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In Laredo, Texas, an elite debutante ball is one of many events held to celebrate George Washington's birthday. A new documentary, Las Marthas, explores the tradition. NPR's Rachel Martin speaks to director Christina Ibarra.

Rescuers are trying to reach the people, who were discovered after screams were heard coming from a mine near Johannesburg. Illegal mining is common in the region.

In the Central African Republic, Muslim rebels seized power last year and then lost it to Christian militias. France and other countries' peacekeeping troops are helping Muslims evacuate, as East Africa correspondent Gregory Warner tells NPR's Rachel Martin.

Scientists have apparently been wrong about where new flu viruses come from, and they've underestimated the viruses' connection to horses. The dogma is that new viruses always incubate in wild migratory birds first, then get into domestic poultry, and then jump into mammals — especially pigs and humans.

Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing extremist who was convicted in the 2011 massacre of 77 people, says his prison conditions are nothing short of "torture."

After the Jan. 9 chemical spill into West Virginia's Elk River, more than 300,000 people lost access to clean, safe drinking water. Government authorities have said the water is now "usable" for all purposes including drinking, but many residents say they don't trust the water.

Father Greg Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, talks with NPR's Arun Rath about his organization's mission and financial struggles. The nonprofit, which is going into its 26th year, is the largest gang-intervention program in the country.

Only about 10 percent of K-12 schools teach computer science. Some companies are trying to fill a void in public education by teaching kids programming basics.

In blunt language that supports what the outside world has feared for decades, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says that "the gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world."

Journalists who broke the news in The Guardian and The Washington Post are among those receiving this year's George Polk Awards in Journalism. Without their work, the stories "would not have seen the light of day."