Confronting homophobia in Uganda.

The sewer hunters, or “toshers,” of 19th century London.

Knowing where to find the most valuable pieces of detritus was vital, and most toshers worked in gangs of three or four, led by a veteran who was frequently somewhere between 60 and 80 years old. These men knew the secret locations of the cracks that lay submerged beneath the surface of the sewer-waters, and it was there that cash frequently lodged.

The story of booze and Bangalore.

A CIA veteran remembers his Soviet nemesis, Leonid Vladimirovich Shebarshin, who was the chairman of the KGB for a single day during the 1991 coup against Gorbachev, and committed suicide in Moscow in March.

Crime, drugs, and politics in Guadalajara.

Revealing the murder of 109 Vietnamese civilians during a 1968 search-and-destroy mission on a rumored Viet Gong stronghold, often referred to in military circles as Pinkville, actually the village of My Lai.

The highest-ranking CIA officer to be convicted of spying passes the tricks of the trade along to his son.

How a Mexican drug cartel makes its billions.

On Jenny Craig’s European expansion and how dieting differs in France and the States.

A profile of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who was sentenced to 50 years today after being convicted of committing crimes against humanity.

Twenty-one-year-old Briton Lucie Blackman came to Tokyo and found work in the Roppongi district hostess bars, where businessmen come to flirt with paid companions, and Western women draw a premium fee. Two months later, she disappeared. She would be found underneath a bathtub in a beachside cave.

On the perils and poisons of mining for gold in southeastern Peru.

A profile of Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Prime Minister.

As it approaches a public offering, how Glencore—founded by the legendary fugitive March Rich—cornered the market for just about everything by working with dictators and spies.

A profile of the Mexican newsweekly, a “lone voice” in reporting on the narcos.

Iran’s sex-obsessed old guard reacts to a state where “the majority of the population is young.… Young people by nature are horny. Because they are horny, they like to watch satellite channels where there are films or programs they can jerk off to.… We have to do something about satellite television to keep society free from this horny jerk-off situation.”

An undercover cop infiltrates a group of British activists, befriending and then betraying them.

An advertising copywriter adjusts to daily life in Paris, and works in a dysfunctional office.

Office culture in Paris held that it was each person's responsibility, upon arrival, to visit other people's desks and wish them good morning, and often kiss each person once on each cheek, depending on the parties' personal relationship, genders, and respective positions in the corporate hierarchy. Then you moved on to the next desk. Not everyone did it, but those who did not were noticed and remarked upon.

On spending six months on the southern coast of Argentina with the “Jane Goodall of penguins” and several hundred of her research subjects.

Scientists quarrel about the fate of animals living in the 1,600 square mile exclusion zone.

How KFC brought fried chicken to China and Africa as U.S. sales slumped.

Colonialism, the convertible peso, and the strange dance between the cheap beach tourist and the tour guide tout.

An anonymous essay on time spent in “protective custody” at a Nazi camp.

A clandestine meeting between Western journalists and Hezbollah fighters in a Beirut strip mall.

On the Daily Mail’s dominance of England.