IHT Quick Read: March 9

NEWS The United States and other international donors are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on humanitarian aid for Syrians afflicted by the civil war. But here in the rebel-controlled north, where the deprivation is most acute, that money has bought mostly anger and resentment: the vast majority of aid is going to territory controlled by President Bashar al-Assad, and the small amount reaching opposition-held areas is all but invisible. David Kirkpatrick reports from Sawran, Syria.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup, is the new financial sheriff in the euro zone. And his disciplinarian bent could hold tremendous sway as the euro zone continues to work through a to-do list of bank bailouts, including ones now pending in Italy and Cyprus. The Dijsselbloem doctrine could mean that bondholders of failing Italian banks or â€" even moe radically, bank depositors in Cyprus â€" may end up absorbing steep losses if euro zone members are called upon to prop up the institutions. Landon Thomas reports from London.

Even for Romans, who over the centuries have endured looting, pillaging and hourlong lines at the post office, these are interesting times. The unexpected resignation of Benedict XVI means there is no pope in the Vatican. And the inconclusive results from the national elections last month have left Italy’s politicians bickering over how to form a government. Jim Yardley reports from Rome.

Bas Lansdorp, a Dutch engineer and entrepreneur, began dreaming more than a decade ago about establishing the first permanent human colony on Mars. Now he is going forward with his pl! an, but his primary focus is not overcoming the technological challenges - it is finding the money to make it happen by 2018. Nicola Clark reports from Paris.

The U.S. economy, bolstered by a healthier private sector, gained more jobs than expected in February, while the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, its lowest level since December 2008. The gains were broad-based, with sectors from manufacturing to business services turning in healthy results. Construction was especially strong, a sign that the recovery in the housing market was beginning to translate into new jobs. Nelson D. Schwartz reports from New York.

ARTS The 26th European Fine Art Fair will open its doors to a private viewing on Thursday in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The seling show is widely acknowledged as the most important of its kind, but the implications of its phenomenal development have yet to be realized and epitomize the profound transformation of the art market in recent decades. Souren Melikian reports.

SPORTS As the Formula One teams set up their garages at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne for the first Grand Prix of the season on March 17, the main question for many is whether Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team will write another page in the colorful 63-year history of the series by winning a fourth straight title. Brad Spurgeon reports from Paris.

Istanbul Museum Stroll: At the Pera

ISTANBULâ€"Many of the artists whose works are being shown at the Pera Museum these days might say they owed a debt of gratitude to the 75-year-old cubist painter Muhanna Durra of Jordan.

Like many of the 44 artists in the current Pera exhibition “Between Desert and Sea: A Selection from the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts,” which I wrote about this week for the IHT’s Middle East pages, Mr. Durra had gone to Europe as a young man, in his case to Rome, to study art. After all, there were no formal art schools in Jordan. It wasn’t until decades later, in 1970, that Mr. Durra himself would found the first, the Jordan Institute of Fine Arts.

One of his former students, Nawal Abdullah, whose work is in the Pera show, talked about how he encouraged them to expand their aristic horizons. ”He would always recommend, for your exposure, to see the museums, to get to see other cultures, because you need to be free as an artist,” she said. “You cannot have a closed mind or a closed outlook.”

I met Mr. Durra at the Pera, where he spoke a bit about his painting “Russian Memories.”

Q.

We’re just looking at your work.

A.

I hope you’re not offended.

Q.

No, what does it say

A.

I don’t know because I don’t want to mix a visual with literature. I can easily tell a story and then you’ll be more taken with the story of the painting. It’s not the story; it’s the visual impact which comes for me. It’s the energy that is important.

Q.

And you’ve used some fabric

A.

Yes, I did this when I was living in Russia.

Q.

Ah. It reminds me of a tablecloth

A.

Yes.

Q.

Maybe you spent many hours at the table with your Russian friends

A.

Believe me, I worked on a lot of tablecloths. It’s not that anything came out really to be stunning but however I tried tablecloths because you know, these squares from the common tablecloth, they have a particular pattern. But if you think of them, the drinkers and the light, and how the light comes on the red and casts another shadow. The movement, this is a … I don’t talk about my work.

Q.

You just did.

A.

I’m really the last to know what I did. You may be a fresh eye, from outside, you can say more.

Is Europe Trying to Ban Pornography

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Europeans don’t mind sunbathing topless or in the nude, in fact they rather enjoy it, and have for as long as anyone cares to remember. But if the European Parliament follows a recommendation soon to come before them, nudity of the sort you might see on a beach in Cannes could soon be illegal if it’s found on the Internet, construed as porn.

Like most proposals that wind up before the European Parliament, this one has a fairly innocuous title. It’s called the “report on eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU” and on Tuesday, 754 MEPs will decide whether to back it or not.

Embedded under Article 17 of the report is a clause that, if eventually made into law, would effectively ban pornography across all types of media, inclding the Internet, in Europe.

For the last day or so, Twitter has been alight as people expressed their views about what many see as a capital infringement upon civil liberties and freedom of expression â€" and yes, just regular old entertainment â€" across the 27 member states of the E.U.

Some reactions were amused:

Other reactions, not so much:

As of this writing, there weren’t any tweets in support of the proposed measure, despite what seemed to be widespread agreement that the aim of promoting the kind of gender equality in the proposal’s title was a good thing.

The proposed ban is actually a reincarnation of sorts of a proposal from September 1997, when MEPs passed a resolution that called for “statutory measures to prevent any form of pornography in the media and in advertising and for a ban on advertising for pornographic pr! oducts and sex tourism.” This measure adds to that with stricter language and the inclusion of Internet-based traffic, which wasn’t as much of an issue in 1997.

And today, of course, it’s a different story. The Internet and all its many denizens â€" Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and so on â€" are ubiquitous, and pornography just as much.

The European Parliament isn’t the last word, however. As a recent piece in Wired pointed out, if the Parliament lends its support to the proposal, Europe’s law-making body, the European Commission, could then decide whether or not to draft actual legislation that would ban Internet pornography.

It’s not the first time a pornography prohibition has been in the news in Europe. Iceland banned violent porn in February.

No sooner had the news hit than rumors began surfacing that monitors from the EU’s Technical Support staff were blocking protest emails from angry citizens.

To be fair, even critics of the proposal have conceded that the impetus of the bill - tackling the gender inequality and potential for child abuse often associated with pornography - is a good one. The proposal’s architects, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, wrote that pornography in Europe was “slipping into our everyday lives as an ever more universally accepted, often idealized, cultural element.”

Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, countered that it was “a hair-raising attack on freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

IHT Quick Read: March 8

Ignoring threats of retaliation, the United Nations Security Council ordered new economic sanctions against North Korea on Thursday for its third nuclear test last month, unanimously approving a resolution that the United States negotiated with China, the North’s greatest protector. Rick Gladstone reports from New York, and David E. Sanger from Washington.

Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister and dominant political figure in Italy, was convicted and sentenced on Thursday to one year in prison for his role in the publication of a wiretapped conversation in a newspaper his family owns. Elisabetta Povoledo reports from ome.

NEWS Malaysian security forces killed 31 Filipino gunmen on the island of Borneo, officials said Thursday, and the government rejected calls by the United Nations for an end to the fighting. Floyd Whaley reports from Manila.

Uhuru Kenyatta surged ahead in the race for Kenya’s president and stayed out front as the margin narrowed early on Friday. Mr. Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president, is accused of using a vast fortune to bankroll death squads that slaughtered women and children. Jeffrey Gettleman reports from Nairobi.

The relentless exodus of Syrians fleeing two years of increasingly violent conflict pushed t! he number of refugees in neighboring countries past the million mark on Wednesday, the United Nations Refugee Agency said, warning that resources for helping them are dangerously thin. Nick Cumming-Bruce reports from Geneva.

The installation of a new Orthodox patriarch last month served as one more reminder that Bulgaria had never really thrown off the inheritance of 40 years of rigid Communist rule. Matthew Brunwasser reports from Sofia.

Valli Annamalai, the head of the Mother and Child Welfare Project in Tamil Nadu, has seen progress in her effort to end the area’s reputation as one of the worst places for “gendercide” in India. Kamala Thiagarajan reports from Usilampatti, India.

The head of communications for the troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena died late Wednesday in what the police say appears to have been a suicide. Jack Ewing and Gaia Pianigiani report.

In leaving the benchmark interest rate at 0.75 percent, the European Central Bank chose not to react to political instability in Italy and rising inflation, and wait for more urgent signs of slump. Jack Ewing reports from Frankfurt.

ARTS The Bolshoi Ballet soloist Pa! vel Dmitr! ichenko on Thursday tried to deflect blame for the January attack on Sergei Filin, the company’s artistic director. Mr. Dmitrichenko said he had agreed that an ex-convict acquaintance would “knock him around,” but that he was unaware that the man planned to douse Mr. Filin’s face with sulfuric acid, jeopardizing his eyesight. Ellen Barry reports from Moscow.

SPORTS Just over a month ago, Les Bleus were being talked about as a potential Six Nations rugby champion, but now they are 0-3. Emma Stoney reports from Wellington.

With its leading scorer suspended and in the stands, Paris Saint-Germain lacked personality and had to come bac to snatch a 1-1 draw with Valencia and advance in the Champions League. Rob Hughes on soccer.

IHT Quick Read: March 8

Ignoring threats of retaliation, the United Nations Security Council ordered new economic sanctions against North Korea on Thursday for its third nuclear test last month, unanimously approving a resolution that the United States negotiated with China, the North’s greatest protector. Rick Gladstone reports from New York, and David E. Sanger from Washington.

Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister and dominant political figure in Italy, was convicted and sentenced on Thursday to one year in prison for his role in the publication of a wiretapped conversation in a newspaper his family owns. Elisabetta Povoledo reports from ome.

NEWS Malaysian security forces killed 31 Filipino gunmen on the island of Borneo, officials said Thursday, and the government rejected calls by the United Nations for an end to the fighting. Floyd Whaley reports from Manila.

Uhuru Kenyatta surged ahead in the race for Kenya’s president and stayed out front as the margin narrowed early on Friday. Mr. Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president, is accused of using a vast fortune to bankroll death squads that slaughtered women and children. Jeffrey Gettleman reports from Nairobi.

The relentless exodus of Syrians fleeing two years of increasingly violent conflict pushed t! he number of refugees in neighboring countries past the million mark on Wednesday, the United Nations Refugee Agency said, warning that resources for helping them are dangerously thin. Nick Cumming-Bruce reports from Geneva.

The installation of a new Orthodox patriarch last month served as one more reminder that Bulgaria had never really thrown off the inheritance of 40 years of rigid Communist rule. Matthew Brunwasser reports from Sofia.

Valli Annamalai, the head of the Mother and Child Welfare Project in Tamil Nadu, has seen progress in her effort to end the area’s reputation as one of the worst places for “gendercide” in India. Kamala Thiagarajan reports from Usilampatti, India.

The head of communications for the troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena died late Wednesday in what the police say appears to have been a suicide. Jack Ewing and Gaia Pianigiani report.

In leaving the benchmark interest rate at 0.75 percent, the European Central Bank chose not to react to political instability in Italy and rising inflation, and wait for more urgent signs of slump. Jack Ewing reports from Frankfurt.

ARTS The Bolshoi Ballet soloist Pa! vel Dmitr! ichenko on Thursday tried to deflect blame for the January attack on Sergei Filin, the company’s artistic director. Mr. Dmitrichenko said he had agreed that an ex-convict acquaintance would “knock him around,” but that he was unaware that the man planned to douse Mr. Filin’s face with sulfuric acid, jeopardizing his eyesight. Ellen Barry reports from Moscow.

SPORTS Just over a month ago, Les Bleus were being talked about as a potential Six Nations rugby champion, but now they are 0-3. Emma Stoney reports from Wellington.

With its leading scorer suspended and in the stands, Paris Saint-Germain lacked personality and had to come bac to snatch a 1-1 draw with Valencia and advance in the Champions League. Rob Hughes on soccer.