WARSAW, Poland — Polish authorities have reopened an investigation into World War II crimes committed at Auschwitz and its satellite camps that was closed in the 1980s because of the country’s isolation behind the Iron Curtain. One aim of the new probe is to track down any living Nazi perpetrators, according to an announcement Thursday by the Institute of National Remembrance, a state body that investigates Nazi and communist-era crimes. Read full article > >

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Poland reopens long-dormant investigation into Auschwitz and other concentration camp crimes

MOSCOW — Frustrated by a bureaucracy that they say makes research here almost impossible, several hundred scientists staged a protest Thursday and demanded more control over their work. “We need to liberate our scientists,” said Alexander Zinoviev, a physicist at the Ioffe Institute in St. Petersburg. Read full article > >

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Young Russian scientists rally against bureaucracy

Falling incomes will mean the biggest drop for middle-income families since the 1970s, says a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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UK seeing ‘big rise in poverty’

During his first week at Virginia Tech, Frank Shushok Jr. toured a 1960s-era residence hall that was being renovated as a resortlike facility, complete with movie theater, gym, gaming room and a salon with affordable spray-tanning. He was shocked. “I am operating under a completely different mental model of what residence halls are supposed to be,” said Shushok, the associate vice president for student affairs who is entering his third year at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. A residence hall should be “a place where students live so they can learn.” Read full article > >

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Virginia Tech dorm becomes a learning experience

There were rambling moments and unnecessary stage turns during Monday’s gala celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. But every minute of the 3 1 / 2 -hour program was worth it just to hear the evening’s honored guest, Aretha Franklin, sing jazz. Read full article > >

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Aretha Franklin steals the show at Monk Institute anniversary gala

College graduates are the fastest-growing group of consumers who have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past five years, according to a new study by a financial nonprofit, which underscores the broad reach of the Great Recession. The survey by the Institute for Financial Literacy, slated for release Tuesday, found that the percentage of debtors with a bachelor’s degree rose from 11.2 percent in 2006 to 13.6 percent in 2010. The group tracked similar but smaller increases in consumers with two-year associate and graduate degrees. Meanwhile, the percentage of debtors with a high school diploma or who did not finish college declined. Read full article > >

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Study: College graduates driving increase in bankruptcy filings

Household budgets could be squeezed for the next 10 years as the impact of tax rises and cuts is felt, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warns.

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UK budgets ‘face 10-year squeeze’

Vaccines are generally safe for most people, the National Academy of Sciences has concluded, dismissing stubborn concerns about supposed links to autism and other serious health problems. In the academy’s first comprehensive review of vaccine safety in 17 years, a committee of experts formed by the Institute of Medicine analyzed more than 1,000 research studies. They concluded that benefits outweigh the risks, which are rare and usually not life-threatening. In a 667-page report released Thursday, the 16-member committee found convincing evidence that vaccines can cause 14 health problems, including seizures, brain inflammation, rashes and fainting, but said those complications appeared to be very uncommon. The committee also concluded there was evidence that some vaccines could cause other complications, such as allergic reactions and temporary joint pain. Read full article > >

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Vaccines generally safe, National Academy of Sciences says

Vaccines are generally safe for most people, the National Academy of Sciences has concluded, dismissing stubborn concerns about supposed links to autism and other serious health problems. In the academy’s first comprehensive review of vaccine safety in 17 years, a committee of experts formed by the Institute of Medicine analyzed more than 1,000 research studies. They concluded that benefits outweigh the risks, which are rare and usually not life-threatening. In a 667-page report released Thursday, the 16-member committee found convincing evidence that vaccines can cause 14 health problems, including seizures, brain inflammation, rashes and fainting, but said those complications appeared to be very uncommon. The committee also concluded there was evidence that some vaccines could cause other complications, such as allergic reactions and temporary joint pain. Read full article > >

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Vaccines generally safe, National Academy of Sciences says

Health will account for almost a third of all UK government spending by 2015, according to a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

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Health wins as spending shrinks

Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench is honoured with the British Film Institute’s Fellowship Award.

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Dame Judi receives BFI fellowship

In the world of home building, a phrase such as “the new American dream” conjures images of flashy show houses and the latest and greatest in features and materials. In the world of engineering it conveys something else altogether, as I learned at a conference at the University of Kansas last month. The focus of the New American Dream symposium — jointly sponsored by KU’s Transportation Research Institute, its Interdisciplinary Research Initiative in Nature and Culture, and the university’s Commons partnership — was the “smart grid” and the evolving relationship between electric utilities and residential customers. Read full article > >

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Smart-grid technology gets electric utilities and consumers interconnected

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is sort of an apostle of American folk music, having personally witnessed giants such as Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy and Woody Guthrie roam the land. And so the small assembly Monday night at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in Rockville didn’t seem to mind that Elliott’s hour-long appearance, sponsored by the local nonprofit Institute of Musical Traditions, was as long on stories as it was on songs. The 79-year-old legend, seemingly carved from rock, slowly but wryly unspooled tales of encountering American rodeos in the oddest of places (Japan, Belgium), climbing up a mountaintop radio antenna in Bethlehem, Pa., during a driving snowstorm to meditate and being told by a cocky Greenwich Village-era Bob Dylan that he had “relinquished” to Elliott the classic “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” Read full article > >

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Music review: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church

Abolishing cheques could have “devastating consequences” for charities’ income, the Institute of Fundraising says.

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Charities fear cheque abolition

Courtesy Greg Mortenson (Central Asia Institute) Greg Mortenson with Jafarabad community schoolgirls, Shegar Valley, Karakoram mountains, northern Pakistan.

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‘Three Cups of Tea’ publisher launches review of author Greg Mortenson