Corner Office: Terry Leahy, Former Tesco Chief, on Staying Focused

This interview with Terry Leahy, former chief executive of Tesco, the British supermarket chain, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Q. Do you remember the first time you were somebody’s boss? A. I joined Tesco pretty much right out of college. And actually I turned down my first promotion because I didn’t think I was ready to lead. Q. That’s surprising. A....

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Ferrol Sams, Doctor Turned Novelist, Dies at 90

Ferrol Sams, a country doctor who started writing fiction in his late 50s and went on to win critical praise and a devoted readership for his humorous and perceptive novels and stories that drew on his medical practice and his rural Southern roots, died on Tuesday at his home in Lafayette, Ga. He was 90. The cause, said his son Ferrol Sams III, also a doctor, was that he was “slap wore...

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Ferrol Sams, Doctor Turned Novelist, Dies at 90

Ferrol Sams, a country doctor who started writing fiction in his late 50s and went on to win critical praise and a devoted readership for his humorous and perceptive novels and stories that drew on his medical practice and his rural Southern roots, died on Tuesday at his home in Lafayette, Ga. He was 90. The cause, said his son Ferrol Sams III, also a doctor, was that he was “slap wore...

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Bits Blog: The Origins of ‘Big Data’: An Etymological Detective Story

Words and phrases are fundamental building blocks of language and culture, much as genes and cells are to the biology of life. And words are how we express ideas, so tracing their origin, development and spread is not merely an academic pursuit but a window into a society’s intellectual evolution.Digital technology is changing both how words and ideas are created and proliferate, and how they are...

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The Lede Blog: New Photographs Stir Doubts About Bashar's Baby and Iran's Space Monkey

Last Updated, Saturday, 12:37 p.m. Bad news, readers: new images appear to cast doubt on the accuracy of two of the week’s most widely-reported stories — the rumored pregnancy of Syria’s first lady, and the pioneering space flight of an Iranian monkey.As the Washington Post correspondent Liz Sly reported, President Bashar al-Assad’s office posted five new photographs of his wife, Asma, on Facebook,...

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Off the Charts: For Markets, a Strong January Is a Good Sign

AS January goes, so goes the year. That maxim of the American stock market would seem to bode well for the market this year. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index’s gain of 5 percent made the month the 12th best January since 1950, and the 19th opening month in that period when the index rose more than 4 percent. “If history repeats, we would expect a double-digit percentage increase...

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SciTimes Update: Recent Developments in Science and Health News

Michael Probst/Associated PressBaby hedgehogs in Germany. Friday in science, clues to owls’ backwardness, fresh dangers to the seas and the launch of a giant kite. Check out these and other headlines from around the Web. Phil Marino for The New York TimesPhysicists monitored data from heavy ion collisions in the control room at Brookhaven National Laboratory particle collider in 2007....

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SciTimes Update: Recent Developments in Science and Health News

Michael Probst/Associated PressBaby hedgehogs in Germany. Friday in science, clues to owls’ backwardness, fresh dangers to the seas and the launch of a giant kite. Check out these and other headlines from around the Web. Phil Marino for The New York TimesPhysicists monitored data from heavy ion collisions in the control room at Brookhaven National Laboratory particle collider in 2007....

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Making Web Sites Completely Addictive

Looking for a real estate agent who loves dogs? You’ll find 314 results for “dog lover” on Corcoran’s redesigned Web site. Want to know how locals rate the suburb you’re considering moving to? What if during Sunday brunch you get the sudden urge to go apartment hunting? Warburgrealty.com now offers an app that offers up nearby listings based on your current location. Recognizing that...

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The Lede Blog: Vacation on Syria's Front Lines Goes Wrong for Russian Judge

Last Updated, Friday, 11:43 a.m. A Russian judge who decided to spend his vacation moonlighting as a war correspondent in Syria survived being shot in the face and arm this week in the Damascus suburb of Darayya, according to the Web news agency he writes for as a volunteer.The shooting of the judge, Sergey Aleksandrovich Berezhnoy, was caught on video by the crew from the Abkhazian Network News Agency...

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Media Decoder Blog: Ratings Shortfall at Nickelodeon Hurts Viacom Revenue

1:34 p.m. | Updated Hampered by ratings shortfalls at Nickelodeon and an unfavorable film release schedule, Viacom on Thursday reported a 16 percent decrease in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012, a somewhat steeper drop than analysts anticipated.But the company’s profits came in slightly ahead of expectations, and the chief executive, Philippe Dauman, pleased Wall Street with positive news about...

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During Trial, New Details Emerge on DuPuy Hip

When Johnson & Johnson announced the appointment in 2011 of an executive to head the troubled orthopedics division whose badly flawed artificial hip had been recalled, the company billed the move as a fresh start. But that same executive, it turns out, had supervised the implant’s introduction in the United States and had been told by a top company consultant three years before the device...

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During Trial, New Details Emerge on DuPuy Hip

When Johnson & Johnson announced the appointment in 2011 of an executive to head the troubled orthopedics division whose badly flawed artificial hip had been recalled, the company billed the move as a fresh start. But that same executive, it turns out, had supervised the implant’s introduction in the United States and had been told by a top company consultant three years before the device...

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Chinese Hackers Infiltrate New York Times Computers

A Cyberattack From China: TimesCast: Chinese hackers infiltrated The New York Times’s computer systems, getting passwords for its reporters and others.SAN FRANCISCO — For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees. After surreptitiously tracking the intruders...

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U.N. Panel Says Israeli Settlement Policy Violates International Law

GENEVA — Israel has pursued a creeping annexation of the Palestinian territories through the creation of Jewish settlements and committed multiple violations of international law, possibly including war crimes, a United Nations panel said on Thursday, calling for an immediate halt to all settlement activity and the withdrawal of all settlers. Presenting their findings in Geneva after a nearly...

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DealBook: Top Federal Prosecutor of Corporate Crime Will Resign

1:42 p.m. | Updated with formal announcementLanny A. Breuer, the federal prosecutor who led the Justice Department’s response to corporate crime in the wake of the financial crisis, announced on Wednesday that he is stepping down after nearly four years in the post.As head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, one of the most senior roles at the agency, Mr. Breuer tackled corporate bribery...

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The Consumer: The Drug-Dose Gender Gap

Most sleeping pills are designed to knock you out for eight hours. When the Food and Drug Administration was evaluating a new short-acting pill for people to take when they wake up in the middle of the night, agency scientists wanted to know how much of the drug would still be in users’ systems come morning.Blood tests uncovered a gender gap: Men metabolized the drug, Intermezzo, faster than women....

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