The World: Latest Stories

Charlotte Perkins Gilman published her feminist novella "Herland" 100 years ago. Now a group of Herland pioneers want to make her fantasy a reality.

Struggling Rio de Janeiro state had to lay off security guards, making it easier for these high-schoolers to take over and demand a better education system.

Her family fled the Soviet Union in the '80s. And she recently spent time volunteering with refugees in Greece.

His sperm is believed to have been used to conceive at least 36 children in Canada, the US and Britain. Now three Canadian families are suing.

His keepers think he escaped to the ocean after the lid to his tank was left slightly ajar. It's actually common for octopuses to escape from aquariums.

Marina Nemat and Saeid Vafa have a lot in common. They're both Iranians. They both fled to Canada after running afoul of Iran's government. But they've come to different conclusions about the future of Iran.

Deivis Ventura is the first openly gay candidate running for Congress in the Dominican Republic. An aide calls him "a shock to the brain of the DR’s conservative society.”

Their story is a work of fiction included in Mia Alvar's book, "In the Country."

Immigrant advocates in Patchogue, on New York's Long Island, say Donald Trump's politics fuel anti-immigrant attitudes and his upcoming visit will stir painful memories of a 2008 hate crime that happened there.

Cellist Leyla McCalla explores the connections between the American South and Haiti on her new album, "A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey." The title comes from a Haitian proverb.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ocean Vuong captures his experience coming from Vietnam to the US in his debut poetry collection "Night Sky with Exit Wounds."

The struggle to find balance between old and new, modernity and tradition, respect and assimilation, is one that people all over the world have been navigating for centuries. In this case, the tension was encapsulated in a series of beautiful photos that turned half a billion heads.

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is full of relics from the age of flight. But it's also home to items from the future — props from the original Star Trek TV show.

For Setsuko Winchester, a Japanese American, the idea of freedom from fear is deeply personal. So she used it as the inspiration for an art project.

A new book, London Fog: The Biography, profiles the heyday of this miasma and describes what it took to clean the air up.

"If these were non-aboriginal children, all the resources would be in their schools," First Nations representative Charlie Angus says. "When they’re aboriginal children, well, 'Hey, you can take a number and stand in line.'"

Is oil exporting a curse? Not necessarily, but there is something about oil that is very dangerous to a producing country's people, says an academic with a new book on the subject.

Fariba Nawa and her family fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan three decades ago. Now, as a reporter covering Afghan asylum-seekers in Turkey, she says the story feels very familiar.

A total ban on abortion? Despite protests, Poland is moving in that direction.

One look at Brazil's Congress, and you might wonder who’s in worse trouble.

Last year was the bloodiest in the 15-year war in Afghanistan, and there are fears this year will see a further increase in violence.

The opening chord progression in Stairway to Heaven is one of the most famous in rock music. But representatives of a 1960s US band called Spirit say that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page got the idea from them. A federal judge in Los Angeles says a jury should decide.

They were brought in to provide a "feminine touch," but they were really designing for everyone.

Particulates and other emissions from burning fossil fuels are costly for human health: the WHO says 3.3 million people die prematurely due to air pollution. But in the US, utilities are shifting away from coal power and the costs of illnesses triggered by pollution is falling.

The evidence of crimes against humanity is stronger against President Bashar al-Assad than against those who led the genocide in Rwanda, says a former war crimes prosecutor.

Genetic data from more than 1,000 newly sequenced microorganisms show bacteria make up most of the genetic diversity of life on Earth.

Old world maps and atlases are chock full of history, uncharted territories and, if you look carefully, sea monsters.

Americans can now see the Hitler comedy that's been such a hit in Germany. Its director says now is an OK time for Germans to laugh at Hitler. They just have to laugh at the right thing.

In contrast to its US allies, the Canadians want to normalize relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Conservative-led government in Ottawa abruptly cut off ties with Iran in 2012. Now, the new Liberal government says it’s time to turn the page.

By creating a minimal version of a cell, scientists are learning a lot about the number of genes needed to create life.

The Pentagon’s stockpile of air-to-ground munitions has suffered an unexpected dip — and it may take a long time to restore it.

An archaeological dig has unearthed a surprising find: An ancient recipe for a peppery Peruvian fermented drink.

A recent investigation by USA Today into lead levels in water systems across the country found more than 2,000 examples of systems that pose a risk to consumers.

David Cameron, one assumes, had a rough Saturday morning thanks, in part, to journalist named Abi Wilkinson who helped organizing thousands of protesters that took to the London streets calling for his resignation.

From the Paris climate agreement to the Pope’s environmental encyclical, 2015 should have been a banner year for climate change coverage by the media. But a recent report from Media Matters for America documents a decline in network TV coverage of global warming.

A research team analyzed water from the Hubbard Brook research station in New Hampshire to show that the Arctic is now sending the US Northeast more water than in recent history. And much of that moisture is coming in the form of snow.

A new Asian power rises, fueling awe and anxiety. Its economic rise seems inevitable, until it doesn't. We've seen this movie before, with Japan in the '80s. Now it's China's turn, and while history rarely repeats itself, it can rhyme, and it's rhyming now as China's economic growth slows and challenges, some similar to those Japan faced, mount. So what might China learn from Japan's experience? And how is Japan shaping a new role for itself, so it will continue to matter in this century?

On Friday, Pope Francis released Amoris Laetitia, a 256-page apostolic exhortation in which he writes about the matters of the family covering things from divorce to gay and lesbian members of the church.

Back in 2004 a suicide attack in Iraqi Kurdistan took away Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman's father and older brother. It was a painful and grim reminder of the challenges the region faced. But it was also a moment that pushed her to become a voice for her homeland.

The 160-mile race goes over some of the worst roads in France. Trains don't stop for it. And the winners get their name in a shower stall.

Researchers figure that roughly a third of all the food we produce is never eaten. In Paris, a new restaurant is taking a small slice out of all that waste by salvaging discarded food from a local market, cooking it up into fine cuisine, and serving it on a "pay-what-you-can" basis to a clientele that includes some of the city's neediest residents.

Venezuela's economy is deep in recession; drought is causing crippling shortages of energy and food. And to cap it all, the government can't respond effectively because of a crippling political rivalry between a socialist president and an opposition-controlled congress.

Keiko Fujimori leads the polls by double digits, but it's unclear if she can convince Peruvians she's different enough from dad to win a second-round vote.

The Antarctic krill, tiny shrimplike crustaceans, are a key part of the ocean’s food chain for whales, penguins and seals. Increasingly, krill have also become part of the human food chain — krill oil, with omega-3 fatty acids, is advertised as a wonder drug that may help combat heart health, high cholesterol and even improve our moods.

An Israeli soldier's shooting of a suspected Palestinian attacker has become a national issue — because of a video of the incident.

Mostafa Massouny is one of more than 1,800 Egyptians who just disappeared in 2015. They're believed to have been taken by Egyptian authorities, to an unknown fate.

There's no question air travel made the world a very different place. But it may not have been as revolutionary as was once thought.

The Panama Papers have been making headlines around the world, except in China. Censors have been working double time to erase any mention of the leaked papers or the connections to Chinese President Xi Jinping's family members.

Panama says it's setting up an independent commission to review regulations governing financial and legal services, in the wake of a massive leak exposing the murky world of offshore finance. The Panamanian company at the heart of the crisis, Mossack Fonseca, says it's done nothing wrong.