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. Jeff Bush,...

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Kerry Criticizes Turkish Prime Minister Over Zionism Remark

ANKARA, Turkey — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Turkey’s prime minister had made “objectionable” remarks when he cast Zionism as a crime against humanity in comments earlier this week. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a United Nations meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, “Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become necessary to view Islamophobia...

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Study Finds Genetic Risk Factors Shared by 5 Psychiatric Disorders

Their study, published online Wednesday in the Lancet, was based on an examination of genetic data from more than 60,000 people world-wide. Its authors say it is the largest genetic study yet of psychiatric disorders. The findings strengthen an emerging view of mental illness that aims to make diagnoses based on the genetic aberrations underlying diseases instead of on the disease symptoms. ...

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On First Day at Pentagon, Hagel Warns of Budget Cuts

WASHINGTON — After surviving a long and bruising Senate confirmation battle, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel started his first day at the Pentagon on Wednesday morning by warning that looming cuts in military spending were one of the biggest challenges facing the Defense Department, but that the United States must continue to “engage with the world.” Mr. Hagel did not speak at length about...

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DealBook: Wall Street Pay Rises – for Those Who Still Have a Job

It’s nice work – if you can get it.Wall Street has cut thousands of jobs over the past year or so. On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase, one of the country’s biggest banks, announced that it was eliminating 4,000 more jobs through layoffs and attrition, adding its name to a string of large banks that continue to cut jobs to reduce expenses.The good news? For the employees who remain, pay is up, according to...

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Time Inc. and Meredith Prepare to Join Magazine Businesses

Mary Chind/The Des Moines RegisterMeredith, a magazine company, is headquartered in Des Moines. When Jack Griffin, the former president of the magazine company Meredith, took the reins at Time Inc., he threw a holiday party for his staff on the 34th floor of the Time & Life Building. For many employees at the famously hierarchal company, their first visit to the rambling executive suites that...

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Karzai Orders U.S. Forces Out of Afghan Province

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's president on Sunday ordered all U.S. special forces to leave a strategically important eastern province within two weeks because of allegations that Afghans working with them are torturing and abusing other Afghans. The decision seems to have caught the coalition and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, a separate command, by surprise. Americans have frequently...

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North Korea Threatens U.S. Over Military Drill

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Saturday warned the top American military commander in South Korea that if the United States pressed ahead with joint military exercises with South Korea scheduled to begin next month, it could set off a war in which American forces would “meet a miserable destruction.” The warning came as the United States and South Korean militaries planned to kick off...

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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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15 G.O.P. Senators Ask Obama to Withdraw Hagel Nomination

WASHINGTON — A group of 15 Republican senators is calling on President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary, the latest move in a contentious battle to block the confirmation of their former colleague. But even as Republican senators tried to throw up another obstacle, Senate Democrats were pushing ahead with plans to hold a vote on Mr. Hagel’s nomination...

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Pistorius Defense Undermines Police Testimony at Bail Hearing

PRETORIA, South Africa — What began on Wednesday as a day for the prosecution to solidify what it had described as an irrefutable case of premeditated murder against Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic champion, turned into a near-rout by the defense, which attacked the testimony of the state’s main witness, the chief police investigator. It was the second full day of a hearing to decide whether...

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U.S. General Picked for Top NATO Military Post Will Retire

WASHINGTON — General John R. Allen, who served until earlier this month as the top United States commander in Afghanistan, will retire from the military to focus on “health issues within his family,” President Obama said Tuesday. In January, General Allen was officially cleared of misconduct by the Pentagon after an investigation into his exchange of e-mails with a socialite in Tampa, Fla.,...

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Mike Johanns Won’t Seek Re-Election to Senate

WASHINGTON — Senator Mike Johanns, a Republican from Nebraska who is in his first term, announced Monday that he will not seek re-election next year, the fifth lawmaker to bow out of a Senate that has become increasingly polarized and dysfunctional. Alex Wong/Getty ImagesSenator Mike Johanns, pictured here in 2011, announced on Monday that he will not seek re-election. ...

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Israel Ex-Official Avigdor Lieberman’s Trial Starts

JERUSALEM — Israel’s tough-talking former foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, pleaded not guilty on Sunday to charges of fraud and breach of trust in a criminal case that leaves his political future hanging in the balance. An outspoken hard-liner and senior political partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Lieberman made his plea, through a lawyer, in a short court appearance that...

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Julian Newman’s Age and Size Stand Out, but So Does His Talent

Gary Bogdon for The New York TimesNewman plays and practices with intensity, sinking 100 free throws, 200 floaters and 200 jump shots every day. ORLANDO, Fla. — The Downey Christian School varsity basketball team bursts from the locker room in single file, led by a boy 14 inches shorter than the next smallest player, four years younger than the next youngest. His jersey straps are twisted...

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The Lede: Answering Readers' Questions About the Meteor Strikes

You asked us great meteor questions, readers, ones that went beyond the mere fact of the seriously cool video coming from all over Russia. But we wanted to give you a deeper look at the science behind bombardments from space, so we called in a respected source to help.Clark R. Chapman is a senior scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and a pioneer in the field of asteroid threat...

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DealBook: Buffett to Pay $23 Billion for Heinz, as Big Mergers Revive

10:12 a.m. | Updated Warren E. Buffett has found another American icon worth buying: H. J. Heinz.Berkshire Hathaway, the giant conglomerate that Mr. Buffett runs, said on Thursday that it would buy the food giant for about $23 billion, adding Heinz ketchup to its stable of prominent brands.The proposed acquisition, coming fast on the heels of a planned $24 billion buyout of the computer maker Dell...

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Movie Review: ‘A Good Day to Die Hard,’ With Bruce Willis

“It’s not 1986 anymore,” a sneering Russian villain (one of several in “A Good Day to Die Hard”) says to John McClane. “Reagan is dead.” McClane is in no position to argue at just that moment, though you can...

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Olympics Moves to Drop Wrestling in 2020

  Wrestling, one of the most ancient and traditional Olympic sports, was dropped from the Summer Games in a stunning and widely criticized decision Tuesday by the International Olympic Committee. Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFreestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling will be contested at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but they may be excluded from the 2020 Summer Games. ...

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Bats: Live on Monday: The Westminster Dog Show

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