IHT Quick Read: Dec. 21 NEWS In a deal spanning Wall Street, Atlanta and financial centers in Europe, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange agreed on Thursday to an $8.2 billion deal that would give control of the symbolic cradle of American capitalism to an upstart competitor, IntercontinentalExchange. The takeover illustrates how trading in commodities and derivatives has become much more lucrative than trading in the shares of companies. Ben Protess and Nathaniel Popper report from New York. The polarizing leader of the Indian state of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, inched closer on Thursday to becoming the leading political challenger to India's dominant Gandhi family by winning a resounding re-election as chief minister. At a much-anticipated news conference on Thursday, Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, skirted the question of whether he would support a ban on adoptions of Russian children by American citizens, which lawmakers have approved but which needs his signature to become law. Not since 1999 has Italy held open examinations to fill teaching positions in its public schools. So when exams opened this week, it set off something of a nationwide frenzy among Italy's despairing underemployed educators, drawing more than 321,000 hopefuls for about 11,500 openings. Elisabetta Povoledo reports from Rome. South Korea's president-elect, Park Geun-hye, called for national reconciliation on Thursday, a day after she was elected the country's first female leader in a close contest that reflected generational divides. Christmas Eve is typically the biggest truffle-eating night of the year in France. But it is an increasingly expensive tradition. Black truffles and other types are becoming scarcer, and some scientists say it is because of the effects of global climate change on the fungus's Mediterranean habitat. One wholesaler says prices have risen tenfold over the last dozen years. David Jolly reports from Paris. ARTS The exhibition "Russen & Deutsche" (Russians and Germans), at Berlin's Neues Museum until Jan. 13, is an ambitious attempt to show how the ties between the two cultures have developed over a thousand years. But it is also highly selective and comes close to idealizing the past, Judy Dempsey writes from Berlin. SPORTS It would have been hard to match the highs and lows experienced at the London Olympics this year, but rugby did have its share of history, joy, drama and disappointment in 2012, Emma Stoney writes from Knutsford, England.