World Story of the Day

An annual U.N. report finds that more than 550,000 acres were cultivated with opium poppies this year — that's approaching the total land area of Rhode Island.

Other countries have moved away from child labor, but not Bolivia, which has lowered the legal working age to as young as 10. Advocates say the move brings the law in line with harsh reality.

Bonaire is a scuba diver's paradise in the Caribbean. But the invasive lionfish is gobbling up smaller fish that protect the reef. The island is now teaching divers how to spear the lionfish.

With Iraq's military in tatters and U.S. forces gone, the Kurdish peshmerga is the only viable force to stave off ISIS in Iraq. With little support from Baghdad, discontent grows among the fighters.

In the final years before the Berlin Wall fell, East Germans described their grievances on cassette tapes that were smuggled to West Berlin and then broadcast back to the east on Radio Glasnost.

The U.S. thought trade and investment would eventually make China more democratic. In fact, it's had the opposite effect: creating a rich, authoritarian leadership class that remains repressive.

A huge crowd gathered at the wall the night of Nov. 9, 1989. Border guard Harald Jaeger was told not to let anyone through. But he was worried it could turn violent. So he opened the gate.

The country borders Liberia and Guinea, but so far Ebola hasn't arrived. Maybe it's because of the French heritage. When the authorities tell people what to do to keep the virus out, they listen.

Brazil has more law schools the rest of the world combined and more lawyers per capita than the U.S. But there's a huge legal backlog: One department of five judges is now handling 1.6 million cases.

Who better to check on the health of older folks than other older folks? That's what AgeWell Global, an innovative program in South Africa, is doing.