The Islamist candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, will face Ahmed Shafik, former President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, in a runoff to become Egypt’s first freely elected president.

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Mohamed Morsi to Face Ahmed Shafik in Egypt’s Presidential Election Runoff

Unlike past presidents at this stage in the campaign, President Obama has not hesitated to engage his rival.

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Obama Leaps Into Direct Attacks

As Spaniards move their money out of troubled institutions, officials worry about the ripple effect of a full bank run.

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In Spain, Bank Transfers Reflect Broader Fears

François Hollande’s surprise visit comes less than a week after he announced that France would pull its troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year.

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French President in Afghanistan to Meet With Karzai

Circulation and staff reductions at The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and three Alabama newspapers are the latest instances of reorganization in a rapidly changing industry.

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In Latest Sign of Print Upheaval, New Orleans Paper Scaling Back

DES MOINES — President Obama struck back Thursday against criticism from rival Mitt Romney over the spiraling national debt, arguing that his administration has allowed federal spending to grow at the slowest rate in six decades and charging that Romney’s tax policies would run up the tab far faster. Read full article > >

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In Iowa, Obama touts clean energy, hits Republicans and Romney on economic agenda

Who in their right mind wouldn’t haunt the library stacks if Kate Baldwin were assigned to the checkout desk? Teamed with Burke Moses in Arena Stage’s endearingly melodic revival of “The Music Man,” this quintessential Broadway songbird, with skin like peaches and voice like cream, ensures that we’re solidly in the corner of Marian the Librarian and the slick faker she guides to true love. Read full article > >

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Arena Stage’s ‘Music Man’ is Iowa stubborn and Washington smooth

Minutes after Robin Gibb’s death , it began — the tweets of misery, the hashtagged mourning, the maudlin aphorisms streaming up and down Facebook walls and across Pinterest boards . The musician’s life was collated and curated by fans and passersby who felt compelled to make sense of it all in 140 characters or less. Read full article > >

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Tweet it and weep? Online, grief over dead celebrities is about us.

Chris LeBarton jumped at the chance to get in on Facebook’s initial public offering. The Potomac investor and a group of friends pooled $50,000 to purchase $35 pre-offering shares through a hedge fund connection. Read full article > >

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Facebook shareholders express anger, confusion about botched IPO

Many daily newspapers have been moving away from paper for years, emphasizing digital news. Lately, some print dailies have been moving away from publishing daily, too. To try to combat the industry’s decline — in readership, advertising and profits — a handful of newspapers are now cutting back their publishing schedules from seven days a week in print to just three. Read full article > >

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New Orleans Times-Picayune to limit printing to three days per week

WHEN GREGORY B. JACZKO began his tenure as the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2009, the agency was largely invisible to the public, for all the right reasons. Its professional staff was widely recognized as world-class, to the point that analysts held it up as a model for other government energy regulators to emulate, and it was quietly preparing to oversee the first expansion of this nation’s nuclear fleet in decades. Read full article > >

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Editorial Board: The NRC chief is out. Let’s get a new one on the job quickly

President Obama on Thursday nominated Allison M. Macfarlane, a professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University, to be the next chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Macfarlane, a geologist by training, served as a member of the White House Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, which examined nuclear waste disposal. Read full article > >

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Obama nominates George Mason professor Allison M. Macfarlane as NRC chairman

BERLIN — Supporters of major new measures to ease Europe’s economic crisis confronted a sinking realization Thursday: Their best chances for success might come only if the situation worsens. A French demand that the 17 countries that use the euro currency back one another’s borrowing has won new supporters in recent days, but it has been met with full-throated resistance from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose thrifty taxpayers would bear the biggest burden of any plan. Read full article > >

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Euro-zone countries appear far from compromise

Arkansas may retry a man for murder even though jurors in his first trial were unanimous that he was not guilty, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Alex Blueford, who is accused of killing his girlfriend’s 1-year-old son, is not protected by the Constitution’s Double Jeopardy Clause, the court ruled in a 6 to 3 decision. Read full article > >

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Supreme Court says double jeopardy does not protect against murder retrial

Falling off a cliff is never a good idea. Then again, neither is digging yourself deeper into a hole. Those are the messages, contradictory but compelling, embedded in a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) about the fast-approaching “ fiscal cliff .” The economy will confront the precipice at year’s end, on account of a confluence of tax cuts set to expire and spending cuts scheduled to kick in. Read full article > >

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Responsibility is missing as ‘fiscal cliff’ approaches