The streets are safer in Baghdad than in Caracas, Venezuela, where the soaring homicide toll is a blemish on the revolutionary government that promised reform. (NYT)

Early diagnosis with microscopic techniques may be saving more lives of women with breast cancer, but the potential for horrible mistakes has also grown. (NYT)

In Johannesburg, being a member of an openly lesbian soccer team can mean risking your life. (NYT)

The First Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division, from Fort Drum N.Y., begins a year-long deployment to Kunduz Province – accompanied by videojournalists. (NYT)

Scouts comb farming villages offering winsome teenage girls the opportunity to become the next Gisele Bündchen. (NYT)

A teenage girl from Texas surmounts enormous obstacles after she beats the odds and enrolls in the esteemed Moscow ballet academy. (NYT)

Twenty years after providing blood samples for diabetes research, the Havasupai tribe got them back -- after charges of medical fraud and a prolonged lawsuit. (NYT)

North Dakota is the place to be if you want to make money -- but finding a place to live is another matter. (NYT)

A menagerie of exotic animals has found a haven at Villa Lorena, a refuge that rescues the castoff pets of the country's drug lords. (NYT)

Joe Binder, the affable valet of Arthur Avenue, recently celebrated his 100th birthday by taking a day off. But he has no plans to retire. (NYT)