The World: Latest Stories

The United Arab Emirates doesn't have a space program to rival that of the US or Russia. But it plans to send an unmanned probe to Mars by 2021. It's to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding.

As the Indian city chokes on toxic air, authorities frantically pass the buck about who's to blame.

Mexican drug cartels can't compete with US-made weed. Instead of fighting it, they're smuggling it to Mexico.

If education is the road out of poverty, many urban areas in the US aren't providing adequate educational opportunities.

As Boston gets ready for Election Day, there’s one job that's particularly difficult to fill: interpreter.

This week, Oregon voters will decide Measure 100, which would ban the buying and selling of various illegal animal products. There is widespread support for the measure, but concern that a lack of funding means it promises more than it could deliver.

Jerry Derr lost his son, Colton Levi Derr, a US Army sergeant, to suicide. Since then, he's been trying to help other military families fight PTSD and a whole range of issues that come up for veterans.

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are just two big cities where issues of racial disparity and the treatment of minorities by law enforcement have burst into the open.

Chip Knappenberger, a scientist with libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, describes how the former New Mexico and former Massachusetts chief executives would approach environment and energy issues if they governed America.

Software executive and writer Björn Beer decided to move with his wife and daughter to Montana, near Glacier National Park, in part to bear witness to the glaciers’ disappearance.

In the 1940s, the first African American women entered NACA's “computing pools." Some later became managers or engineers at NASA, and all made crucial — but often little-known — contributions to the math that put Americans in space.

The energy sector was a bright spot in middle America, but as oil prices fell, that too has turned dark.

Poverty and education remain the defining issues for largely African America communities in this country.

Research shows that in post-conflict countries where women are recognized as victims and awarded justice, peace is more likely to last. But as Colombia tentatively moves towards peace, how much justice can women expect?

Harlem's "Little Senegal" and Senegalese audiences are interested in the results of this US election.

A new generation of students fights for the equality they were promised when apartheid ended.

Homelessness has traditionally been considered a big city problem, but no longer. Those and other issues feature heavily in this election.

Coal country has traditionally been democratic country — but Donald Trump has moved it into the Republican column.

A poll in 18 Middle Eastern and North African countries gave Hillary Clinton a whopping 35-point lead. But 47 percent would pick neither her nor Donald Trump if they had a chance to vote.

America has long prided itself as a beacon of democracy, but US elections face some of the same challenges as elections the world over. David Carroll, head of the Carter Center's Democracy Program, shares some of what he's learned through decades of election monitoring and working to strengthen democracies around the globe.

Clashes over an oil pipeline slated to cross historic Native territory in North Dakota continue after more the 140 people were arrested in protests last week. The increasingly high-stakes face-off is one of the biggest actions by Native Americans in years.

Special programs are helping men and women in Colombia learn how to connect with, understand and forgive those on the other side of the decades-long civil war.

The Chicago Cubs have won the World Series for the first time since 1908, when the world was a very different place. What was it like?

Sacred-site preservation and civic engagement are not the same.

Police have made mass arrests and used pepper spray, riot gear and armored vehicles to stop the protests. Now, the United Nations is looking into possible human rights abuses.

A team of archeologists just uncovered hidden layers of a tomb in Jerusalem that's revered as the burial place of Jesus.

We know much more about bilingualism now than we did 18 years ago when Californians voted to ban bilingual education. So what does the research tell us?

The United States is often seen as a beacon of democracy. Is the rise of Donald Trump changing that?

Feeling pressured by a less religious society, evangelicals are looking to enshrine respect for their beliefs in law.

College towns are often thought of as liberal, diverse places. But that's not always true, and issues of integration continue to be an issue.

Here are some examples of disastrous outcomes overseas, and a few reasons why the US will likely survive the 2016 election.

A new law in Louisiana that adds new requirements to process marriage licenses is being challenged for discrimination against refugees and immigrants.

The tiny Baltic nation of Estonia is afraid of Vladimir Putin's Russia. So it's stepping up its military preparations, which focus on preparing the people for guerrilla war. And it's trying to make it fun.

Kehinde Wiley thinks art, at its best, highlights what we as human beings value. That's why all his portraits have at their center a person of color.

On an Indian reservation in Nebraska, state and federal politics interfere with the effort to simply educate the kids.

Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky's famed 1812 Overture was first performed, outdoors, at the base of the majestic Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. His beloved ballet, "The Nutcracker," was introduced to the world at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. But his Piano Concerto No. 1? Its debut came in — of all places — a concert hall off Tremont Street in Boston, six years before the Boston Symphony Orchestra even existed.

More than ever before, Luis Mancheno feels the heavy burdens of the color of his skin and his national origin. Come November 8, he’s looking for some relief.

In El Paso, the border is an integral part of life. So any proposals to change the rules around trade or immigration feature prominently on the minds of voters.

The Keres language, spoken by the Laguna Pueblo of New Mexico, is dying. When younger tribal members tried to revive it, they were blocked by elders fearful that spiritual essence of the language would be lost.

ISIS tried to block the al-Ghad radio station from Mosul airwaves. Al-Ghad responded by jamming the frequency of ISIS's radio station.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says American Muslims are under attack. To raise awareness, the group has put out a list of anti-Muslim extremists. But some say the group has gone too far.

One of the world's worst terror attacks this year was a bombing in Baghdad in July. More than 300 people died. It got little attention outside Iraq, but still shakes survivors in the Iraqi capital.

Unlike other wars, as many as 40 percent of the Colombian guerrilla forces are women. Many join the ranks to seek protection.

America's rural communities aren't just not growing, they're shrinking. And that has a profound impact on how they think about the upcoming election.

Natives of US territories are subject to United States laws, but can't always exercise American rights.

A woman recounts what it was like to discover she had been infected with Zika six weeks before she was due to give birth.

Try spending Halloween amid the spooky ruins of this abandoned settlement in the mountains of Spain.

Rio de Janeiro is famous for its openness. Rights groups are afraid that evangelical right-winger Marcelo Crivella will change that.

When she was 14, Xiomara picked up a gun and joined Colombia's Marxist guerrilla group, the FARC. She stayed in the wilderness for 15 years. Now she faces the challenges of thousands of other women who have left the rebel group: how to come back.