* Indonesian miners' use of mercury to expedite gold production takes a devastating environmental, human toll. * Cocaine trafficking has claimed more lives than the Spanish Inquisition—ongoing deaths are equal to Nazi Germany. * Developing countries' obesity rates far exceed industrial nations'; China and Mexico's figures have
* In China, one in five children—about 61 million kids—live in rural villages without their parents. * Wal-Mart China's latest scandal. * Photos document the new identities of buildings that used to be Pizza Huts. * Twenty years after the Zapatista rebellion, indigenous Mexican tribes still denied entry or
* Charity Navigator offers a holiday giving guide and tools to evaluate charities' ethics and effectiveness. * The Equal Justice Initiative believes the opposite of poverty is not wealth—it's justice. * Habitat for Humanity Greater Los Angeles works everyday to fight the affordable housing crisis. * GiveDirectly will, as its
* Marks & Spencer prompts outrage after allowing Muslim employees to refuse selling customers pork and alcohol. * Following the Target breach, Chase would rather limit cardholders' purchases than invest in real security. * Why Snapchat matters: Because an erasable internet is a comfort that's the polar opposite of Facebook.
* Obama stays home and instead sends three openly gay athletes as part of his Olympic delegation to Sochi. * Billboard in Coimbatore, India commemorates Morgan Freeman instead of Nelson Mandela. * Lapham: "All jokes are inside jokes and the butts of them are us, the only animal that laughs, but also
* Obama's panel says the NSA shouldn't collect phone data, but critics see a path to continue untargeted spying. * Drone strike kills a dozen and injures more at a wedding in Yemen—the kind of strike that fuels rather than diminishes al Qaeda. * Patriarch of Duck Dynasty
* This November was the warmest one since 1880; in fact, the 10 warmest Novembers on record have happened in the past 15 years. * Map of mishaps that have occurred so far during the 2014 Sochi Olympic torch relay. * Unsuccessfully marketed as an American patriot, Snowden has now rebranded himself as
* Federal district judge says the NSA's program of tracking all Americans’ phone calls most likely violates the Constitution. * The Pentagon's JROTC program recruits future soldiers from high schools in struggling neighborhoods. * Detroit-area high school is nation's first entirely "flipped" school. * U.
* Kim Jong Un's uncle was the first in a series of expected executions in North Korea—the youth are killing off their elders. * DPRK: "Despicable human scum Jang, who was worse than a dog, perpetrated thrice-cursed acts of treachery." * Why Uncle Jang's death
* Masquerading sign-language interpreter at Mandela memorial tells interviewers he's schizophrenic. * Movie sets circa 1940 used white-coated cornflakes for snow; the cracking was so loud that dialogue had to be overdubbed. * Aviation schools offer advanced programs in drone piloting. * Google's top execs used tax-subsidized
