IHT Quick Read: March 21 NEWS An uprising against the Taliban that began last month in a southern Afghan village has now spread through dozens of others, according to residents and Afghan and American officials, in the most significant popular turning against the Islamist insurgents in recent years. Carlotta Gall reports from Pishin Gan Sayedan, Afghanistan. Showing solidarity with Israel's growing concern about chemical weapons in neighboring Syria, President Obama stated bluntly on Wednesday that if an investigation he had ordered found proof that the Syrian military had used such weapons it would be a "game changer" in American involvement in the civil war there. Mark Landler and Rick Gladstone report from Jerusalem. Scrambling to placate international lenders, Cyprus late Wednesday proposed to nationalize pension funds from state-run companies and conduct an emergency bond sale to help raise the €5.8 billion the indebted country needs to secure a bailout. Liz Alderman and David M. Herszenhorn report from Nicosia, Cyprus. Computer networks running three major South Korean banks and the country's two largest broadcasters were paralyzed Wednesday in attacks that some experts suspected originated in North Korea, which has consistently threatened to cripple its far richer neighbor. Once highly dependent on revenue from petroleum sales, the Syrian government has lost control of many of the country's major oil fields over the past few months as Kurdish forces and the rebel Free Syrian Army have made significant gains in the east. Josh Wood reports from Beirut. The embattled prime minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, was fighting for her political life on Thursday after she accepted a public demand for a leadership ballot put forward by a senior lawmaker from her ruling Labor Party, who said that the party's only hope of prevailing in upcoming elections was to return to office the man Ms. Gillard deposed in a 2010 party coup. A treatment that genetically alters a patient's own immune cells to fight cancer has, for the first time, produced remissions in adults with an acute leukemia that is usually lethal, researchers are reporting. Denise Grady reports. The French police on Wednesday searched the Paris apartment of Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, in connection with an investigation into her handling of a financial scandal when she was the French finance minister. The main subsidiary of Suntech Power, one of the world's largest makers of solar panels, collapsed into bankruptcy on Wednesday in a remarkable reversal for what had been part of a huge Chinese government effort to dominate renewable energy industries. Keith Bradsher reports from Hong Kong. The European Central Bank plans to begin using affirmative action to increase the number of employees who are women, a top bank official said Wednesday, acknowledging that men currently dominate the making of monetary policy. ARTS China is in the midst of a museum-building binge, fueled by the nation's booming economy, but the Chinese are still sorting out what exactly they want from their museums. Holland Cotter reports. SPORTS A trip through Vietnam will show you that even if a country doesn't have thriving pro leagues or much money, it still enjoys playing - and watching - athletic pursuits. Christopher Clarey reports from Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam.