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The nation's Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday rejected the latest White House proposal on health insurance coverage of contraceptives, saying it did not provide sufficient safeguards for religious hospitals, colleges and charities that objected to such coverage. The bishops said they would continue fighting the federal...

Khamenei Official Website, via European Pressphoto Agency Speaking to air force commanders in Tehran on Thursday, Ayatollah Ali Khameini said Iran "will not negotiate under pressure." Caren Firouz/Reuters Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran would not be intimidated...

Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times A worker checks parts of a laptop on a Hewlett Packard assembly line in Chongqing, China. HONG KONG — Hewlett-Packard, one of the world's largest makers of computers and other electronics, is imposing...

Lucas Jackson/ReutersCreatures of The Wind, fall 2013. There is only one way to approach the start of the fall 2013 fashion season in New York, with a month of runway shows and an endless parade of clothes to follow. That is to dive right in and enjoy the scenery. So everyone...

A year before the world's top ski racers are due to rocket down the Rosa Khutor alpine track here in the Caucasus Mountains, a sharp debate is under way among senior Russian officials over how to keep time at next year's Winter Olympics — not the time on the race clocks, but...

Max Whittaker for The New York Times Frank Gehrke, center, has led snowpack surveys in California for a quarter-century. The state's multibillion-dollar agricultural industry pays close attention. PHILLIPS, Calif. — Along Highway 50 in...

China on Friday denied directing a radar capable of aiding weapon strikes at a Japanese naval vessel and helicopter near disputed islands, instead accusing Japan of fanning tensions, in the latest exchange to lay bare festering discord between the two countries. ...

Four car bombs struck two outdoor markets in Baghdad and a town south of the Iraqi capital on Friday, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The blasts were the latest in a series of attacks by insurgents seeking to re-ignite sectarian violence and undermine the Shiite-led government's efforts in...

A series of explosions across Iraq killed at least 26 people Friday, continuing a spate of violence that has marked recent political turmoil and witnessed bombings now on seven consecutive Fridays. The bombings come amid worsening sectarian tensions, with Sunnis and others saying that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki...

In a country quieted by the largest labor strike in decades, thousands of people started to gather early Friday for the funeral of Chokri Belaid, a leading opposition figure assassinated by unknown gunmen two days ago.  People placed flowers at...