* In Mexico, gunmen block traffic with bodies of 35 victims as cartels continue battle for control. * Residential alternative to prison helps women stay with children, learn responsibility and structure. * Oman served as broker between U.S. and Iran in hiker release—with little oil, it needs friends. * Shoot camera footage—
* The Recession may not have resulted in a crime wave, but evidence shows it may have caused a spike in child abuse. * Outrageous teacher cheating scandals. * Experimental philosophy leaves the armchair and heads to the streets. * From a Cervantes-inspired Shakespeare play to incomplete Plath novel, history is littered with
* To avoid UN showdown, America, Europe urge Abbas to compromise, knowing he wants a symbolic win. * Ex-Afghan president assassinated—peace talks could be doomed without native leadership. * Bloomberg fears social unrest in American cities, but citizens' despair prevents organization. * Republican candidates all radically anti-choice, anti-environment, want
* FBI reports violent crime down for fourth year in a row, upending belief that more unemployment means more murder. * Middlebury College tortures incoming freshmen by having their admissions essays acted out by upperclassmen. * Cache of 1920s vocational school student records sends reporter into reverie. * How Whole Foods uses fresh flowers,
* Founder of anonymous group of active-duty soldiers protesting DADT reveals self to be Air Force officer. * The West's human rights compass is off bearing due to loss of moral authority, UN influence. * Five important stories to follow during UN Week: Somalia, good governance, Syria. * Indians go to
* Overconfidence has survived as a trait because its recklessness is essential to getting things done. * Escaped pet birds teach wild birds English, swear words included. * Firm offers horses as business consultants. * Wartime patriotism and advertising: then and now. * What two pounds of cocaine looks like in a drug mule'
* Ireland rebukes dysfunctional Vatican. * Israel's attempts to restart peace talks to avert Palestinian bid for statehood could inflame tensions. * Palestinian leader won't be persuaded to abandon bid—negotiations can continue in any event, since violence is over. * The Palestinian stock exchange is built for disaster. * Defense
* Fearing political collapse, U.S. increases drone strikes on al Qaeda targets in Yemen. * Forced to fend for themselves for generations, Yemenis created own social order. * Amid all our disasters, why are the only revolutionaries on the right? * Eager to avoid tainted food, China's rich and elite get
* British courts come down hard on arrested rioters, three-quarters of whom have previous criminal convictions. * LAPD detains, but doesn't arrest, SpongeBob. * Mug shots from Amish men booked for refusing to affix orange safety triangle to buggy. * Coed naked rugby less sexy than thought. * Research into wisdom of
* Legal advisors to White House question using lethal force against non-senior militants. * Ban Ki-moon's unusually strong Syria rhetoric suggests international measures—even sanctions. * In Bahrain, clashes begin after sundown most nights, following apartheid-like repression. * Slender electoral win by Danish left bucks Europe's rightward
