NEWS Two powerful bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon, killing three people, including an 8-year-old child, and injuring more than 100. The F.B.I. took the lead role in the investigation on Monday night, and the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Boston office described the inquiry at a news conference as “a criminal investigation that is a potential terrorist investigation.†John Eligon reports from Boston, and Michael Cooper from New York.
In the first Iraqi elections since the American troop withdrawal, Sunni candidates are being attacked and killed in greater numbers than in recent campaigns, raising concerns in Washington over Iraq’s political stability and the viability of a democratic system the United States has heavily invested in over years of war and diplomacy. Tim Arango reports from Baghdad.
In its first such agreement with a European country, China signed a free-trade deal with Iceland on Monday, an accord meant to eliminate most tariffs over the next few years. While Iceland cannot offer much in the way of significant new market growth, it could help China in its quest for more influence in the Arctic. David Jolly reports.
No longer treated with profound deference, King Juan Carlos and the rest of the monarchy in Spain are under scrutiny, and some residents are even calling for an elected head of state. Raphael Minder reports from Spain.
The publication Monday of the estate holdings of the 38 cabinet members of the French government was a veritable event, a moment of unprecedented transparency in France that was anticipated by politicians with dread, pleasure or disgust, but rarely indifference. Scott Sayare reports from Paris.
Many Germans, egged on by local media, are angered over a European Central Bank study that concludes they are among the poorest people in Europe. Jack Ewing reports from Frankfurt.
After weeks of outrage in Germany and Turkey over how seats for members of the foreign news media were allocated at the trial of a prominent neo-Nazi, a state court in Munich said Monday that it would delay the opening of the trial by three weeks to allow for a new accreditation process. Melissa Eddy reports from Berlin.
The European Parliament will vote Tuesday whether to let the European Commission take steps that would probably raise the price of emissions credits. At the current prices, polluters have little incentive to clean up their smokestacks. Stanley Reed reports from London.
ARTS Every 10 years since 1983, the London-based literary magazine Granta names the 20 writers it considers the Best of Young British Novelists. On Monday night, in a ceremony broadcast on the BBC, Granta announced its fourth list, whose character differs substantially from that of its predecessors and is likely to generate an animated discussion about what it means to be British in the 21st century. Larry Rohter reports.
FASHION How fitting, that 30 years after Margaret Thatcher feminized her work wardrobe with a pussycat bow blouse â€" following an Yves Saint Laurent fashion trend â€" the blouse is back in style. Suzy Menkes writes from London.
SPORTS Adam Scott is the first Masters winner and the fourth winner in the last six majors to use an anchored putting stroke, which soon could face a ban by golf’s governing body. Karen Crouse reports from Augusta, Georgia.
