The composer Osvaldo Golijov is involved in a controversy over whether he borrowed too much from another work for his piece “Sidereus.”

Musical Borrowing Under Scrutiny

How four women wielding crowbars rebuilt a derelict Mississippi town to fit their lives.

They Made Main Street Their Own

Firms are racing to cut the cost of sequencing the human genome, which will yield new approaches for treating cancers and other serious diseases, biologists say.

Cost of Gene Sequencing Falls, Raising Hopes for Medical Advances

Despite years of urging and oversight by American advisers, President Hamid Karzai’s government has yet to prosecute a high-level corruption case in Afghanistan.

Intractable Afghan Graft Hampering U.S. Strategy

The cuts, which have left many low-income women with inconvenient or costly options for treatment, grew out of a plan to eliminate state support for Planned Parenthood.

Women in Texas Losing Options for Health Care in Abortion Fight

Money is cheap for companies with good credit, and they are piling into the corporate bond market. But what is good for borrowers may not be so good for lenders.

In Bonds, Bull Market for Firms

To New Yorkers, the news that WNBC-TV would not renew the contract of Sue Simmons, a popular anchorwoman, felt like more than just another personnel change.

Station to Oust Anchor, Ending ‘Chuck and Sue’

In “An Iliad” at the New York Theater Workshop, the violence of the Trojan War is evoked through the words of a single actor.

Troy... um, War ... You Know

AMR, American Airlines’ parent, said it would freeze pension plans for everyone except its pilots.

At Airline, a Pensions Compromise

Mitt Romney’s high-dollar donors, lavish fund-raising events and personal wealth fuel perceptions that he is favored more by his party’s elite than by its conservative base.

Romney Lags in Small Donors as Big Givers Hit Limits

The heart of the president’s re-election campaign can be found in a Chicago office complex, where political strategists, data analysts and other workers search online to reconnect with supporters from four years ago.

Obama Mines for Voters With High-Tech Tools

“Game Change,” an engaging HBO docudrama about Gov. Sarah Palin’s 2008 run for the vice presidency, stars Julianne Moore as the Alaska governor with her eyes on the White House.

Trying to Train and Contain a Candidate

Greece appeared to be closer to receiving bailout funds from Europe and the International Monetary Fund after its debt swap was approved by more than a majority of its lenders.

Greek Swap of Its Debt Appears to Be Secure

Japan, once a manufacturing powerhouse known for exports, is finding it must do what it has long resisted: welcome foreign manufacturers.

Japan Looks Beyond Its Borders for Investors

All but two of Japan’s 54 commercial reactors have been idled since the nuclear disaster a year ago, following the earthquake and tsunami, and it is not clear when they can be restarted.

Japan’s Nuclear Energy Industry Nears Shutdown, at Least for Now

A father and son are Talmudic scholars and academic competitors in Joseph Cedar’s “Footnote,” in which petty rivalries encompass a larger gravitas.

The Stuff of Life in Bitter Marginalia

In Hari Kunzru’s fourth novel, an autistic boy disappears in the California desert and many lives intersect around a rock formation called the Pinnacles.

Convergences

John Oliver filled in to lead the Boston Symphony in a glowing and sensitive account of Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” at Carnegie Hall.

Getting to Carnegie’s Podium With Little Time to Practice

“Threat: Objects for Defense and Protection,” an exhibition in Williamsburg, is a cache of what might be described as designer weapons.

Art That Speaks to You, Even if It Says ‘Scram!’

Benjamin Bagby and his early-music players, Sequentia, brought together medieval visions of the apocalypse at the Morgan Library.

The Fearsome Future Through Medieval Eyes

Hovnanian Enterprises, the largest home builder in the state, benefited from new single-family home sales that beat analysts’ expectations.

Rising Demand Eases Loss for New Jersey Home Builder

Corrections appearing in print on March 8, 2012.

Corrections: March 8

Responding to criticism from a German official, Louis Gallois pointed to robust earnings and orders as proof that all countries with a stake in the European aerospace company were being served.

Chief of Airbus Parent Warns on Government Meddling

A 1929 Art Deco high-rise at 212 West 18th Street in Chelsea, once a Verizon central office, is being converted into luxury condominiums.

Dial C for Condos

The Stephen Petronio Company performed at the Joyce Theater, with Wendy Whelan of City Ballet as a guest.

Explorations of Loss, the Personal and the Public

Simin Dāneshvar was an Iranian academic, novelist, fiction writer, and translator.

March 8, 2012

Headlines from March 8, 2012

Musical Borrowing Under Scrutiny

They Made Main Street Their Own

Cost of Gene Sequencing Falls, Raising Hopes for Medical Advances

Intractable Afghan Graft Hampering U.S. Strategy

Women in Texas Losing Options for Health Care in Abortion Fight

Billboard 200

21

Whitney: The Greatest Hits

Some Nights

Careless World: Rise Of The Last King

NOW 41

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for March 8, 2012