In 2009, 300 people perished in an earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy. Next week, six Italian scientists and one government official will stand trial for manslaughter.

Truancy is punishable by fines, probation, and in some cases throwing parents in prison. Does any of that really keep kids in school?

Born in Germany, raised in Montana, now living in New York, comedian Reggie Watts describes his style as “culture sampling.”

An American, born into privilege, became a bootleg DVD kingpin in Shanghai and then, in an unprecedented development, landed in Chinese prison.

On Lucille Miller, who in San Bernadino in 1964 was convicted of burning her husband to death in his Volkswagen.

A trip to a grave in Damascus as shelling started in Homs.

A day in the economic life of the Nairobi’s Kibera, the largest shanty-town in Africa.

Visiting his daughter in San Francisco, the author longs for food delivery in Manhattan.

Finding a saint in a leprosy settlement in Hawaii.

Adventures in the cosmetics department of a Neiman Marcus in Dallas.

In which the author’s wife attempts to break the world record in Tetris.

In short order, eight gay men in Texas were murdered by teenage boys.

How a 15-month-old was found dead in the sea in Norway.

In search of Ramanujan in India.

An unidentified body found near the beach in Australia in 1948. An unclaimed suitcase. A coded note.

In the late 1990s, a serial killer found his victims in Yosemite National Park.

“The most important fast food restaurant in America is a radical burger joint in Watts.”

Convicted and facing jail time plus a crippling fine in Sweden, the founders of the torrent site The Pirate’s Bay have scattered across the world towards new lives: fatherhood in Laos, a junkie’s life in Phnom Penh, and start-up work in Berlin.

Sixty years ago, the U.S. upset England in the World Cup on a goal from Joe Gaetjens. In most countries he would have been idolized. Instead, he was ignored in America and marked for death in his native Haiti.

In an elaborate FBI sting to expose corruption, four agents pose as futures traders in Chicago. The plan works–if you don’t count the hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars the agents lost in the process.

The evolution of cheating in chess.

Adventures in public speaking.

In defense of snark.

In the 1970s, Kelbessa Negewo was a midlevel administrator in Ethiopia’s brutal Red Terror regime. In the 1990s, he was a bellhop in an Atlanta hotel. Then someone he had tortured back home recognized him.