The World: Latest Stories

American neuroscience student Caitlin Duncan was among the women caught up in the mob outside Cologne's train station on New Year's Eve. A group of Syrian refugees came to her rescue.

ISIS is out with a new edition of its propaganda magazine, Dabiq. Their lead story is the attack in San Bernardino. It’s claiming responsibility and encouraging its supporters to emulate it.

BBC reporter and presenter Rana Rahimpour was born in Iran. She also has a British passport. Before, that would have allowed her to travel to the US without a visa. Not any more.

The US Patent and Trademark Office says the name is Cuba's to keep. But the Bacardi company has vowed to carry on the fight.

You might wonder why a doctor from Atlanta, a successful heart surgeon, would bother to go to a Syrian refugee camp as a volunteer? Dr.Omar Lattouf knew very little about the Syrian crisis and the massive refugee problem until he arrived at Jordan's Al-Zaatari Syrian Refugee Camp.

Sometimes it can feel like children of immigrants in the United States have a duty to be grateful. But Bianca Tylek felt she had to speak out — after the public defacement of black faculty portraits at Harvard Law.

Lead mining, smelting and other exposures kill an estimated 143,000 people per year.

The war back home in Syria forced women into new roles outside of Syria. Some of them are creating opportunities for themselves.

With so many men killed or missing, it’s up to the women to run their community, and they’re making a difference in people’s lives, including their own.

People in Flint, Michigan, are rightly concerned about the quality of their water. But, it turns out, there are really few safeguards for any Americans.

After 14 months of negotiations, last weekend Iran agreed to release five American prisoners. In return, the US released seven Iranians from its jails in the US. So who are these Iranians?

Scientists working in Greenland are looking for tiny clues to help fill in the big picture about the fate of the island's giant ice pack. They're using cutting edge technology to track minute changes that could help predict what a warmer future might hold for Greenland and the rest of the world.

China’s economy, one of the drivers of global growth, has begun to slow.

Comedian Gad Elmaleh is a huge success in France. He performs for arenas around Europe to thousands of fans. So why did he want to leave that all behind and try his hand at stand-up in the US in English?

Undocumented Central Americans in the United States worry about their futures as deportations rise, along with violence back in their home countries.

Yes, Jason Rezaian is free. But what was it like to be inside Iran's notorious Evin prison? She knows.

It's easy to fix matches in tennis. All you need is one person on the hook. And betting on yourself to lose in the first round could net a bigger windfall than winning a tournament.

About a decade ago, several of Greenland's biggest glaciers suddenly began melting. A decade later, two groups of scientists are trying to unlock the secrets behind a scientific mystery story with potentially big consequences for the future of the island's rapidly-melting ice sheet.

One day after punishing economic sanctions against Iran were lifted, the Obama administration announced new sanctions on Iran’s missile program. It’s a hint of the tough road ahead.

Back in Boston, out of an Iranian prison, Matthew Trevithick wasted no time hitting his favorite burger joint.

This is prime wildflower blooming season in Israel. But not so long ago, the country's wildflowers were under threat of extinction because people were picking way too many of them. Then, a PSA campaign was launched that got Israelis to stop picking flowers in order to preserve them.

Alejandro González Iñárritu is a vocal supporter of immigrants, no matter how they got here. This political cycle, he's been disappointed by xenophobic and anti-immigrant statements from candidates.

The Chicago Police Department has been beset by reports of potential misconduct and police-on-civilian violence. There's an effort to change the legal situation so there is more oversight.

Tem Blessed, an environmentally and socially-conscious hip hop artist, uses contemporary music to communicate the importance of the environment and sustainability to young audiences.

When French Jews were advised to remove their skullcaps to reduce the risk of anti-Semitic violence, social media responded in a surprising way. Two friends in particular decided that what was needed was not fewer skullcaps, but more. Many more.

Back in the 1970s, David Bowie pioneered gender neutrality with his androgynous look. Two days before his death, the gender-neutral pronoun got a seal of approval.

The site of the Salem Witch Trials execution has finally been discovered — behind a Walgreens.

Dr. Zoi Livaditou is a Lesbos native. She's had a career saving lives as an emergency medicine doctor who has spent time in war and disaster zones in places like Afghanistan, Gaza and Haiti. Now the emergency has arrived at her home — in the form of the massive refugee crisis.

La Cuneta Son Machín is a band from Nicaragua composed of young musicians whose older family members were musical superstars during the Sandinista regime. They didn't want to sound old, but they wanted to use the same record producer, which has resulted in a Grammy nomination.

The public knows very little about the Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Many US nuclear systems are aging, and the US military is moving to upgrade and replace them. So how does that square with President Barack Obama, who won a 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts toward denuclearization.

The global media company Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, is closing down the US cable news channel that it launched with great fanfare in 2013. Despite investing billions of dollars in the channel, the numbers didn't add up.

Terrorists attempted to attack targets in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Thursday. But they were quickly killed. ISIS claimed responsibility for the effort. Sandra Siagian, an Australian UN worker, lived through it.

Liberia is Ebola-free, says the World Health Organization. But experts say that the problem of Ebola is far from over.

The UN set up a system for people attending last month's landmark climate summit in Paris to offset the carbon footprint of their travel to the meeting.

Scientists say a warm Pacific Ocean could be pushing seabird prey to cooler areas, or killing the fish off. And that's hurting Alaskan birds as well.

Burma used to be one of the most isolated countries on earth, thanks to military rulers who didn't want outside interference. Now known as Myanmar, it's opening up. A new pro-democracy government was elected in November. And a dramatic surge in mobile phone and smartphone users is accelerating change.

"You are the best in the world," the druglord tells the actress. The texts published by a Mexican newspaper show his flattery, her fear of authorities and their negotiation over a pink or gray Blackberry.

Peggy Wallace Kennedy, the daughter of former Alabama governor George Wallace, is now an advocate for racial healing and racial harmony.

Among the mansions and golf clubs of the Hamptons, Shinnecock Indians are trying to re-learn a language that died out more than a century ago.

Richard Schiff starred as Toby Ziegler in the hit series The West Wing — as a lead writer for President Jed Bartlett. The day after President Obama delivered his last State of the Union, Schiff looked at what Obama said.

Crypto, a fungal infection of the brain and spinal cord, is a threat primarily to people living with HIV/AIDS. A so-called opportunistic infection, it preys on those who lack access to the antiretroviral therapy that can keep HIV in check.

US officials said on Wednesday that Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif spoke at least five times in the span of 10 hours on Tuesday. Their discussion led to the quick release of the American sailors.

President Barack Obama in his final State of the Union address made a serious effort to calm fears about terrorism. He acknowledged the danger was real, but also stated that in no way did terrorism threaten America’s national existence. In the Republican response, Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina talked of the most dangerous threat to the US since September 11. So where does the truth lie?

Here’s the story of how legendary Malian singer Kandia Kouyaté’s new album got made. It took the dedication of two producers, Ibrahim Sylla and his daughter, Binetou.

The US is much more tolerant of different religions than in Europe, which tends to be more secular.

After reports of women being harassed and groped on the streets of Cologne, Germany, on New Year's Eve, mostly by men of Arab descent, German officials are promising changes. They've beefed up the police presence in public areas and vowed to deport migrants convicted of serious crimes. And Arab and Muslim migrants in Germany say the welcoming atmosphere is starting to change.

Venezuela's late Socialist leader Hugo Chavez picked his own successor as the country's president and left his party firmly in control of the National Assembly. That allowed the Chavistas to stifle the opposition for a long time. But that changed in December, when voters handed the opposition a majority in the National Assembly.

People in Europe and the US worry that Syrians fleeing the war will bring violence with them. But some young Syrian men say they want no part of the violence. That's why they're leaving.