Search results for

The major lesson of a year in which YouTube helped change the rules of the charts: When it comes to pop, past performance is no guarantee of future results. But a few artists seem likely to buck the trend.

Audie Cornish talks to Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard about the United States' role in resettling Syrian refugees.

Planning on celebrating the New Year? If you are worried about driving home and plan to take a cab, you'll have plenty of competition. Cab fares soar during the first few hours of a new year, and then come back to normal around 3 a.m.

For about eight hours on New Year's Eve, Berlin sounds like a war zone with thousands of people taking to the streets to shoot off fireworks — and not just into the air. Subways, passing cars and even pedestrians are also targets. Many residents choose to leave the city because of the noise and danger. Those who remain tend to stay indoors because it isn't safe outside. The launching of most of these fireworks is illegal and hundreds of people are injured and maimed. Half of them are innocent bystanders. Yet Berlin police rarely intervene on this night. Officials say there is little they can do to stop what's become a dangerous tradition in the German capital.

The Syrian civil war is raging on the battlefield, but it's also raging online. While the rebels have gone online to recruit fighters and coordinate with allies, forces supporting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime have employed malware to infiltrate and track them. Morgan Marquis-Boire, a security researcher at the University of Toronto who's following the cyber conflict in Syria, talks to Robert Siegel about the way the digital war is being waged.

Mangroves, those luxurious coastal thickets of exotic forest and nurseries for fish, are moving north. Satellite images show the mangroves along the Florida coast are thriving in areas to the north that used to be too cold. It's another result of higher temperatures, and especially a lack of freezing temperatures farther north. It's good news for mangroves, which are disappearing in many parts of the world, but bad for the northern salt marshes they replace.

The climax of the college football bowl season is here and with it the usual display of trick plays and risk-taking by college coaches. They have extra time to prepare for a game that, with the exception of the major bowls, really doesn't mean that much — so they often get creative.

Japan's tough new law protecting state secrets was a victory for Washington, which had long pressured its Asian ally to exert tighter control over classified information. But the controversial law has triggered widespread outrage in Japan and undermined the popularity of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

This year four releases, a Brooklyn party and a festival announcement confirmed a music continuum and a sensibility whose allure refuses to fade.

Former science teacher Pierre Deom started writing, illustrating and publishing the French nature journal to educate kids about the environment. Forty years later, the magazine is so popular it sometimes receives 1,300 letters a day.

As 12 college football teams prepare for New Year's Day bowl games, commentator Frank Deford ponders the similarities between football players and ancient Roman gladiators.

The latest numbers on home prices show strong gains across the country. The housing market recovery kicked into high gear during the first half of 2013 due in part to interest rates that were at a record low.

Later this month, a Chicago based company called Fig will ship out a new product that it believes will help keep people motivated to meet their life goals. It's an alarm clock, but an unusual one.

A lot of sports fans will be glued to their televisions this New Year's Day. There are a number of big college football bowl games on Wednesday, including the 100th Rose Bowl.

A fiery oil train crash in North Dakota is once again raising questions about the safety of transporting oil by rail. With an oil drilling boom underway, companies are using rail cars to transport a lot more crude out of North Dakota. Regulators are considering new requirements to make sure tanker cars and the rails they travel on are safe.

In a securities filing, the maker of computers and printers confirmed that it will cut 5,000 more jobs this year than it originally estimated. That would bring to 34,000 the number of jobs the company is planning to cut worldwide by October.

Janice Keihanaikukauakahihulihe'ekahaunaele had pressed the state for cards with her full name. Now she's got a new driver's license and an official state identification card.

In softcover nonfiction, Sonali Deraniyagala writes about losing her family to the 2004 tsunami, Nick Turse explores civilian deaths in Vietnam, David Esterly shares his path to becoming a master woodcarver, and Bruce Feiler collects tips for building a happier family. In fiction, Ruth Ozeki tells the story of a depressed 16-year-old.

Also: A terminally ill lawyer convicted of aiding terrorism is freed; U.S. stock markets set records in 2013; while peace talks open for South Sudan, bloody fighting continues; and passengers aboard a ship stuck in Antarctic ice ring in the New Year.

Grantland's funny NCAA-style tournament named the biggest pop culture phenomenon of the last year. But there are a few worthy people and ideas that didn't make the field.