Bellingham’s garden of beauty, bounty and purpose

Bellingham’s garden of beauty, bounty and purpose

  I am often grateful when I visit community gardens where there are generous gardeners willing to share and who follow a few rules. Where there is a scarcity of gardeners, unwilling to engage weeds or one another, there is a path to abandonment. At the exuberant Chuckanut Center in Bellingham, Washington, there was steadfast … Read more

Russian gamers race to prevent nuclear ‘war’

Russian gamers race to prevent nuclear ‘war’

Story highlights Latest craze in Moscow is war game in which players race to find nuclear codes Russian officials are playing on fears, staging a mass nuclear drill CNN  —  “Attention! Attention!” blares the Russian voice from a loudspeaker. “The nuclear bombs will be launched in one hour.” Inside a room styled as a Soviet-era … Read more

Sri Lanka’s plantation workers live on the margins. But politicians still want their votes

Sri Lanka’s plantation workers live on the margins. But politicians still want their votes

SPRING VALLEY, Sri Lanka — Whoever Sri Lanka’s next president is, Muthuthevarkittan Manohari isn’t expecting much to change in her daily struggle to feed the four children and elderly mother with whom she lives in a dilapidated room in a tea plantation. Both leading candidates in Saturday’s presidential election are promising to give land to … Read more