For about 15 hours Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Donald Trump was going to endorse Newt Gingrich for the Republican nomination. The news media — or at least several highly respected parts of it — said so. Read full article > >

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How Trump’s non-endorsement of Gingrich made the news

Some Twitter users say they will boycott the service on Saturday after the company announced it may begin blocking tweets in specific countries. The social network said Thursday that it had given itself the ability to block content on a country-by-country basis when the content runs afoul of local laws. Read full article > >

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Twitter faces accusations of censorship; users plan Saturday boycott

KABUL — Three Afghan civilians were killed on Thursday when a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, according to officials. A female civilian expatriate official from the coalition was hurt along with 30 other Afghan civilians in the attack in which the bomber used a vehicle outside the governor’s compound in Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s provincial capital. Read full article > >

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Bomber targets NATO convoy in Afghanistan; 3 killed

The ticket price touted in airline advertising should be the price you pay under new federal airline regulations intended to save passengers from hidden taxes and fees. The new rules that take effect Thursday should make it easier for passengers to determine the full price they will be paying when they book airline tickets. Read full article > >

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New rules on airline fees take effect this week

Newt Gingrich, buoyed by a raucous debate performance on Thursday, expressed new hope for victory as voters headed out to settle the South Carolina primary battle.

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Sedate Stroll to South Carolina Polls Turns Into a Brawl

A huge sunspot unleashed a blob of charged plasma Thursday that space weather watchers predict will blast past the Earth on Sunday. Satellite operators and power companies are keeping a close eye on the incoming cloud, which could distort the Earth’s magnetic field and disrupt radio communications, especially at higher latitudes. Read full article > >

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Sun shoots a fastball at Earth, but minimal impact expected

A helicopter from NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan crashed late Thursday in the southern province of Helmand, killing six members of the force, allied military spokesmen reported.

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6 Marines, 4 French killed in Afghanistan

The art of storytelling is nothing new. Just ask Storify co-founder and Hacks/Hackers founder Burt Herman, who stopped by the Post Thursday to discuss Storify and the next generation of the centuries-old craft. Read full article > >

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Innovation and the art of the story

French silent movie The Artist is the big winner at the Film Critics’ Circle Awards in London on Thursday, scooping three awards.

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The Artist wows Critics’ Circle

BEIJING — In a rare bow to public pressure, the Beijing local government has begun using a more stringent measure for air quality, and the first publicly announced readings Thursday showed the air was “hazardous” in at least two areas of the polluted capital city. Read full article > >

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Beijing makes rare concession on pollution measure

Kaiser Permanente, one of the country’s largest health-care providers, plans to announce Thursday that it is converting its intravenous equipment to more eco-friendly alternatives free of two chemicals that have been shown to harm humans and the environment, officials said. Read full article > >

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Kaiser Permanente converting to safer IV equipment

The National Symphony Orchestra played a work Thursday night that took a pop-music approach to classical composition. Not because Steven Mackey’s “Beautiful Passing” — a violin concerto written for Leila Josefowicz in 2008 and performed by her with the orchestra and conductor Hannu Lintu on Thursday — is explicitly pop in its approach. Indeed, for all its orchestral Sturm und Drang, its compositional material is almost demure. And not because Mackey, 55, is also known as an electric-guitar player. Read full article > >

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Conductor Hannu Lintu, violinist Leila Josefowicz shine in NSO show

MOSCOW — Ignoring the political upheaval that has shaken Russia over the past month, Vladimir Putin’s presidential campaign unveiled a hefty new Web site Thursday that promises a fistful of important reforms but sidesteps the complaints that have drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the streets. Read full article > >

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Putin Web launch ignores Russian protests

BAGHDAD — Four U.S. Embassy workers driving through Baghdad were stopped and detained by Iraqi security forces for two hours Thursday, a day after the embassy warned that some American citizens working here had been held for days over “discrepancies in permits and paperwork.” Read full article > >

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U.S. Embassy workers detained in Baghdad

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An open conflict between Pakistan’s civilian government and armed forces simmered Thursday as the nation’s top generals convened an emergency meeting and besieged President Asif Ali Zardari made a sudden trip abroad. Read full article > >

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Pakistani president travels abroad amid civil-military rift