"The only way I knew my parents were as ashes in Auschwitz," Sylvia Gutmann said. "I wanted to know their life."

That's why she came to Berlin, though she never expected to stay long. But her search led to a path of dialogue she could not have imagined.

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In central Mali, the region known as the Bandiagara escarpment is a hit with trekkers who enjoy a week without electricity under an African sky freckled with stars.

Living without access to medical care is another story.

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Germany’s had plenty of practice renaming streets. After World War II, every town with a street or square named after Adolf Hitler promptly changed them. A similar pattern followed when communism collapsed across Eastern Europe. But dozens of German cities still have streets named after explorers, politicians and administrators linked to colonial atrocities in Africa.

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Patience with politicians is wearing thin in Dakar as the high cost of living ramps up pressure on a growing urban population.

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In a rare encounter, a former neo-Nazi and her partner explain how they turned their lives around and engaged in public outreach to help others do the same.

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Thirty years after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, women share sobering truths about gender inequality fueled by an "unholy trinity" of the church, capitalism, and nationalism. Features the late feminist activist Ann Snitow and the late Roma Cieśla.