Notre Dame lost its bid for the Final Four this weekend, but represents a host of Catholic colleges with basketball contenders. Credit Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Good morning.
Here’s what you need to know:
• Clock is ticking on nuclear deal.
Tuesday’s deadline looms large over today’s negotiating session in Switzerland between world powers and Iran on its nuclear program.
Iranian officials have backed away from a crucial part of a proposal, saying they are not willing to ship their atomic fuel out of the country.
• Testing for dietary supplements.
GNC, the largest specialty retailer of dietary supplements in the U.S., is to say today that it will institute sweeping new testing procedures that far exceed federal quality controls.
The action comes after accusations that GNC and other major retailers sold fraudulent or contaminated herbal supplements.
• Left on the back burner.
Congress is on a two-week spring recess, leaving town without passing a bill to assist sex trafficking victims.
Until senators deal with that legislation, Republicans have refused to vote on the confirmation of Loretta E. Lynch as attorney general.
• Nigeria counts the votes.
A winner could be announced today from the weekend’s election in Africa’s largest democracy. The contest between the incumbent president and a former military leader is expected to be close.
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Many Nigerians say the vote is a referendum on who will be best able to combat the Boko Haram militant group.
• A Kennedy institute.
President Obama leads a gathering of officials and Kennedy family members at today’s dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston.
The interactive museum, with a life-size representation of the Senate chamber, is devoted to civic education and is next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on the waterfront.
• Sorting through the clues.
Investigators are still trying to understand what drove the pilot of the Germanwings jetliner that crashed last week to the apparent decision to fly the plane into the French Alps.
MARKETS
• Wall Street stock futures are moderately higher. European shares are up strongly, and Asian indexes ended mostly higher.
• Greece hopes to gain approval for a detailed list of economic changes that its international creditors demanded by today in exchange for the release of billions of dollars in sorely needed rescue financing.
OVER THE WEEKEND
• A jury in a high-profile case about the treatment of women in Silicon Valley found on Friday that a prominent venture-capital firm did not discriminate against a former partner.
• Italy’s highest appeals court overturned the murder convictions for Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend.
• Hillary Rodham Clinton’s lawyers said that the email server that she used when she was secretary of state had been wiped clean.
• Spring break turned bloody when seven people were shot with a .40-caliber handgun at a house in Panama City Beach, Fla.
• The governor of Indiana said he would seek legislation to clarify the intent of a religious freedom law enacted last week, saying it did not sanction discrimination against gays and lesbians.
• Firefighters pulled two bodies from the scene of an explosion that demolished three buildings last week in the East Village of New York.
• Arab states said they had agreed to form a combined military force to counter both Iranian influence and Islamist extremism.
• Australia won its fifth Cricket World Cup, defeating New Zealand.
• “Home,†a family-friendly adventure, was the box office winner.
• Catching up on TV: Episode recaps for “The Good Wife†and the season finale of “The Walking Dead.â€
NOTEWORTHY
• Finally, four.
The semifinals of the men’s N.C.A.A. basketball tournament this Saturday are Kentucky vs. Wisconsin, and Michigan State vs. Duke.
The women’s semifinals are Sunday. It’s Notre Dame vs. South Carolina, and the winners of tonight’s games: Connecticut vs. Dayton (7 p.m. Eastern, ESPN) and Maryland vs. Tennessee (9 p.m. Eastern, ESPN).
• Civil War trove.
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University is to announce today that it has purchased one of the largest private collections of 19th-century American photography, devoted primarily to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
• There’s serious, and there’s frivolous.
“Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies†is an absorbing documentary series, beginning tonight, produced by Ken Burns and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name (9 p.m. Eastern, PBS).
And Kevin Hart, Snoop Dogg and Will Ferrell (as Ron Burgundy) are among those taking aim at a celebrity on the “Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber†(10 p.m. Eastern).
• Off to the royal races.
California Chrome, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes last year, is heading to England for the prestigious Royal Ascot race meeting in June. He finished second in the $10 million Dubai World Cup on Saturday.
• Golf’s biggest name is missing.
Tiger Woods is not among the top 100 golfers in the world ranking for the first time since 1996.
BACK STORY
In an early version of the Morning Briefing on Friday, we mistakenly left out Notre Dame in the list of men’s basketball teams that had advanced to the N.C.A.A. tournament’s round of 8.
(We also wrongly included Xavier.)
Boy, did we hear it from the Fighting Irish’s fans.
They were justifiably proud because Notre Dame had not reached the final eight in the N.C.A.A. tournament since 1979.
Notre Dame and Xavier are two of about 40 Roman Catholic colleges in the U.S. with a rich tradition of success in Division I basketball. There were eight Catholic colleges in this year’s tournament.
Some of the teams even have clergy members with them at games (no, not to offer a prayer during a timeout).
Many of these universities developed into powerhouses in the mid-1900s because they were in cities with many immigrant Catholics, and they focused on basketball because football became too costly.
Still, Notre Dame’s magic did not last.
It lost to undefeated Kentucky on Saturday in a game that came down to the final shot.
Victoria Shannon contributed reporting.
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