World Aug 15 How the Panama Canal helped make the U.S. a world power At the time it was built, the canal was an engineering marvel, relying on a series of locks that lift ships – and their thousands of pounds of cargo – above mountains. But thousands of workers died during its construction,…
Health Aug 07 Why your zip code matters when it comes to diabetic amputations Ten years ago, while working as an attending physician, Dr. Carl Stevens noticed a disturbing pattern: the majority of his patients with diabetes who acquired infections requiring amputation were from low-income backgrounds, while his diabetic patients from wealthier communities rarely…
Arts Jul 11 Filmmaker ponders married life after ‘112 Weddings’ In a new film, documentarian and sometime-wedding videographer Doug Block revisits nine couples whose weddings he captured over the course of two decades. He wanted to answer two questions: what did you expect marriage to be going into it, and…
World May 20 Forced labor still ‘hugely profitable,’ says UN report More than 60 years after the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights made slavery a worldwide crime, forced labor is a $150 billion industry, according to a new UN report published Tuesday.
Science May 13 500 years later, Christopher Columbus’ flagship Santa Maria likely found off coast of Haiti A leading underwater archaeologist says he has identified the shipwrecked remains of Christopher Columbus’ flagship off the northern coast of Haiti.
World May 07 South Africans head to election polls, 20 years after end of apartheid South Africans take to the polls Wednesday for national elections, 20 years after Nelson Mandela’s historic election as president marked the end of apartheid. Mandela’s party, the African National Congress, has been in power ever since, and analysts are predicting…
Nation May 06 Social safety net catching fewer of America’s neediest, study finds Although U.S. welfare spending has shot up in the last three decades, it is helping fewer of America’s poorest citizens, says a new study out of Johns Hopkins University.
World May 02 Nigerians take to streets, social media to demand return of kidnapped girls As the number of girls confirmed abducted in an attack on a Nigerian high school last month continues to rise, an increasingly furious public is hoping to spark enough international outrage to ensure the students’ safe return. Nearly…
Arts Apr 29 ‘Mockingbird for a new generation’: A classic text goes digital Though its themes of justice, honor and tolerance are timeless, “To Kill a Mockingbird” will take on a distinctly 21st-century form later this year when, half a century after its publication, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel will be released electronically.
Arts Apr 25 Madrid on quest to find the remains of ‘Don Quixote’ author He has been hailed as the father of the novel, a writer who wielded the Spanish language so forcefully that it is nicknamed for him: la lengua de Cervantes (“the language of Cervantes”). But when Miguel de Cervantes died nearly…