisis.

Addressing the issues on the minds of investors on Main Street who are distressed by the fallout on Wall Street.

British bankers, who once lived so high, are being brought low, making them whipping boys.

Many economists and bank executives have advocated new, and perhaps more palatable, alternatives to prevent the financial crisis from spreading.

CEO's of troubled companies seem to always face the conundrum that right before their companies go out of business, they give an interview with a happy face.

U.S. regulators arranged the sale of Wachovia's bank unit to Citigroup to stave off what might have been the second failure of a major bank in a week.

Three days after Wachovia awarded a team of agencies owned by the WPP Group its creative and media assignments, Citigroup bought the bulk of the bank and the ad deal was suspended.

The two governments also signed an agreement to cooperate in aerospace technologies.

The world's biggest drugmaker plans to discontinue early stage development for a range of illnesses from obesity to heart disease.

GlaxoSmithKline, the biggest British drugmaker, said it alerted 850 workers in the United States and Britain of possible job cuts.

The Swedish retailer reported its weakest profit growth since 2003 as consumer fears about the financial crisis affected shopping habits.

Many retailers around the world are struggling as shoppers curb spending in the face of higher food and fuel costs, and of economic uncertainty exacerbated by the collapse of several major banks.

New York was losing ground before the current problems, though there is a chance it could emerge stronger and more attractive as a financial center.

Health is the opposite of a commodity: it flits around like Tinkerbell, defying all the best intentions and predictions.

Are patients swimming in a sea of health information? Or are they drowning in it?

Brazilian officials say the Amazon is being deforested more than twice as fast as last year.

For years in the United States, wind-farm projects had stalled in the face of local political opposition. Then an entrepreneur named Peter Mandelstam came up with a new and energizing approach.

Three Chinese astronauts returned safely to earth in their space capsule after spending nearly three days in low earth orbit and completing the nation's first spacewalk.

Physicians miss most opportunities to respond empathetically to their patients, a new study found.

Most nursing homes were cited for violations of U.S. health and safety standards last year, a report said.

A study suggests that portions of a patch of bedrock in northern Quebec are 4.28 billion years old and formed when the Earth was less than 300 million years old.

Solar power, with its promise of emissions-free renewable energy, boasts a growing number of fans. Some of them, it turns out, are thieves.

Experts in psychology and financial planning say the number of professionals in the budding field of financial therapy has multiplied in the last few years.

The highly praised Mediterranean diet has been gobbled up by an influx of chocolate shops, pizza places, ice cream parlors and fast-food joints.

The new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, or Empac, at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York is a technological pleasure dome for the mind and senses.

A new computer-generated camouflage is being promoted as the first camouflage scientifically designed to make hunters invisible to deer.

Amid growing concerns about hospital infections and a rise in drug-resistant bacteria, the attire of health care workers is getting more attention.

Scabies affects more than 300 million people a year and is frequently mistreated, partly because most physicians are unfamiliar with it and partly because its symptoms mimic so many other skin diseases.

Researchers measured levels of sweat, saliva and tears in a group of U.S. marines, and found lower levels in those volunteers with exercise-induced asthma.

The world's newest and largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, will not begin operations again until April, officials at CERN said.

By helping a Chinese village out of poverty, Dr. Pan Wenshi, China's premier panda biologist, was able to protect the endangered white-headed langurs.

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is heading for a crater 13.7 miles wide.

Eight years and $200 million in the making, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center aims to be a technological pleasure dome for the mind and senses.

Fragile barrier islands along the Gulf Coast are being all but obliterated by hurricanes.

Canadian researchers report that three weeks of more intensive treatment gives same result as standard five-to-seven-week course.

Health is the opposite of a commodity: it flits around like Tinkerbell, defying all the best intentions and predictions.

Are patients swimming in a sea of health information? Or are they drowning in it?

Brazilian officials say the Amazon is being deforested more than twice as fast as last year.

For years in the United States, wind-farm projects had stalled in the face of local political opposition. Then an entrepreneur named Peter Mandelstam came up with a new and energizing approach.

Three Chinese astronauts returned safely to earth in their space capsule after spending nearly three days in low earth orbit and completing the nation's first spacewalk.

Physicians miss most opportunities to respond empathetically to their patients, a new study found.

Most nursing homes were cited for violations of U.S. health and safety standards last year, a report said.

A study suggests that portions of a patch of bedrock in northern Quebec are 4.28 billion years old and formed when the Earth was less than 300 million years old.

Solar power, with its promise of emissions-free renewable energy, boasts a growing number of fans. Some of them, it turns out, are thieves.

Experts in psychology and financial planning say the number of professionals in the budding field of financial therapy has multiplied in the last few years.

The highly praised Mediterranean diet has been gobbled up by an influx of chocolate shops, pizza places, ice cream parlors and fast-food joints.

The new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, or Empac, at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York is a technological pleasure dome for the mind and senses.

A new computer-generated camouflage is being promoted as the first camouflage scientifically designed to make hunters invisible to deer.

Amid growing concerns about hospital infections and a rise in drug-resistant bacteria, the attire of health care workers is getting more attention.

Scabies affects more than 300 million people a year and is frequently mistreated, partly because most physicians are unfamiliar with it and partly because its symptoms mimic so many other skin diseases.

Researchers measured levels of sweat, saliva and tears in a group of U.S. marines, and found lower levels in those volunteers with exercise-induced asthma.

The world's newest and largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, will not begin operations again until April, officials at CERN said.

By helping a Chinese village out of poverty, Dr. Pan Wenshi, China's premier panda biologist, was able to protect the endangered white-headed langurs.

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is heading for a crater 13.7 miles wide.

Eight years and $200 million in the making, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center aims to be a technological pleasure dome for the mind and senses.

Fragile barrier islands along the Gulf Coast are being all but obliterated by hurricanes.

Canadian researchers report that three weeks of more intensive treatment gives same result as standard five-to-seven-week course.

Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga propelled himself into a masterly position, in which light, the eerie colors cast on shimmering dresses, and lightness, as in fluidly draped jerseys, made an extraordinary impact.

It was party time at the Maison Martin Margiela, with the crowning moment when a human birthday cake - the structure carried down the runway in the style of a pantomime horse or Chinese dragon - followed by the entire Margiela staff in their signature white lab coats.

Calm , beauty and - yes - glamour was the feeling at Yohji Yamamoto's show.

Call it a love of ethnicity and urge for authenticity, or a way of expressing the power of green. For all those elements are penetrating the shows of this summer 2009 season.

In the galleries of the Petit Palais, Patrick Demarchelier, a lensman always in Vogue, has his first major exhibition in his native Paris.

Far from the world of the tiny beaded clutch, iconic French bags combine quality and quantity - think the chunky Louis Vuitton Speedy, the spacious YSL Muse or the roomy Hermès Birkin.

The colors were out of Africa - orange, yellow and sheltering sky blue. Even the feet were perched on shoes with a Masai fertility carving for the heel.

The sulky scarlet lips, frilly lingerie and stockings suspended from garter belts suggested that An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx were taking their sporty white cotton shirts in a new direction.

The fluffy animals with luminous eyes were perched on the shoulders of mannequins, appearing as magical creatures in an Undercover fairy tale.

Under the creative direction of Olivier Theyskens, Nina Ricci's collection seemed muted in its soft colors and prints.

Anne Valérie Hash came back from the brink she reached in her last show, a collection that left many in the audience mystified.

Michel Klein's show for Cher Michel Klein had a little something for every woman, no matter what her style.

The sleeping beauty of Paris is finally starting to stir thanks to a number of suitors, each with his unique luxury kiss.

Anou Thammavong, a French designer of Laotian descent, is creating high-end silks that he hopes will crack the upper echelons of the fashion world.

Lanvin is in talks to sell a stake to an unnamed investor in Qatar in a deal that could value the French fashion house at around€150 million.

Even the "venerables" question the situation for those next in line, while designers in their 30s and 40s ask themselves if, at a time when the pace has quickened so dramatically, they will have the will to continue.

The infectious exuberance of Balmain is the card that the designer Christophe Decarnin plays.

Gareth Pugh's compelling show might have been a metaphor for fashion holding together as the world turns.

Kris Van Assche used the world of female boxers as inspiration for his first women's wear runway show, taking the sport and its sportswear into the domain of designer dressing.

The online luxury retailer Net-a-porter is teaming with the designer Alexander McQueen for a one-of-a-kind catwalk show that will give the Web site's two million customers their own front row seat at a McQueen collection.

Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga propelled himself into a masterly position, in which light, the eerie colors cast on shimmering dresses, and lightness, as in fluidly draped jerseys, made an extraordinary impact.

It was party time at the Maison Martin Margiela, with the crowning moment when a human birthday cake - the structure carried down the runway in the style of a pantomime horse or Chinese dragon - followed by the entire Margiela staff in their signature white lab coats.

Calm , beauty and - yes - glamour was the feeling at Yohji Yamamoto's show.

Call it a love of ethnicity and urge for authenticity, or a way of expressing the power of green. For all those elements are penetrating the shows of this summer 2009 season.

In the galleries of the Petit Palais, Patrick Demarchelier, a lensman always in Vogue, has his first major exhibition in his native Paris.

Far from the world of the tiny beaded clutch, iconic French bags combine quality and quantity - think the chunky Louis Vuitton Speedy, the spacious YSL Muse or the roomy Hermès Birkin.

The colors were out of Africa - orange, yellow and sheltering sky blue. Even the feet were perched on shoes with a Masai fertility carving for the heel.

The sulky scarlet lips, frilly lingerie and stockings suspended from garter belts suggested that An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx were taking their sporty white cotton shirts in a new direction.

The fluffy animals with luminous eyes were perched on the shoulders of mannequins, appearing as magical creatures in an Undercover fairy tale.

Under the creative direction of Olivier Theyskens, Nina Ricci's collection seemed muted in its soft colors and prints.

Anne Valérie Hash came back from the brink she reached in her last show, a collection that left many in the audience mystified.

Michel Klein's show for Cher Michel Klein had a little something for every woman, no matter what her style.

The sleeping beauty of Paris is finally starting to stir thanks to a number of suitors, each with his unique luxury kiss.

Anou Thammavong, a French designer of Laotian descent, is creating high-end silks that he hopes will crack the upper echelons of the fashion world.

Lanvin is in talks to sell a stake to an unnamed investor in Qatar in a deal that could value the French fashion house at around€150 million.

Even the "venerables" question the situation for those next in line, while designers in their 30s and 40s ask themselves if, at a time when the pace has quickened so dramatically, they will have the will to continue.

The infectious exuberance of Balmain is the card that the designer Christophe Decarnin plays.

Gareth Pugh's compelling show might have been a metaphor for fashion holding together as the world turns.

Kris Van Assche used the world of female boxers as inspiration for his first women's wear runway show, taking the sport and its sportswear into the domain of designer dressing.

The online luxury retailer Net-a-porter is teaming with the designer Alexander McQueen for a one-of-a-kind catwalk show that will give the Web site's two million customers their own front row seat at a McQueen collection.

With its good-looking young suspects, tales of junior-year-abroad debauchery and hints of racial tensions in a sleepy college town, the case has drawn relentless news media attention.

Italian police arrested scores of suspected mobsters Tuesday, including three top fugitives believed linked to the gangland-style slaying of six African immigrants near Naples, authorities said.

Erwin Huber's resignation, which will come into effect later this month, could be just one of several changes as the party revamps its image and pursues a new strategy in time for federal and European Parliament elections.

The results of the Bavarian vote Sunday mean an early federal vote holds little appeal for Chancellor Angela Merkel. Still, there are dangers in the continuing coalition.

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, has reined in the celebratory mood at an annual rally, insisting on a sober front as his party plots its course to Downing Street.

A new exhibit in the Russian Central Armed Forces Museum takes pride in the August victory and points an accusatory finger at the West.

The EU said its monitors would deploy throughout Georgia on Wednesday, but Russian military officials warned that the monitors would not be allowed to work immediately in the buffer zone that surrounds South Ossetia.

Former Gurkha soldiers who served in the British Army have won a significant court battle in their long-running fight to settle in the U.K.

After the beleaguered conservative prime minister, Kostas Karamanlis, dismissed one of his deputies, the governing party was left with a one-seat majority in the 300-seat Parliament.

Candidates loyal to Belarus's authoritarian president headed for victory in all 110 parliamentary seats.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that despite "minor improvements" the parliamentary election in Belarus "ultimately fell short of OSCE commitments for democratic elections."

At least a dozen homes of families of suspected rebels have been set ablaze since midsummer, residents and a human rights group said.

The absolute majority held for decades by the Christian Social Union in Bavaria was swept away in a humiliating defeat.

In a time when world leadership appears in short supply, Nicolas Sarkozy makes the case that he can lead a Europe able to take a greater hand in global decision making.

The headquarters of a London publisher that has agreed to publish "The Jewel of Medina" amid fears that it would offend Muslim extremists, was set on fire.

Austria's extreme-right parties benefited Sunday from the discontent of citizens, winning more than a quarter of the vote in parliamentary elections.

After a controversial war and a stock market crash, most of the Russian elite held their tongue. Not Aleksandr Lebedev.

With its good-looking young suspects, tales of junior-year-abroad debauchery and hints of racial tensions in a sleepy college town, the case has drawn relentless news media attention.