Syrian Doctor in US Weighs Whether to Go Home

Ahlam is a 28-year-old medical resident from Syria. She came to the US late last year to give birth to her daughter. Her family in New York is pressing her to stay, but she left her husband behind in Syria. Now she has to decide whether to stay in safety or go back.

Deep Sea Mining: Economic Bonanza or Environmental Boondoggle?

After decades of dreaming and scheming, companies say they’re finally ready to start mining the bottom of the world’s oceans for valuable minerals. Christopher Werth reports from London on one company’s plans, how environmental scientists view the prospect of digging up the sea floor, and how Howard Hughes and the CIA helped pave the way.

Duped, Sold into Prostitution, then Rescued: A Vietnamese Girl and the Man Who Saved Her

Reporter Phillip Martin has been investigating human trafficking in various parts of the world and in Vietnam he found a glimmer of hope, as a young woman who was kidnapped and sold to a brothel in China, returns to her family.

Slideshow: Vietnamese girl returns home

With an Aroma of Rotting Flesh, Indonesian Corpse Flower Blooms in Ohio

A flower unlike any other flower is growing at The Ohio State University’s Botanical Greenhouse. After years of cultivation, what may be the worst smelling flower in the world, the amorphophallus titanum, has bloomed.

Slideshow: The Corpse Flower

Gnomes Invade the Chelsea Flower Show

Britain’s world renowned Chelsea Flower Show celebrates its 100th anniversary this week by lifting its ban on ornamental figures, better known as gnomes.

Send us your gnome pictures here

Brazilian Music Choices for the Novice

Every now and then, we like to send our reporters to local record shops in different parts of the world to find out what’s hot there. We sent The World’s Jason Margolis to a shop in São Paulo, Brazil, and he sent us this report.

Invisible Workforce: Immigrant Domestic Workers Test New Ways to Settle Disputes

Domestic workers are sometimes called the world’s largest “invisible” workforce. In the US, many of these workers are immigrants and women. This final story in our series is from Boston, where domestic workers and their employers are testing new ways to settle disputes that might not involve a courtroom.

Video: Domestic worker mediation

Finding Skywalker’s House: Photos of Old Movie Sets in North Africa

Visual artist Ra di Martino grew up loving Star Wars. A few years ago, she set out to photograph the ruins of the old sets used to film the movie’s desert scenes. It took her to Morocco, and Tunisia, where she found the house Luke Skywalker lived in.

Slideshow: Old Movie Sets in North Africa

School Year Blog: Six Things that South African Teenagers Learn in China

Monwabisi explains his experiment to visitors at the chemistry competition in China (Photo: Abongile)

Two COSAT students traveled to China for a chemistry competition. In the process, they learned a lot of lessons — about snow, about perceptions of Africans, and about chopsticks.

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Breast Cancer: One Disease, Three Stories

Gertrude Nakigudde. (Photo: Joanne Silberner)

Gertrude Nakigudde is an accountant in Kampala, Uganda. I’m a freelance reporter and journalism instructor in Seattle. Angelina Jolie is, well, Angelina Jolie. We’ve all had mastectomies, and we’ve all nursed parents through their final days with breast cancer [...]

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Syria War: Fierce Battle for Key Town

Qusair internet video (BBC video)

Fierce fighting has been reported in the strategic Syrian town of Qusair, as rebels and government forces backed by Hezbollah militants fight for control.

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Murder of PTI Senior Official Zara Shahid Hussain Rocks Karachi

Rose petals scattered on the Karachi grave of Zara Shahid Hussain. (Photo: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

In Pakistan, a high-ranking female politicians was gunned down on Saturday. Reporter Fahad Desmukh in Karachi tells anchor Marco Werman about the murder of Zara Shahid Hussain and explains how her death is creating instability for a key US ally.

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Bangladesh Garment Industry: Surviving the Rana Plaza Building Collapse

Rescue workers attempt to find survivors from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh. (Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Biraj)

Hundreds of garment factories are up and running again Friday in Bangladesh. They’d been closed down by three days of protests over dangerous working conditions.

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Global Push to Improve Labor Conditions for Cleaners, Maids, and Nannies

Maids shout slogans during a demonstration in Lima, Peru. ( Photo: Enrique Castro-Mendivil / Reuters )

Domestic workers balance a complex set of relationships, whether they’re employed in the US or elsewhere.

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South Sudan: The Army Accused of Looting and Attacking its Own People

United Nations peacekeepers unload coffins of five United Nations peacekeepers killed in Jonglei from a truck, at Juba airport. (Photo: REUTERS/Andreea Campeanu)

South Sudan is not quite two years old. The world’s newest country was created in July 2011, after decades of fighting a civil war against the north. But it is now facing its own internal rebellion. The army there is being accused of terrorizing its own people in the eastern state of Jonglei.

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Muslim Community in Britain Reacts to Child Sex Scandal

Nine men are accused of sexually exploiting girls aged between 11 and 15. Seven men were found guilty and two were cleared (Credit: BBC/Julia Quenzler)

A high profile case of child rape and human trafficking of teenage girls in the UK has led to the conviction of Pakistani and North African origin. The men are expected to be sentenced next month. Talat Ahmed is Chair of the Social and Family affairs committee for the Muslim Council of Britain.

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