Prosecutor Deals Blow to Stop-and-Frisk Tactic SEPT. 25, 2012 Quanell Carwell, who lives at the Mott Haven Houses in the Bronx, was one of several tenants who said they were wrongly arrested for trespassing. Ms. Carwell said she would plead not guilty. Yana Paskova for The New York Times In a…

Seeking Cures, Patients Enlist Mice Stand-Ins SEPT. 25, 2012 BALTIMORE — Megan Sykes, a medical researcher, has a mouse with a human immune system — her own. She calls it “Mini-Me.” There are also mice containing a part of 9-year-old Michael Feeney — a cancerous tumor extracted from his lungs.…

Taxes Threaten an Island Culture in Georgia SEPT. 25, 2012 Brandon Dixon fishes the creeks about Sapelo Island, Ga. Stephen Morton for The New York Times SAPELO ISLAND, Ga. — Once the huge property tax bills started coming, telephones started ringing. It did not take long for the 50 or so people who…

Consumers of news demand three things: Speed Accuracy Cheapness Suppliers of news, however, face a trilemma, as they usually have to sacrifice one in order to produce the other two. You can have high-quality content that's very accurate, but it will generally take awhile before it arrives (most…

When there is a plane crash in the U.S., even a minor one, it makes headlines. There is a thorough federal investigation, and the tragedy often yields important lessons for the aviation industry. Pilots and airlines thus learn how to do their jobs more safely. The world of American medicine is far…

Egypt’s New Leader Spells Out Terms for U.S.-Arab Ties President Mohamed Morsi will travel to New York on Sunday for a United Nations meeting. Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times CAIRO — On the eve of his first trip to the United States as Egypt ’s new Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi said…

Ted S. Warren/Associated Press A Wells Fargo booth at a mortgage-refinancing workshop in January in Seattle. Imagine a 30-year mortgage on which you only pay 2.8 percent in interest a year. Such a mortgage could already exist, but something in the banking system is holding it back. And right now,…

A Faded Piece of Papyrus Refers to Jesus’ Wife SEPT. 18, 2012 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus…

Money-Laundering Inquiry Is Said to Aim at U.S. Banks SEPT. 14, 2012 Federal and state authorities are investigating a handful of major American banks for failing to monitor cash transactions in and out of their branches, a lapse that may have enabled drug dealers and terrorists to launder tainted…

SEPT. 16, 2012 KABUL, Afghanistan — Two of the most contentious issues dividing the United States and President Hamid Karzai’s administration re-emerged as the Afghan leader condemned American-led forces for killing eight women in airstrikes on Sunday and denounced his American allies for continuing…

Looking, Very Closely, for Voter Fraud SEPT. 16, 2012 Catherine Engelbrecht, the president of True the Vote, said she was apolitical until “something clicked” four years ago. Michael F. McElroy for The New York Times It might as well be Harry Potter ’s invisible Knight Bus, because no one can prove…

If your computer permits you to view these photographs in full-screen mode, we recommend it. For decades, international photojournalists have documented a seemingly endless cycle of wars and famine in Africa, exposing otherwise ignored tragedies to a global audience. But too often the subjects of…

Forgoing College to Pursue Dreams SEPT. 15, 2012 Connor Zwick, 19, saws a profile for his “coco controller,” a game app for smartphones. Thiel fellowships reward young people for forgoing college to dive into practical work on ideas. Jim Wilson/The New York Times EDEN FULL should be back at…

Leonardo in an Art Workshop: The Boy Most Likely to Succeed The Streaming Age Is Upon Us—and It’s Going to Get Ugly Child Advocates Team Up with PETA on Hot-Car Deaths On the High Line, Oliver Jeffers Wants You to Know What It’s Like to See Earth from the Moon Salman Rushdie’s New Novel Jumps Into…

A Woman’s Place SEPT. 13, 2012 Illustration by Kelly Blair “The End of Men”? This is not a title; it is a sound bite. But Hanna Rosin means it. The revolution feminists have been waiting for, she says, is happening now, before our very eyes. Men are losing their grip, patriarchy is crumbling and we…

Judge Rules Against Law on Indefinite Detention SEPT. 12, 2012 WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the government from enforcing a controversial statute about the indefinite detention without trial of terrorism suspects. Congress enacted the measure last year as part of the National…

Stir Builds Over Actress to Portray Nina Simone SEPT. 12, 2012 In the digital age Hollywood casting decisions leaked from behind closed doors can instantly become fodder for public debate. And when the decision involves race and celebrity, the debate can get very heated. The online media world has…

Illustration by Kelly Not caring what people think is the hokey pokey to getting through each and every day—it’s what it’s all about. (GET IT?) I don’t know if not caring what people think comes before or after liking yourself, but I think learning to do either will help with the other. I don’t feel…

Slide Show When fear gripped the European markets in April, the money manager Robert Tipp decided to buy more Portuguese government bonds. He figured that European officials wouldn’t let the country turn into another Greece. “They wanted to have some success stories, and Portugal was one they wanted…

No Team, No Ticket Sales, but Plenty of Cash SEPT. 6, 2012 For years, it was an underappreciated wrinkle in the historic deal that merged the established National Basketball Association and the upstart American Basketball Association in 1976. The owners of the Spirits of St. Louis agreed to be paid…

Putin Pulls Off Latest Feat: Flying With the Birds SEPT. 5, 2012 Vladimir Putin, clockwise from top left: in Russia's far east forests tranquilizing a tiger; horseback riding in southern Siberia; swimming in a Siberian lake; and digging at an archaeological site in Greece. MOSCOW — Vladimir V. Putin…

SEPT. 6, 2012 WASHINGTON — Days after the Justice Department closed out its criminal investigation of the deaths of two detainees while in the custody of the C.I.A. , new information has surfaced calling into question official accounts of the extent of waterboarding by American interrogators. A new…

Reuters A farmer sampled some sunflower crops lost to the heat in Ergelija, an Albanian village, in late August. Hundreds of wildfires have raged in the western Balkans recently. 1:30 p.m. | Updated A

ALMOST half the world’s population now lives in a democracy, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister organisation of this newspaper. And the number of democracies has increased pretty steadily since the second world war. But it is easy to forget that most nations have not been…

SEPT. 6, 2012 Borough pride Jay-Z helped design the Brooklyn Nets’ new logos. Calvin Klein Collection suit, $1,295, and shirt, $195; (212) 292-9000. Photograph by Cass Bird. Fashion editor: Sara Moonves. It’s difficult to know what to ask a rapper. It’s not unlike the difficulty (I imagine) of being…

Business and Pleasure SEPT. 5, 2012 In Atlanta, where hip-hop rubs up against notorious strip clubs, rappers who want to make it big get their start by making it rain. The strip club Follies, in Atlanta, is neither a dump nor a gilded pleasure palace. It could probably pass for a college bar, if not…

8:00 p.m. | Updated Hackers released a file that they said contained a million identification numbers for Apple mobile devices, claiming that they had obtained it by hacking into the computer of an F.B.I. agent. The F.B.I. said it had no evidence that this was true. The hacking group, known as…

Joseph Michael Lopez’s photography is fundamentally about his New York. He presents street scenes, people and everyday objects without any semblance of objectivity. But the city his lens chews up and spits out really represents everyone’s New York. “Dear New Yorker,” his continuing street…

“W hat’s going on here? I’m a model,” Lisette Lee shouted, flinging open the door of her Escalade and assuming her most indignant expression. Her Chanel heels clicked on the tarmac, police lights flashed and sirens blared, as she faced down federal agents swarming in with guns drawn. Behind Lee, the…

How Plan to Help City Pay Pensions Backfired SEPT. 3, 2012 Jeffrey A. Michael, a finance professor in Stockton, Calif., took a hard look at his city’s bankruptcy this summer and thought he saw a smoking gun: a dubious bond deal that bankers had pushed on Stockton just as the local economy was…

Chan Marshall, the singer-songwriter who performs and records under the name Cat Power, feels your pain. I'm not sure she wants to, but she can't help it. Whether you're a crying fan who wants nothing more than a one-on-one with her after the show or a hungry kid whose parents can't put food on the…

He’s impossibly young, infuriatingly accomplished, and impressively wonky. In a town full of journalistic flop sweat, he glides instead of glistens, handsome enough to make the ladies turn their heads, and affable enough that their boyfriends compete for his attentions, too. Like ripples around a…

Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits SEPT. 3, 2012 GARAMBA NATIONAL PARK , Democratic Republic of Congo — In 30 years of fighting poachers, Paul Onyango had never seen anything like this. Twenty-two dead elephants, including several very young ones, clumped together on the…

Syrian Children Offer Glimpse of a Future of Reprisals SEPT. 3, 2012 Syrian children at a playground last week at a refugee camp in Zaatari, Jordan. Many speak of exacting revenge on the Alawites when they get back home. Moises Saman for The New York Times ZAATARI, Jordan — Like all the small…

A Summer of Easy Guns and Dead Children In Harlem , Paula Shaw-Leary talks of her youngest, Matt , who got his college degree in May and was accepted to graduate school, a soulful-eyed young man with a broad nose and an impish sense of humor. “Nobody can make friends laugh like Matt,” Ms. Shaw-Leary…