A longtime protester from Shanghai has been ordered by the authorities to serve one and a half years of “re-education through labor” for shouting slogans about human rights outside a Beijing courthouse on Dec. 25, according to Human Rights in China, an advocacy group. The protester, Mao Hengfeng, was among a group of demonstrators who assembled outside the sentencing of Liu Xiaobo, one of the most well-known Chinese dissidents and a main author of Charter 08, a manifesto calling for democratic reforms.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian leaders meeting with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. here on Wednesday harshly condemned Israel’s decision, announced a day earlier, to add 1,600 housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem, but they gave no indication that they would stay away from the approaching indirect peace negotiations with the Israelis.

JERUSALEM — There are pasted-on half pages, numerous cross-outs and insertions in meticulous penmanship and an open acknowledgment that some of the mathematics was beyond even him. Albert Einstein personally rewrote the laws of physics in a sparsely furnished central Berlin apartment nearly a century ago and the resulting manuscript, profoundly human and surprisingly moving to examine, has been put on display here for the first time.

A Moscow court on Wednesday approved the arrest of 10 suspects in the November 2009 bombing of the Nevsky Express passenger train, which derailed while en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg and killed 28 people. Nine of the suspects were arrested during a federal raid last week on a village outside Nazran, the capital of the republic of Ingushetia. Nine of the suspects are members of the Kartoyev family, and the 10th is an arms-trafficking suspect named Zelimkhan Aushev, according to the news agency Interfax.

The Italian Parliament approved a law on Wednesday that would protect Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, left, and his cabinet from the results of trials that are currently under way, on the grounds that the trials would impede their ability to govern. Mr. Berlusconi’s cabinet advanced the measure after Italy’s Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional a law that granted immunity from prosecution to the prime minister and other senior office holders. The new law allows cabinet officials to postpone for six months any trial in which they have been implicated. Mr. Berlusconi’s opponents criticized the law as designed to enable him to avoid the outcome of two corruption trials in which he is a defendant.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — New election laws enacted by Myanmar’s military junta make a mockery of democracy and ensure that elections that are expected this year will be a farce, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday.

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, said Wednesday that its leaders would talk to Nelson’s Mandela’s ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, when she returned from abroad about published remarks attributed to her in which she caustically described him as a figurehead who had made a bad deal with the country’s former white rulers.

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s electoral commission is expected to announce partial results of parliamentary elections by Thursday, a United Nations official said, offering an incomplete picture of the vote that will nevertheless provide the broad outlines of the country’s political landscape.

CAIRO — Sheik Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, Egypt’s chief religious official and leader of Al Azhar, the oldest and most prestigious center of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, died Wednesday during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Egyptian state media reported. He was 81.

WASHINGTON — As the United States military steadily reduces its presence in Haiti, President Obama pledged on Wednesday to remain committed to providing financial assistance and humanitarian relief to help Haitians rebuild and recover from their devastating earthquake two months ago.

BARCELONA, Spain — Here in the principal city of Catalonia, the native language, Catalan, is heard just about everywhere except in the movies. But that may be about to change because the local government is expected to pass a bill requiring that at least half the copies of every film from outside Europe, including all major American productions, be dubbed in Catalan.

The Lyon Opera Ballet, which opened its weeklong season at the Joyce Theater on Tuesday, is presenting two works by internationally celebrated living choreographers, William Forsythe and Maguy Marin. But it starts its triple bill with a staging of “Beach Birds” (1991) by Merce Cunningham, who died last July.

The Grateful Dead performed the last of their more than 2,300 concerts in 1995 and thus belong increasingly to history, not the present. Two related events make that reality clear: a new exhibition about the band that has just opened at the New-York Historical Society and the recent creation of the much larger archive, housed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from which it is drawn.

Samuel Barber realized the power of his potent Adagio immediately after composing it as the second movement of his Op. 11 String Quartet (the precursor to his version for string orchestra). He then reportedly became uneasy with the popularity of the work, which has become ubiquitous through its use in films, television and pop remixes.

Corey Haim, an actor whose status as a teenage heartthrob of the 1980s gave way to substance abuse and rehabilitation as an adult, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Burbank, Calif. He was 38.

Six new albums entered the Billboard Top 10 this week, but none could best the two titles that have dominated the chart for the last five weeks. Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” (Capitol Nashville), which was released in February and spent its first two weeks at No. 1, returned to the peak position with 126,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Sade’s “Soldier of Love” (Epic), the top seller for the last three weeks, fell to No. 2 with 79,000. Landing in the No. 3 spot, with 71,000 copies sold, is “Hillbilly Bone” (Warner Brothers Nashville), the new album from Blake Shelton, above. “My Best Days” (RCA Nashville), the debut album by Danny Gokey, a finalist on “American Idol” last year, opened at fourth place with 65,000. “Almost Alice” (Buena Vista), a collection of new songs by Avril Lavigne, Owl City and others that were inspired by Tim Burton’s new film, “Alice in Wonderland,” is No. 5 with 58,000 copies sold.

The hit CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men,” which has lately been down one man, will be back in production with full staffing next week. A publicist for Charlie Sheen told The Hollywood Reporter that Mr. Sheen would return to the show on Tuesday after he leaves an unidentified rehabilitation center and appears Monday in an Aspen, Colo., court to face domestic abuse charges. Mr. Sheen was charged with felony menacing after a dispute with his wife, Brooke Mueller, on Christmas.

“The Nose,” an opera by Dmitri Shostakovich about a bureaucrat who awakens one morning to find his nose missing, which had its premiere in Leningrad in 1930 and is based on an 1836 short story by Nikolai Gogol, opened at the Metropolitan Opera last week. As well as alchemy involving at least three genres, the new production bridges three centuries. It has been directed and co-designed by the South African artist William Kentridge, who employs video animations and a fair bit of 21st-century technology. This is a Kentridge moment in New York: a retrospective is on view at the Museum of Modern Art. On Tuesday three critics for The New York Times — Anthony Tommasini, the chief classical music critic; Roberta Smith, an art critic; and Dwight Garner, a book critic — discussed the music, the art and the literary threads of the work on the ArtsBeat blog, with Daniel J. Wakin, a classical music reporter for The Times, as moderator. Here is an edited excerpt from the conversation, which can be read in its entirety at artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/the-nose.

The Top 8 women competed on “American Idol” on Tuesday, and the Fox reality show led another night in the ratings with 22.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s estimates. The network easily dominated the 8 p.m. hour, but CBS earned the most viewers on average throughout prime time. CBS’s “NCIS” challenged “Idol” in the 8 p.m. slot with 19.5 million viewers, while CBS’s “NCIS: Los Angeles” won the 9 p.m. hour with 16.9 million, easily outperforming Fox’s repeat of “Glee” (7.8 million). At 10, “The Good Wife” (13.9 million) lifted CBS far ahead of its competitors as well, including NBC’s “Parenthood” (6.1 million) and “The Forgotten” on ABC (4.9 million). NBC edged past ABC to place third for the night, averaging 7.9 million viewers from 8 to 10 for “The Biggest Loser.” ABC’s “Lost” (9.5 million) won the 9 p.m. slot among the 18-to-49 set.

Since 1985 the University of Louisville has administered the annual Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, a prize that carries a large purse — the last one was $200,000 — and ample prestige. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the award, the university fielded a large, flexible faculty ensemble, the Grawemeyer Players, and on Tuesday evening at Weill Recital Hall the group made its New York debut with a program of works by prizewinners (though not the winning works, which are mostly orchestral scores).

The editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham, is negotiating to add a television job to his schedule. He is in final talks to be a host of a new PBS Friday-night public affairs series called “Need to Know,” said executives familiar with the production who wanted to stay anonymous because the contracts had not been signed. The co-anchor for the program, which begins May 7 at 8:30 p.m., is expected to be Alison Stewart, formerly of “The Bryant Park Project,” NPR’s short-lived morning show, and before that anchor of “The Most” on MSNBC. The new series will be produced for PBS by WNET.org of New York from a new street-side studio at Lincoln Center. Mr. Meacham, who won the Pulitzer last year for his book “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House,” is not leaving the magazine, said a Newsweek spokesman, Frank DeMaria.

Sweaty, drinking from a pitcher of beer and spilling his syllables in rapid, often inscrutable fashion, the Alabama rapper Yelawolf was doing the absolute best he could on the stage at Brooklyn Bowl on Monday night, given the circumstances. After he finished playing one of the standout tracks on “Trunk Muzik,” his latest mixtape — an unprintably titled song with a beefy, bellowing chorus, horn stabs and military-march drums — he was vexed.

(ART ADV: Photos NYT 51-55 are being sent to NYT photo clients. Nonsubscribers can purchase one-time rights by calling: 1-888-603-1036 or 1-888-346-9867.)

The New York Times said in editorials for Thursday, March 11:

(ART ADV: Photo NYT 69 is being sent to NYT photo clients. Nonsubscribers can purchase one-time rights by calling: 1-888-603-1036 or 1-888-346-9867.)

(ART ADV: Photos NYT 51-55 are being sent to NYT photo clients. Nonsubscribers can purchase one-time rights by calling: 1-888-603-1036 or 1-888-346-9867.)

(ATTN: Calif., Ga.)

(Production notes are at end of review.)

(ART ADV: Photos NYT 104 and 105 are being sent to NYT photo clients. Nonsubscribers can purchase one-time rights by calling: 1-888-603-1036 or 1-888-346-9867.)

They are the most wired vehicles on the road, with dashboard computers, sophisticated radios, navigation systems and cellphones.

One curse of the digital age is the need to manage multiple continuing conversations — be they via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, instant messages or text-messaging on your cellphone.

Blame “Minority Report.”

If you’re a recent convert to smartphones, you’re probably still discovering all the amazing things that your new BlackBerry, Android phone or iPhone can do. But one thing you most likely found out right away: the more you do, the shorter your phone’s battery lasts.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Travis Blackley is fighting for his baseball career, trying to overcome challenging odds to earn a spot on the Mets’ roster. He has not pitched in the major leagues since Sept. 29, 2007, and could probably use any possible edge to his advantage. But there is one thing he will not do, he said, even though he could.

The three excavators lined up Wednesday on the field of ruin that was once Yankee Stadium.

It was not a whodunit. It was a where-was-it?

LAKELAND, Fla. — Curtis Granderson was jogging toward the Yankees’ clubhouse after batting practice Wednesday when he felt a tug on his left arm. Johnny Damon wanted to say hi.

DORAL, Fla. — During his brief and highly publicized professional career, Rory McIlroy has endured much scrutiny. Since turning pro at age 18 in 2007, he has gone under the news media’s electron microscope, inspected for everything from his overflowing curly mane to his aggressive style of golf to his penchant for fast and expensive sports cars.

Ernie Paragallo, a prominent thoroughbred breeder and owner, was convicted on 33 charges of animal cruelty Wednesday morning for starving and neglecting his horses on his Hudson Valley farm.

The coaching philosophy of Notre Dame’s Mike Brey once revolved around scoring 100 points. But an injury to the star forward Luke Harangody nearly a month ago forced the Irish to have an extreme makeover.

Over the past two decades, the Dominican Republic has become the richest exporter of talent to Major League Baseball, providing some of the biggest names in the game. The influx of Dominican players has also caused baseball major headaches over issues involving the largely unregulated youth feeder system in which the use of performance-enhancing drugs; age and identity fraud; and rogue sports agents are commonplace.

The first two days of the Big East tournament are appetizers, teases before the top four seeds arrive Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

Scoreless through the first 31 minutes, forward Justin Brownlee banged home a dunk over Marquette’s front line to give St. John’s its first lead Wednesday in their Big East Conference tournament game. On the Red Storm’s next possession, Brownlee timed a cut along the baseline and exploded toward the rim after D. J. Kennedy penetrated and passed to him. That, too, was punctuated with a slam.

NEWARK — As soon as he plopped on a stool at the end of the Rangers’ bench, done for the night even though it was only the second period, Henrik Lundqvist had a towel draped over his shoulder by an equipment manager. Uncharacteristically, Lundqvist angrily flung it off.