National / International News

A violin thought to be the one played by the band leader on the Titanic as it sank is the genuine article, according to experts.

Excavations for London's Crossrail project have unearthed bodies believed to date from the time of the Black Death

Last winter, filmmakers and brothers Joe and Harry Gantz decided to document the lives of eight families in Portland, Ore., living outside of the middle class during this economic downturn.

The filmmakers found their families by teaming up with the nonprofit social services organization 211 in Portland, monitoring and recording calls from families in need of social services. The film, "American Winter," turned out to be a very vivid snapshot of what life was like for many formerly middle-class families. Families that, amid the deepest valley of the economic downturn, were having trouble keeping it all together.

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Harry Gantz said that a lot of the parents featured in the documentary tried to shield their kids from seeing the family struggle.

"But of course, the children can't be shielded from the water being turned off," he said. "So it affects them in deep, emotional ways, and has long-term impact on them in terms of their education, their self-worth -- all the things that parents worry about their kids having."

"This stress is what these families deal with every day, all day, and it filters down to the kids," said Joe Gantz. "And it really makes the quality of life really diminished."

In making the film, the brothers spent a lot of intimate time with the families -- in- and outside of their homes. The filmmakers said the families let them in because it was a way of showing the rest of the world what they were going through.

"I think a lot of these families feel like the world doesn't care about them," said Harry Gantz. "It's a full-time job not only to work, but also to navigate the social service system."

"We made the film because we felt that there was this economic discussion going on at every level, but it wasn't taking into consideration what was happening with real families all across this country," said Joe Gantz. "And we felt that if people could see how families were struggling, it would be easier to kind of connect with what's really going on in this country right now."

"American Winter" airs on HBO on Monday, March 18 at 9 p.m.

Two hedge funds affiliated with SAC Capital Advisors have agreed to the settlements. They did not admit any wrongdoing.

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China's new president has vowed to crack down on corruption. One widespread practice involves paying bribes to get high-level positions in politics or the bureaucracy.

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China's new president has vowed to crack down on corruption. One widespread practice involves paying bribes to get high-level positions in politics or the bureaucracy.

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Schools should not attempt to pull the "proverbial wool" over inspectors' eyes during Ofsted visits, the watchdog's chief has warned head teachers.

Canadian officials are investigating a "highly unusual" incident in which a driverless van traveled across the runway at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, at the same time an Air Canada flight was landing. The plane's pilots did not heed commands to abort their landing.

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If signed into law by Gov. Martin O'Malley, which is expected, Maryland will become the 18th state to end capital punishment.

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The artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet may recover enough of his sight to work again, doctors treating him at a German hospital say.

France's president defends his plan to supply arms to Syria's rebels, as activists mark two years since the start of the anti-government uprising.

Sophie Raworth says goodbye to BBC Television Centre's studio TC7, as she ends the last Six O'Clock News bulletin from the iconic building.

Senate investigators held a hearing today on JPMorgan's estimated $6.3 billion loss on risky trading connected to Bruno Iksil, a trader known as the "London Whale." But new evidence from internal emails and phone calls suggests that even bigger fish may be involved.

"The details of this report were incredibly damning and they really portrayed a bank that showed an impressive amount of hubris and incompetence -- senior managers that were misleading to the public, misleading to the regulators," said FT Alphaville's Cardiff Garcia. "This is going to be a really powerful selling point for advocates of that particular policy [to break up the big banks]."

And yet, many analysts believe this incident still may not cause any major changes.

"Jamie Dimon and the bank have acknowledged over and over again that this was an enormous mistake," Fortune's Leigh Gallagher said. "On the other hand, this $6 billion loss -- they have billions more. This was not damaging materially to the company. It was damaging to its reputation...It did not take the company down in any way, shape or form -- and it wouldn't, because it's so big."

Listen above for more analysis of this week's business news. Meanwhile, check out the #longreads suggestions for the weekend.

Cardiff Garcia suggests:

• A scholar goes on the road to play a classic economics game -- similar to the prisoner's dilemma -- with indigenous villagers, and winds up making a remarkable contribution to the study of how culture affects cognition.
• Wanna know what it's really like to climb the ladder at an investment bank? The Epicurean Dealmaker explains what happens at each rung.
• The science of sleeplessness is a bit more strange than most people realize.

Leigh Gallagher has these reads:

• A look into the team behind Magic Johnson's winning bid for the Los Angeles Dodgers -- the Guggenheim Partners.
• Fortune's Patricia Sellers explores the similiarities and differences between two of the most powerful women in business today: Yahoo's Marissa Mayer and Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg.
• And the New Yorker hitches a ride on a megacommute with Rebecca Davis O'Brien.

The Football Association contacts all 22 Blue Square Bet South clubs after suspicious betting patterns in the division.

The comet's now putting on a show in the Northern Hemisphere's night sky. Using its orbiting observatories, NASA captured a stereo view from space that offers a unique perspective.

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A Zimbabwean politician has been attacked in the capital, Harare, during the last day of campaigning before a referendum on a new constitution.

North Korea has been increasingly hostile, warning of a preemptive nuclear strike on the U.S.

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The battle lines are drawn on the future of press regulation as Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband go head-to-head with David Cameron ahead of a crunch vote on Monday.

The Duke of Cambridge finds his ear playfully pulled by a friend as he enjoyed the horse racing at Cheltenham on Friday.

Surgeons in London have carried out the first 'warm liver' transplant using an organ which was 'kept alive' at body temperature in a machine.