The World: Latest Stories

Gerhard Weinberg became a historian of World War II — the same war that displaced his family.

The solar industry got a big holiday gift at the end of last year — Congress extended a tax credit to build new solar panels. You and I can get the same deal for slapping panels on our roofs. Or if we don’t have a roof that works, for helping finance a few panels in a nearby field.

Garth Risk Hallberg says the inspiration for his thousand-page bestseller came from the “crappiness and beauty” of New York City.

The UN-REDD program aims to restore tropical forests to offset carbon emissions and buy time for humanity to move to green energy economies. REDD has seen some limited small-scale implementation, but, even after the recent agreement at COP21, it’s still unclear whether REDD will deliver on its promise.

In 1815, a ship docked at a port in England carrying an unusual cargo: A group of frightened Iranian students. They were sent there by the Shah of Iran to study the "new sciences." One of the students kept a diary about his trip to this foreign land. And the diary is the basis of a new book.

The Bavarian town of Abensburg has welcomed many of the refugees who fled Syria for new lives in Germany. But the town is still adapting to all the new arrivals.

A Turkish journalist pens a letter to anyone thinking about joining ISIS. He says it's a pursuit for the self instead something holy.

The refugee crisis in Europe dominated the world's headlines for much of 2015. But it’s a challenge that’s likely to define 2016 as well.

It's been almost two years since Islamist extremist group Boko Haram raided a school in Nigeria and kidnapped nearly 300 girls. The cry taken up round the world was "Bring back our Girls." Nigeria's president said today he's ready to negotiate with Boko Haram for the girls' release, with no pre-conditions.

Their work sheds light on what's important. "If people weren't really sad when you left," says one, "it seemed like you've missed an opportunity ... I think about that a lot in how I live. I think, 'Am I generous, Am I kind? Am I grateful?'"

An app from Facebook offers developing countries free but limited Internet. But many activists say they don't want it.

How a quirk in US law led to thousands of international adoptees becoming stateless.

The early history of Ireland has long been shrouded in mystery. But a new study of the DNA of the ancient Irish has cast some light into the darkness. The first headline is that Ireland's first farmers originated in the Middle East. The second headline is that all those stone rings and tombs that we associate with Ireland appear to have nothing to do with the Celts.

Christianne Boudreau's son Damian died fighting with ISIS in Syria last year. Now she's reaching out to other parents, coping with jihadist radicalization.

After two years of grappling with a deadly disease, Guineans are celebrating. The World Health Organization has announced that the country is free of Ebola virus transmission.

Ivan Watson grew up in a Jamaica, where you always greet everyone who passes by. So he does that to the thousands of people who stream by every day at Toronto's Pearson airport.

Will Smith struggled with a Nigerian accent in his new film "Concussion" — but he's not the only actor who has found it challenging to master an accent.

What were you grateful for in 2015?

The new prosecutor for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, vowed in his effort to seek election to pursue charges against Bill Cosby if he were elected. On Wednesday, he made good on that promise.

Few knew at the time, but Jan. 1, 1996 marked the start of something that has endured — the weekday global affairs radio show The World.

He's put spyware on your phone? She's taken your bank card from you? In Britain, this kind of controlling or coercive behavior could lead to a prison sentence.

During the era of slavery, more Africans were landed in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil than throughout all of North America. The wharf where the slaves landed in Rio was recently unearthed and a young American has designed a memorial to the neighborhood’s tragic past.

Rock-n-roll legend, Lemmy Kilmister has died at 70 from cancer. But the frontman for the English metal band Motörhead will be remembered by rock fans as one of the greats.

Argentina's new president want to open his country to the world. Argentines have been there before. It didn't end well.

Prisoners cleared for release languish at Gitmo, and the Pentagon may be to blame.

A recent job posting for a Middle East correspondent for the LA Times asked that the reporter be "capable of plunging into these ancient and dazzling cultures." But former Middle East correspondent Borzou Daragahi says the job is much less adventure, and much more paperwork.

Over the past half century, Americans have gone from getting most of their news from the three big networks, to having unprecedented choices in news sources, thanks to the Internet. Navigating those choices, and deciding who to trust, is still a challenge. But Peter Herford, a former writer for Walter Cronkite and producer for 60 Minutes, reflects on his 60 years in journalism and says, for consumers of news, it's never been better.

On Monday, prosecutors announced they wouldn't be filing charges against the police officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice in Cleveland more than a year ago.

In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, sometimes it's better to be an atheist than a Muslim.

Thousands of children have been married in the US in recent years, and tracking the number can be difficult. One kid, in New Jersey, was legally married at age 10.

The Iraqi army has retaken the city of Ramadi from Islamic militants — making this a significant victory for Iraq in more than a year. But is this more of a symbolic victory than strategic?

"East of Salinas" profiles Sherwood Elementary School in Salinas Valley, California, where 90 percent of students are the children of migrant farmworkers.

They've been called comfort women by some — and sex slaves by others. Now the Japanese government has officially apologized to the South Korean women forced into brothels during World War II.

A woman showed up at the doorstep of a 92-year-old woman's home. She claimed to be the woman's long-lost granddaughter, abducted during the military dictatorship's Dirty War. A nation was enthralled.

To close out 2015 the World in Words wanted to leave you smiling. Here's one of our favorite interviews with Canadian comedian Sugar Sammy.

Pauline Black is founding member and lead singer of the 2-tone ska group, The Selecter. Fans of the band know that social and political messages are part the band's DNA. The Selecter wrote songs about cultural/racial diversity and inequality in the 1980s and today they're tackling many of the same topics, with urgency.

Thousands of homes have been evacuated from the flooding in northern England. But record amounts of rainfall are just one reason for the crisis. There's a political fight brewing over flood preparations.

Killeen, Texas has become a kind of Korean food capital, thanks to the many Korean-Americans who have settled there. It has a lot to do with the US Army base there.

There have been a number of violent mass shootings this year — in San Bernardino, in Charleston and countless others. Could we decrease the number by treating gun violence as a public health crisis?

Now that COP21 has wrapped up and the first ever binding agreement agreed to, the question becomes how do countries actually hit the targets they have set — targets that will need to increase in the coming years? One answer has a broad consensus: carbon pricing.

Virtual reality is no longer science fiction, and some people are wondering how this new technology is going to be used.

First, get out of bed. Yes, we are wired to hibernate, even during wimpy winters, writes Arun Rath. But working out and post-holiday socializing help us deal with a lack of sunlight.

If you're looking to not only find a good book, but also get a little smarter, try some of these options.

Thousands of scientists and engineers are hard at work at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, trying to discover the origins of the universe. Lately, however, a few teams of artists have joined them in their work.

On the greek island of Lesbos, the descendants of refugees are meeting a new generation of refugees.

They beat out Justin Bieber and Adele — doctors and nurses in a British hospital choir top the UK music charts.

As a child, the prospect of an overnight journey by train sounded exciting, but the reality of the situation soon sunk in — Norman had become one of the nearly 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry interned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The North Pole is where we send letters to Santa Claus. But this was not always the case. The Turkish origins of St. Nick — and how he settled so far north.

Massachusetts imports mountains of salt from all over the world to melt its snow and ice. And they all wind up in a yard in Chelsea.