October 14, 2013 - 9:59am
A man who is suspected of being a notorious pirate in Somalia has been arrested in Belgium, after an apparent sting operation that included a ruse that investigators were making a film. The pirate nicknamed "Big Mouth" is believed to have made millions in ransom money by hijacking ships off...
October 14, 2013 - 9:36am
In West Michigan, it's apple harvest time. That may conjure up images of picturesque orchards and old-fashioned fun: growers harvesting apples and then selecting them by hand. Think again. Robotic arms, computer vision and high-resolution photography are helping Michigan growers wash, sort and package apples at top speeds in the...
October 14, 2013 - 8:47am
The late Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, infamous for his role in crimes that included a massacre in Italy, is proving to be difficult to bury, after church and government officials in Rome blocked his funeral there. Authorities in Germany and Argentina have also rejected the idea of becoming the...
October 14, 2013 - 7:38am
As a bilateral security agreement between the U.S. and Afghanistan begins an approval process, the Taliban's leader urged Afghans to reject the deal, calling it a colonial arrangement with elements of slavery. The message came in an email on the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. In it, Mullah...
October 14, 2013 - 7:00am
It's no exaggeration to call Bill Monroe one of the most influential and important musicians America has ever produced. He's the undisputed father of bluegrass music: The style itself was created by and named for his band, The Blue Grass Boys, in the late '40s. Along with Lester Flatt, Earl...
October 14, 2013 - 6:40am
Two weeks into October, and the pressure really starts getting to your head. What am I going to be for Halloween? Did you set the bar too high last year with your Binders Full Of Women costume? Or maybe you're determined to NOT have the same getup as five other...
October 14, 2013 - 6:37am
New Yorkers who love a good bargain missed a golden opportunity Saturday, when the artist and provocateur Banksy, whose sly graffiti art adorns collectors' walls, opened a sidewalk kiosk in Central Park to sell his work for $60 apiece. With original signed art works zip-tied to the wire walls of...
October 14, 2013 - 6:00am
In his new book The Everything Store , Brad Stone chronicles how Amazon became an "innovative, disruptive, and often polarizing technology powerhouse." He writes that Amazon was among the first to realize the potential of the Internet and that the company "ended up forever changing the way we shop and...
October 14, 2013 - 5:15am
It's been 521 years since the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus "sailed the ocean blue/in fourteen hundred and ninety-two." Since then, there have been thousands of parades, speeches and statues commemorating Columbus, along with a critical rethinking of his life and legacy. But the question remains, how did a man who...
October 14, 2013 - 5:14am
When the Canadian billionaire and businessman Paul Desmarais died last week at the age of 86, nearly every one of his obituaries described him as a "tycoon" when discussing his career. Tycoon . It's a word that's been used for over 150 years to denote extreme wealth, power and success...
