Court in Bahrain Confirms Jail Terms for 13 Dissidents

CAIRO — A court in Bahrain on Monday upheld prison sentences for 13 of the country’s most prominent dissidents, in a decision that government opponents offered as evidence that the monarchy was ignoring calls to negotiate a political solution that could quiet a nearly two-year-old uprising. The decision ends all appeals for the dissidents, who were sentenced to between five years and life...

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Kuwaiti journalist jailed for Twitter ‘insults’

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — A Kuwait newspaper says an online journalist has been sentenced to two years in prison for posts deemed “insulting” to the Gulf nation’s ruler — the second such ruling this week.The decision reflects a widening social media crackdown across the Gulf Arab states to quell perceived political dissent.Kuwait’s pro-government Al Watan newspaper reported Monday that Ayyad al-Harbi, a...

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RG3 defends himself as Redskins await knee results

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Robert Griffin III knows he's getting criticized for playing hurt in the Washington Redskins' playoff loss.On Monday, he offered his latest defense on Twitter.The rookie quarterback tweeted: "Many may question, criticize & think they have all the right answers. But few have been in the line of fire in battle."The Redskins were awaiting the results of an MRI on Griffin's right...

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Recipes for Health: Sicilian Pasta With Cauliflower

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesEvery once in a while I revisit the cuisine of a particular part of the world (usually it is located somewhere in the Mediterranean). This week I landed in Sicily. I was nosing around my cookbooks for some cauliflower recipes and opened my friend and colleague Clifford A. Wright’s very first cookbook, “Cucina Pariso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily.” The cuisine of...

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DealBook: Banks Reach Settlement on Mortgages

11:38 a.m. | Updated Bank of America agreed on Monday to pay more than $10 billion to Fannie Mae to settle claims over troubled mortgages that soured during the housing crash, mostly loans issued by the bank’s Countrywide Financial subsidiary.Separately, federal regulators reached an $8.5 billion settlement on Monday to resolve claims of foreclosure abuses that included flawed paperwork used in foreclosures...

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Letter From Washington: U.S. Fiscal Talks Made No One Look Good

WASHINGTON — A grand fiscal bargain, with perhaps $2 trillion more in deficit reduction over 10 years — more than a quarter of which would be additional revenue, with much of the rest obtained through well-crafted, significant cutbacks in big-ticket entitlements — could have been a win-win for Republicans and Democrats. Along with terminating the high-end Bush tax cuts, this would have earned...

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RIM unveils a new BlackBerry phone! (But it’s only a Curve for T-Mobile running BlackBerry 7)

Research In Motion (RIMM) on Thursday took the wraps off a brand new BlackBerry smartphone — but it’s not the kind of smartphone BlackBerry fans have been waiting more than a year for. Instead, it’s a low-end BlackBerry Curve 9315 that will launch later this month on T-Mobile. The phone features the BlackBerry 7.1 operating system, a 3.2-megapixel camera, microSD memory expansion and a full QWERTY...

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NHL, union reach tentative agreement

NEW YORK (AP) — Hockey is back, and it took nearly four months and one long night to get the game back on the ice.With the season on the line, the NHL and the players' association agreed on a tentative pact to end a 113-day lockout and save what was left of a fractured schedule.Commissioner Gary Bettman and union executive director Donald Fehr ceased being adversaries and announced the deal while...

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Despite New Health Law, Some See Sharp Rise in Premiums

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers. Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles TimesDave Jones, the California insurance commissioner, said some insurance companies...

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Greece Tax Scandal Shifts Focus From Collection Problem

The tax scandal that reignited in Greece over the holidays had all the makings of a grade-B drama. A former finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, was accused of scrubbing his relatives’ names from a CD containing the identities of thousands of possible Greek tax dodgers. Within hours, his chief political rival tossed him from their party. Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated PressGeorge...

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