'Jaipur Foot' offers low-price boost for India's amputees

JAIPUR, India - Vishnu Kumar had barely reached adulthood when he lost his limbs in a freak electrical accident, seemingly condemning him to the life of penury endured by millions of amputees in India.

China metro trains smooth journeys for Rio commuters

RIO DE JANEIRO - Mariana Moreira used to suffer a downtown traffic jam twice a week when she drove between home and the classroom.

A smiley is not a smile: the perils of work emails

SAN FRANCISCO - Contrary to actual smiles, using smileys in work emails does not increase perception of warmth but may leave an impression of incompetence, according to a study.

Books on the go bring literature to refugees stuck in Greece

ATHENS - The brightly colored minivan that pulls into Athens' food market, drawing a group of refugees around it, is not carrying something edible.

Statue defaced as protests over Confederate past rise

WASHINGTON - A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was defaced at North Carolina's Duke University and there were more arrests on Thursday over the toppling of a similar statue as communities in the US South faced a contentious debate over such divisive monuments.

African cities face threat of landslides like Sierra Leone

FREETOWN - Natural and human factors made Sierra Leone's capital vulnerable to a landslide that killed more than 400 people this week: Heavy rain, deforested land and communities forced by overcrowding to live on steep hillsides.

Fishermen fight to save Aztec floating gardens

MEXICO CITY - Roberto Altamirano has the lake to himself as he casts his glistening net onto the still water in a perfect circle, lets it sink, then slowly pulls it in.

Navy hands penalties on collision, both ships made errors

WASHINGTON/TOKYO - The US Navy has removed the two senior officers and the senior enlisted sailor on a US warship that almost sank off the coast of Japan in June after it was struck by a Philippine container ship, the Navy said on Friday.

IN BRIEF (Page 8)

Film sheds light on poison gas factory

TOKYO - A new documentary film about Okunoshima, an island where Japan manufactured poison gas for its 1937-45 war of aggression against China, is attracting a great deal of attention.

Salt producers fear craft is drying up

ANFEH, Lebanon - At 93, Elias al-Najjar has spent half a century harvesting salt by hand from ponds on Lebanon's Mediterranean shore, but he and his colleagues fear their way of life is dying.

Making a life out of chasing eclipses

WASHINGTON - While Monday's total solar eclipse in the United States will be a once-in-a-lifetime sky show for millions, there's a small group of people who have experienced it all before - and they can't get enough of it.