Stories for

The MV Akademik Shokalskiy got caught in encroaching ice off Antarctica in late December of 2013. The Russian ship's 52 passengers were airlifted to a nearby icebreaker more than a week later.
Environment
In looking back at this year’s environmental news there’s a lot of doom and gloom — but not entirely
Anna Sandalova, the founder of Help the Army of Ukraine delivered supplies to Ukraine's cash-strapped soldiers in Artemovsk, Donetsk so they could build winter shelters.
Conflict
Ukrainians turn to Facebook to fund their army’s war with Vladimir Putin
St. Basil's Cathedral
Global Politics
Writer Masha Gessen looks back on a pivotal year for Russia
A child plays on Prado Boulevard in the country where President Barack Obama renewed diplomatic relations earlier this year.
Global Politics
How well did you pay attention to the news in 2014?
Turkish Islamist protesters shout slogans against Noel celebrations as they hold an inflatable Santa Claus toy during a demonstration at Beyazit Square in Istanbul December 26, 2013. The sign (front, 2nd) reads: "Christmas is a blow to our Islamism".
Culture
Santa has a complicated relationship with his hometown
At midnight on New Year's eve, Britain turns to the sound of Big Ben
Culture
What Britain listens to at midnight on New Year’s Eve
Technology
There’s a push in Sweden to deal with Internet trolls
Casimir Bizimungu, Rwanda’s Minister of Health, has been living in a safe house in Arusha, Tanzania since his acquittal by an international tribunal there of charges related to the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda. He has no passport, his family has re
Justice
Acquitted of genocide, a handful of Rwandans live a life in limbo
A scene called The Feverish Heart from the Dreadful Fist of Fate.
Culture
Yes, it’s a puppet show — but leave the kids at home
Havana Harbor has remained extremely polluted for decades as Cuba has lacked the money and technology to clean it up, but normalized relations relations with Washington could help change that.
Environment
Change in US-Cuba relations presents big risks — and rewards — for Cuba’s environment
Pope Francis delivers a "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and world) message from the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Christmas Day of 2014.
Belief
Pope Francis was a huge story in 2014, but a veteran Vatican reporter says the media got a lot wrong
Bitcoin promoter Charlie Shrem walks out of federal court in Lower Manhattan on September 4, 2014. A judge later sentenced Shrem to two years in prison for aiding illegal transactions.
Technology
Quoting Spiderman didn’t spare a Bitcoin evangelist from prison
Confetti flies around the ball and countdown clock in Times Square on New Year's Eve in New York January 1, 2015.
Global Politics
We look back at our favorite stories of 2014
A Russian court ruled on Tuesday to give Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny (right) a suspended sentence for embezzling money, but jailed his brother Oleg (left) for three and a half years in a case seen as part of a campaign to stifle dissent.
Justice
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny avoids jail, but his brother becomes a bargaining chip
The horn usage meter called Oren, developed by Indian economist Jayraj Salgaonkar.
Technology
If you want to honk in India, you may have to pay
American journalist James Foley arrives at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli after being released from capitivity by the Libyan government on May 18, 2011.
Conflict
America’s policy on hostages may have cost the life of James Foley
Protesters stand behind a photo of a victim of self-immolation during a 2012 march in New York City in support of Tibet.
Business
A prominent Tibetan activist thinks Facebook deleted her post to cozy up to China
Camels ridden by robot jockeys compete during a weekly camel race at the Kuwait Camel Racing club in Kebd January 26, 2013. The robots are controlled by trainers, who follow in their vehicles around the track.
Sports
The ancient Arabian tradition of camel racing has taken a modern twist — with robot jockeys
A child looks on at a viewing gallery overlooking AirAsia planes on the tarmac at Changi Airport in Singapore December 29, 2014.
Technology
An AirAsia jet carrying 162 people is still missing
Igor Pidkoshani is a Ukrainian engineer who couldn't do his job in eastern Ukraine anymore. So his bosses in the San Francisco Bay area helped him set up temporary shop in Thailand.
Conflict
When your experiment in outsourcing turns into an immigration adventure
Abdi Nor Iftin in Maine, where he settled after finally gaining a green card through the US' Diversity Visa Program.
Justice
‘Winning’ the green card lottery is only the start of a harrowing journey
"Deepali," who lives in Delhi with her parents, was twice committed to a mental institution against her will, even though her doctor said she didn't need that kind of treatment.
Health
One woman in India battles the label, and stigma, of mental illness
A Central American migrant walks on the train tracks in Mexico en route to the US border.
Justice
How one DJ helps weary migrants in an unexpected way
Gonzalo Guzmán, co-chef at San Francisco's Nopalito, shows off his "tablecloth-staining" mole.
Food
It’s tough to master Mexico’s special sauce — but well worth it
Cast members Christian Bale and Maria Valverde pose for photographs as they arrive for the film world premiere of "Exodus: Gods and Kings" in Madrid, Spain.
Belief
Egyptian censors say ‘no’ to the new Exodus blockbuster
Stuffed cat Meggy Weggy with her Unagi Travel tour group in Tokyo.
Culture
If you truly loved your teddy bear, you’d send him to Tokyo
Culture
Veterans display their wars through ink and art
Director Andy Senor Jr. (C) takes part in a rehearsal for the musical "Rent" in Havana November 25, 2014.
Music
A Broadway musical opens in Havana for the first time in 50 years
A rose is lit by a candle as survivors, local residents and visitors gather for a ceremony for victims of the 2004 tsunami in Ban Nam Khem, a fishing village destroyed by the wave. Survivors of Asia's 2004 tsunami and relatives of its 226,000 victims crie
Environment
Survivors will never forget the day the tsunami hit
A shopping street in Aarhus, Denmark, where authorities are trying to help rehabilitate people who fought with militant groups in Syria.
Conflict
A Danish city is giving its jihadis a second chance
An Iraqi Christian man from Mosul, who fled from violence in northern Iraq, reads a book at the Latin Patriarchate Church in Amman, Jordan, on August 21, 2014.
Belief
On Christmas, some of the oldest Christian communities on Earth are on the run
General Manager Brandon Delaney looks up at the marquee sign after the announcement that the Plaza Theatre would be showing the movie "The Interview" beginning Christmas Day in Atlanta, Georgia December 23, 2014.
Culture
The Interview opens in theatres today. But is it a happy ending?
Youth sit on Havana's El Malecon seafront bolulevard December 17, 2014.
Technology
Cuban entrepreneurs find ways to get information — with or without the Internet
Angela Navarro and her two children stand outside the church where they've been living since mid-November.
Belief
This immigrant mom has found refuge from US authorities in a Philadelphia church
Relatives of the Jordanian pilot who was captured by ISIS forces in Syria congregate in front of his family's home in the Jordanian city of Karak on December 24, 2014.
Conflict
Jordanians worry about the fate of their pilot captured by ISIS
Shabe Yalda
Culture
Join in on a winter celebration that helps keep the evil spirits away
Old Best Buy Advertisement
Technology
Please don’t leave a message after the beep
A woman prisoner waits for her release orders inside a jail in Karachi, Pakistan, July 13, 2006.
Development
In Pakistan, women can still be sent to prison for choosing who they love
Mohamed was important in Libyan's revolution, helping to defeat and ultimately capture Muammar Gaddafi. His younger brother missed out on Libya's revolution — so he decided to make his own fame by going to Syria to fight in the violent revolution there.
Global Politics
2014 was the year youth protesters found their voice and hacking became an everyday fear
When Deepak Singh is out with his lighter-skinned daughter here in the US, people seem confused that he's her father.
Culture
‘Papa, you are brown, and I am white’
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the Korean April 26 Cartoon Film Studio in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Technology
When the Internet goes down in North Korea, there aren’t many to notice
Former Bombe operator Jean Valentine shows a drum of British Turing Bombe machine in Bletchley Park Museum in Bletchley, central England, September 6, 2006. For the first time in sixty years Bletchley Park re-created the way the 'unbreakable' Enigma code
Technology
Alan Turing may have cracked Nazi codes, but thousands of women helped
James Franco and Seth Rogen pose during the premiere of the film "The Interview" in Los Angeles on December 11, 2014.
Global Politics
Despite threats, ‘The Interview’ will actually hit (select) theaters on Christmas Day
Kale Walch cooks a pan of "bacon," one of the meatless meats that he and his sister Aubry Walch (in the back) whip up for The Herbivorous Butcher. They're hoping to open what they say is the world's first vegan butcher shop in the spring.
Food
A sister and brother dream of making the perfect vegan Spam
A panel from "The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage" graphic novel.
Culture
Meet the most famous woman in computing you’ve probably never heard of
Bob Guild is vice president of Marazul Charters, a US-based travel group founded in 1979 when Washington briefly loosened travel restrictions to Cuba.
Global Politics
These travel groups have bridged the US-Cuba divide for decades
A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holds a weapon while another holds a flag in the city of Mosul, shortly after the Islamic State captured the city. The flag reads, "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.
Conflict
The so-called Islamic State is even worse than you thought
A statue of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas outside the Dylan Thomas Theatre in Swansea, Wales.
Music
A Christmas classic by Dylan Thomas is set to music
Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwich from Ba Le restaurant in Dorchester, MA.
Food
Come along on a tasting tour of some of Boston’s best international cuisine
Police and rescue crews respond to the scene near where a man drove a van into a crowd, injuring 10 people, some seriously wounded, in Nantes, December 22, 2014.
Conflict
France endures deadly attacks, but can’t decide if they’re terrorism
A security guard stands at the entrance of United Artists theater during the premiere of the film "The Interview" in Los Angeles, California December 11, 2014.
Technology
The North Koreans have been honing their hacking skills for years
Tala Khudairi and Jack Lindsay are two of the pilgrims who appear in a new PBS documentary about the Hajj.
Belief
PBS goes on the Hajj with Muslim pilgrims from around Boston
The "Cuban Five," a group of five intelligence officers recently returned to Cuba in an exchange with the United States, celebrate on stage with musical artist Silvio Rodriguez.
Global Politics
The ‘Cuban Five’ make an unexpected, joyous homecoming in Havana
Diana Darke in the courtyard of her house in Damascus, Syria.
Conflict
A British author fights to hang onto her home in Damascus
Christmas_Dishes2
Food
Across America, many Christmas menus have decidedly immigrant roots
Oxford's Out of the Blue a cappella group.
Music
All I want for Christmas is Oxford’s Out of The Blue
A man walks near a sign with an image of Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana December 19, 2014.
Global Politics
A Cuban who sold his beachfront home says he might regret that move
Culture
What we can learn from Charlie Chaplin and ‘The Great Dictator’
Kemal Kerkuki, commanding officer of Peshmerga forces outside of Kirkuk, speaks with his troops.
Global Politics
The Kurdish Peshmerga helping the US take back territory from ISIS may be kicking out Arabs
A Kurdish peshmerga fighter holds up a piece of clothing worn by an ISIS fighter on December 18, 2014. Kurdish peshmerga fighters have fought their way to Iraq's Sinjar mountain and freed hundreds of people trapped there by ISIS.
Conflict
Kurdish fighters finally end the months-long siege of Mount Sinjar