Latest News

US jobless rate near four-year low

The Obama campaign could get a boost from a report showing the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. “This is not what a real recovery looks like,” Mitt Romney countered.

Analysis

Jobs report a best-case scenario for Obama

Coming off a dismal debate performance on Wednesday, President Obama got the best possible economic news in today’s positive jobs report.

Questions on Romney’s proposal to cap tax deductions

Mitt Romney’s campaign has characterized a limit on deductions as just one of the options he might pursue as president. Tax analysts said it is difficult to evaluate the idea.

Meningitis outbreak widens; Mass. company suspected

Officials found a vial contaminated with fungus at a Framingham pharmacy, strengthening suspicions it is the source of a nation­wide outbreak.

Video

TSA unveils less revealing body scanners at Logan

The new scanners show only generic outlines of passengers instead of detailed images of their naked bodies.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/10/02/BostonGlobe.com/HealthScience/Images/kreiter_arms23_hs.jpg For transplant recipient, a life resumed

Richard Mangino of Revere drives, paints, and even plays the guitar, thanks to the new hands and forearms he received in a transplant operation a year ago.

Steven Syre

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/10/05/BostonGlobe.com/Business/Images/Steve_Syre_150px-1647--90x90.jpg Are PCs going extinct?

The personal computer is in for the fight of its life as the quick embrace of tablet computing eats into its sales.

Brian McGrory

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/10/05/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/Brian_McGrory_150px-2940--90x90.jpg Perspectives can change at Liberty Mutual

The insurer lavishes executives with pay and perks, but adopts a different tone when it comes time to pay a policyholder because of its own negligence.

Dan Shaughnessy

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/10/05/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/shaughnessy.jpg Red Sox did well in acting quickly

Bobby Valentine was goofy, opinionated, calculating, smart, and a little off the reservation. He was also not a very good manager for the underachieving Red Sox.

Boston Globe ePaper

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From the Archives | Photo Gallery

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/10/04/BostonGlobe.com/Arts/Images/pope001-749--90x90.jpg Pope John Paul II visits Boston

On Oct. 1, 1979, thousands lined the streets of Boston to welcome Pope John Paul II to the city.

Globe exclusives

Exclusive Sunday Preview | Globe Magazine

Too many AP classes?
Mick Jagger (pictured performing with the Rolling Stones in 1971) is the subject of a 622-page unauthorized biography.

BOOK REVIEW

‘Mick Jagger’ by Philip Norman
Earth as seen from space.

Photography review

‘Kennedy to Kent State’: When a decade is more than just a decade

SCOT LEHIGH

Dueling philosophies from Obama and Romney
“There’s a problem with the players that they [ownership] need to rectify,” fan Pascal Agblemiawo said.

Fans don’t blame Valentine for all club’s woes
Violinist Joshua Bell performed Bernstein’s Serenade, conducted by Marcelo Lehninger , with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Thursday.

music review

At Symphony Hall, the music of Plato and Shakespeare
Curt Schilling’s bloody sock from the 2004 World Series could fetch around $25,000.

Curt Schilling may sell ‘bloody sock’ to settle debt
Crocus, tulip, galanthus, allium, daffodils.

It’s prime time to plant for spring
Mindy Kaling says she likes dressing up because it makes her happy.

Mindy Kaling on men, sequins, and chunky jewelry
The latest Kindle e-readers offer improved performance, but the rival Nooks still provide good value.

Tech Lab

New Kindle offers light reading
Center Jordan Carter (41) helped lead his teammates through some agility drills at practice on Wednesday.

Boston English football team learns thrill of victory at last

Editorial cartoons by Dan Wasserman

Sports

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red sox notebook

Former captain Jason Varitek, as special assistant to the GM, will give the clubhouse a voice in the managerial selection.

Jason Varitek not a candidate for Red Sox manager

The former team captain will be on the search committee as the Sox embark on their second straight hunt for a new manager.

Metro

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Elizabeth Warren joined black clergy members at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury Thursday.

Black clergy in Boston endorse Warren

Some of the city’s most prominent African-American ministers backed Elizabeth Warren Thursday and denounced Senator Scott Brown’s attacks on her purported heritage.

Columnists

Mitt Romney finally shook the Etch-A-Sketch.

JOSHUA GREEN

The Old Romney vs. the New Romney
Larry Lucchino and Ben Cherington met with reporters on Thursday afternoon.

Christopher L. Gasper

Red Sox reconstruction goes beyond firing Bobby Valentine

Brian McGrory

Perspectives can change on Liberty Mutual’s salaries, payouts

JOAN WICKERSHAM

A titan on orange wings
Bobby Valentine went for a bike ride in the hours after being fired by the Red Sox on Thursday.

Dan Shaughnessy

Red Sox did well in acting quickly

SCOT LEHIGH

Dueling philosophies from Obama and Romney
Laptops were on display at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

Steven Syre

Are PCs going extinct?

joan vennochi

An ineffective Obama falls flat
Bobby Valentine’s final hours as Red Sox manager Wednesday were a little sad as the worst season of a generation officially ended.

Dan Shaughnessy

For Red Sox, an ugly season finally ends

Jeff Jacoby

A clear knockout for Mitt Romney

opinion | edward l. glaeser

Tolls — the solution to our commuting woes
The women in the Swedish IKEA catalogue for 2012, left, were edited out of the Saudi Arabian version, right.

Juliette Kayyem

IKEA’s Saudi problem

Business

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Abigail Johnson is the number-two executive at Fidelity.

Fidelity’s Abigail Johnson honored by N.E. Council

The number two executive at the Boston-based investment giant was one of four honorees named New Englander of the Year.

Politics

political notebook

Mitt Romney addressed a rally Thursday in Virginia.

Mitt Romney calls 47% remarks ‘wrong’

Romney had described his remarks about the 47 percent of Americans who do not pay federal income taxes as ‘‘not elegantly stated.’’ Now he’s calling them ‘‘just completely wrong.’’

Nation & World

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Antiabortion protesters surrounded Rebecca Gomperts of Women on Waves, a Dutch abortion advocacy group in the port of Smir in Morocco, where most abortions are illegal.

Abortion yacht led out of Morocco

Moroccan police escorted from its waters on Thursday a small yacht carrying women’s rights activists claiming to be able to perform abortions on board.

Arts

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Tift Merritt seizes moment with ‘Traveling Alone’

Getting a picture of who Tift Merritt is as an artist requires a connect-the-dots approach to her catalogue.

Movies

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Movie Review

This stop-motion animated 3-D tale of a boy, Victor, and his dog, Sparky, is filmed in black and white, much like the horror classics that inspired its director.

Tim Burton’s ‘Frankenweenie’ is a marvel to behold

The stop-motion tale is simple yet immensely pleasurable — elegant, very funny, and haunted gently by the ghosts of monster movies past.

“It’s been what I hoped it would be.”

Richard Mangino,  a year after getting new hands and forearms in a transplant operation

Magazine

The cover for the September 30 2012 issue

How will independents factor into the Brown-Warren Senate race?

The cover for the September 23 2012 issue

9 hot trends in kitchen design
The cover for the September 16 2012 issue

The self-promoting, fan-financed, go-it-alone star
The cover for the September 9 2012 issue

Things to do in the Berkshires

Opinion

“From now on, when I look at a monarch in my garden, I will know that I am looking at genetics, evolution, ecology, scientific knowledge, and cosmic mystery.”

Joan Wickersham, on monarch butterflies

Ideas

“We know a lot about the things that are closer to our size, our altitude, our spot in the universe — and less about things that are hard to reach, hard to dig up, and hard to quantify.”

Samuel Arbesman  on what big data is missing