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Reports over the weekend said the U.S. and Iran had agreed to face-to-face negotiations, but both countries deny that's the case. Still, symptoms of economic and social instability may be pushing Iran toward the negotiating table.

President Obama's nominee to run the CIA has his confirmation hearing Thursday afternoon. The hearing of White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan comes as lawmakers are studying a memo on drone strikes overseas. Robert Siegel talks to Tom Gjelten.

The key players in Washington seem unable even to define the terms around the debate, much less find a way to stop the automatic government spending cuts set to begin Friday. So today, we're taking a deeper look at the words of President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner

Jeffrey Zients, the 46-year-old tapped to help solve the Obamacare website problems, is known as a brainy problem-solver with a talent for cutting through bureaucratic knots.

Insurance enrollment will be a key yardstick for assessing whether the Affordable Care Act is working. Almost as important as the total number of people who get coverage is whether a significant percentage of them are healthy.

No traditional Danish meal is complete without a piece of pork tucked in somewhere — which helps explain the outrage that followed after some Danish day cares dropped pork to accommodate Muslims. The battle over menus is the latest sign of Denmark's struggle with multiculturalism.

Tuberculosis is one of the oldest diseases in human history. Signs of the bacteria have even been seen in Egyptian mummies. Now scientists find evidence that TB is much more ancient than we thought. The bacteria may have started infecting people more than 70,000 years ago, long before farming began.

Ai Weiwei, the world-renowned Chinese artist and dissident, has created a deeply autobiographical work for the Venice Biennale exhibit. It is a series of dioramas about his life as a political prisoner, when he was jailed for criticizing the corruption and shoddy construction that caused the deaths of 5,000 children when schools collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

The 2012 election was the most expensive in history, but there remain some gaping holes in our knowledge about who paid for what. The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering a proposal to add more transparency in future elections, but it won't happen without a fight.

If you need help in ultramodern Berlin, the low-tech tradition of posting a note on a lamppost may yield the best results. Just ask Maira Becke, who has turned to the city's many avid lamppost readers for help recovering a beloved stiletto shoe.