international

In a dusty corner of a Soweto youth center, a stack of laptop computers is sitting idle. For the dozens of Johannesburg kids playing soccer outside, the laptop revolution is temporarily stalled.

When researchers tracking elephants in remote northern Kenya needed a stable source of electricity for their camp, they turned to Stephen Gold.

So did conservationists studying cheetahs in Botswana and wolves in Ethiopia. Gold supplied them all with solar power.

Ottawa has spent $60-million over the past two years in its failed attempts to deport a handful of immigrants accused of having ties with al-Qaeda, The Globe and Mail has learned.

With a grizzly bear straddling him, so close he could smell its "musky, wet-dog smell," Rory Chapple knew he had one shot at avoiding a mauling or death.

The veteran bow hunter, flat on his back after tripping, with the 600-pound sow looming over him, pulled an arrow from the quiver on his compound bow and plunged it into the bear's chin.

A child seemed a welcome addition to the life of Jutta Hoffritz, who had expected her pregnancy to lead to a predictable chain of events: For a year, she would stay home and care for her baby. Then she would place him in a decent child-care center and return to work -- difficult, but surely not beyond reach.

Like an archeologist of the lost harvest, Elizabeth Wambui digs through the dusty soil for the remnants of her crops. Here are the dead stalks of corn. Here are the dead potato vines. Here are the dead beans, the dead peas, the dead sorghum.

Ecuador's attorney general is calling for legal action in the United States against Chevron Corp. after the company released videos it says show judicial misconduct and a possible bribery scheme in a landmark Ecuadoran lawsuit against the oil giant.

The world's largest Monopoly game kicked off this week, and the whole planet is up for sale.

Hasbro Inc., owner of what is perhaps the most ubiquitous board game ever made, is teaming up with Google Inc. to launch Monopoly City Streets, a massive Web-based version of the classic game that turns every street on the planet into a potential real estate opportunity.

The Taliban will attack an Afghan village set up in the heart of Washington courtesy of the Canadian Forces, who will send in a medic in a dramatic effort to save a civilian crippled by the explosion.

Canadian health officials are moving forward with plans to restrict lead from consumer products that are likely to be put in a child's mouth.

But as the plans wind through the bureaucracy, some health advocates wonder if the proposed limits are low enough to protect children -- and why these rules weren't made law years ago.