IHT Quick Read: March 15

NEWS Reacting with unusual swiftness, the Vatican on Friday rejected any suggestion that Pope Francis of Argentina was implicated in his country’s so-called Dirty War during the 1970s, tackling the issue just two days after the pontiff’s election. On a day when Francis delivered a warm address to his cardinals and continued to project humility, the Vatican seemed intent on quickly putting to rest questions about the pope’s past, dismissing them as opportunistic defamations from anticlerical leftists. Dan Wakin reports from Rome.

Legend has it that St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. The economic crisis has brought some of them back. During the Celtic Tiger boom, snakes became a popular pet among the Irish nouveau riche. But after the bubble burst, many owners abandoned the pets they could no longer afford, and as a result, many nakes have been abandoned or dispersed into the wild. Amy Chozick reports from Ballivor, Ireland.

In a striking move to purge the Russian Parliament of even the faintest of contrarian voices, legislative leaders on Friday accused an opposition lawmaker of treason and demanded an ethics investigation, saying that the legislator had used a visit to Washington this month to urge the United States to meddle in Russia’s internal affairs. David Herszhenhorn reports from Moscow.

Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director, said he was on the way to a “full recovery” almost two months after he was severely burned during an acid attack in Moscow. At a news conference in Germany, where he has been undergoing treatment, Mr. Filin said ! he would return to his position and played down the intrigues that have engulfed the theater in the weeks since sulfuric acid was flung in his face and eyes. Melissa Eddy reports from Aachen, Germany.

ARTS The European Fine Art Fair, which opened Friday in its 26th edition and runs through March 24, is the last encyclopedic training ground available in a world where art for sale is vanishing. More than 700 stands, spread out in the MECC fair and conference center, cut across space and time. Even if circumscribed to Europe, the broad span is astonishing. Souren Melikian reports from Maastricht, the Netherlands.

SPORTS What first looked to be a thrilling down-to-the-wire finale this weekend in alpine ski racing will mostly be a victory salute for Marcel Hirsche, the 24-year-old Austrian who will receive his second consecutive large crystal globe as overall World Cup champion after the season-ending slalom Sunday. Hirscher entered the weekend technical races at the World Cup finals with a 149-point advantage over his nearest challenger, Aksel Lund Svindal. That margin became insurmountable when the Norwegian announced that he would forgo the slalom after cancellation of downhill and super-G races Wednesday and Thursday because of adverse weather conditions. Brian Pinelli reports from Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

In Bed With Matthias Schoenaerts

Our colleagues at T Magazine spent time with Matthias Schoenaerts, the Belgian-born movie star of De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone). And we all get to benefit.

In Bed With Matthias Schoenaerts

Our colleagues at T Magazine spent time with Matthias Schoenaerts, the Belgian-born movie star of De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone). And we all get to benefit.

Hungarian Leader Takes Right-wing Defiance to Brussels

LONDON â€" Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, missed Friday’s celebrations of his country’s annual Revolution Day.

He was at a summit in Brussels, facing the censure of his European partners over constitutional changes that critics say limit freedoms and aim to entrench the power of his ruling conservative Fidesz party.

The symbolism of the timing was not lost on Hungarian nationalists.

Marking the 165th anniversary of the nation’s uprising against foreign Habsburg rule, the right-wing Magyar Hirlap said the Orban government’s policy of opposing “European diktats” highlighted the contemporary relevance of “the unity of the nation in its fight for independence.”

Mr. Orban’s government is accused of testing accepted norms within the European Union with series of constitutional amendments that critics, including European officials and human rights groups, fear could undermine the judiciary, silence criticism and threaten the checks and balances of democratic government.

The latest measures, adopted by Fidesz lawmakers and their allies on Monday, have also been condemned for discriminating against a range of groups, including the homeless, students, religious minorities and single and same-sex parents.

My colleague Dan Bilefsky, reporting from Budapest, wrote on Monday:

The passing of the amendment comes amid growing concerns that the center-right government of Mr. Orban, which has a two-thirds majority in Parliament and came to power in 2010, is trying to tighten its grip, including in the judiciary, the media, the central bank, education and ! even cultural life.

In a guest post on the Opinion pages on Tuesday, Kim Lane Scheppele of Princeton University, examined the implications of the amendment and concluded:

By now it should be clear that Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party recognize no limitations in their quest for power.

Mr. Orban is not without his defenders outside Hungary, particularly among nationalists who are skeptical about what they see as the overweening power of the European Union.

In July 2011, Nigel Farage, leader of the Euroskeptic United Kingdom Independence Party, told Mr. Orban “jolly well done” at the close of Hungary’s six-month presidency of the E.U.

“You have shown you are not willing to be bullied by these E.U. nationalists,”Mr. Farage said. “When you say, ‘Before we were dictated to by Moscow, and now it is Brussels and you say you are going to stand up to it, you actually mean it.”

More recently, Olivier Bault, writing last month on France’s conservative Nouvelles de France Web site, praised Mr. Orban for openly defending Christian values, including the definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

As European leaders prepared for a two-day economic summit in Brussels, Martin Schultz, president of the European Parliament, urged them to consider what measures to take on Hungary.

“The European Union is a community of values,” the German Social Democrat said. “We cannot remain silent if a ! member st! ate rides roughshod over them.”

A defiant Mr. Orban told reporters in Brussels there was nothing undemocratic about the constitutional changes.

“Who is able to present even one single point of evidence, facts, may I say, which could be the basis for any argument that what we are doing is against democracy” he said at a news conference on Thursday.

Mr. Orban acknowledged to fellow Hungarians that he would be missing the March 15 celebrations. But, with Hungary under attack, it was better for him to be in Brussels rather than Budapest on Revolution Day.

IHT Quick Read: March 15

NEWS While the workings of the conclave are secret, Cardinal Bergoglio is said to have won the papacy in part because the Vatican-based cardinals protective of their bureaucracy snubbed the presumptive front-runner, and a favored candidate of reformers, Cardinal Angelo Scola. Daniel J. Wakin reports from Vatican City.

At a meeting in Brussels, European leaders insisted that only budget cuts and other financial stability measures would restore growth and create jobs. James Kanter and Andrew Higgins report from Brussels.

In a statement on a proposed United Nations declaration to condemn violence against women, the Mulim Brotherhood in Egypt issued a list of objections, which formally laid out its views on women. David Kirkpatrick reports from Cairo.

A battle for a stretch of northern road in Syria that government forces still risk using pits a conventional arsenal against fighters armed with faith as much as weapons. C. J. Chivers reports from Heesh, Syria.

Hundreds of angry farmers heckled and walked out on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese politician and Nobel laureate, during a visit on Thursday to villages in central Myanmar that might be displaced by a copper mine. Thomas Fuller reports from Yangon.

Hard as it may be to believe, the recent discovery of thousands of pig carcasses floating in a Shanghai river may represent a step forward in Chinese public health. David Barboza reports from Jiaxing, China.

European officials plan to vote on a proposal to sharply restrict the use of chemicals that have been implicated in the decline of global bee populations. David Jolly reports from Paris.

When North Kore blamed President Park Geun-hye’s “venomous swish of skirt” this week for tensions on the Korean Peninsula, it brought up an issue that had been mainly unremarked upon in South Korea: Would their leader’s gender color the latest confrontation between the Koreas Choe Sang-Hun reports from Seoul.

International creditors suspended their latest review of Greece’s economic overhaul program, demanding firmer details on cost cuts. Liz Alderman reports from Athens.

Boeing executives said on Friday that they expected commercial flights of the company’s troubled new Dreamliner jet to resume within w! eeks and ! that the company was fully confident that it had eliminated all risk of fire or smoke from its batteries, defending its use of the volatile lithium-ion technology. Hiroko Tabuchi reports from Tokyo.

ARTS BalletBoyzâ€"a dance company that has won a young audience with irreverent, ordinary-guy humor; a flair for combining risk-taking commissions with entertainment; and prefacing performances with short films that gave choreographers and dancers a chance to speak of the creative process, often amusinglyâ€"is presenting new works by Liam Scarlett and Russell Maliphant. Roslyn Sulcas reviews from London.

SPORTS When the uarterfinal draw for the Champions League is held Friday, there will be a Turkish club, an Italian club, some Spanish clubs â€" but no English clubs. Rob Hughes on soccer.