The United Nations says more than one million Syrians are now refugees. That means nearly one out of every 22 citizens have fled for safety.
The news come as the country approaches the second anniversary of its civil war.
The U.N.'s refugee agency tweeted this picture after announcing the alarming new number. It says, "Meet Bushra, the millionth registered refugee from Syria."
The sign in her hands says, "One in a million." It's a reminder of the many, many others who share her desperate situation.
She also holds a small child. The U.N. says around half of the refugees are children. Most are under the age of eleven. It's hard to imagine the things they have seen and experienced in their young lives.
As Syria's deadly conflict grinds on, more and more people are making the difficult decision to seek shelter in another country. The UNHCR notes, "They arrive traumatized, without possessions and having lost members of their families."
The U.N. estimated there would be 1.1 million refugees by the end of June. But more than 400,000 Syrians have fled their homes since the start of 2013. And it's only March.
A new report claims China's army is behind some of the world's most prolific computer hackers.
U.S.-based cybersecurity firm, Mandiant, says it tracked hacking activity to an area near Shanghai. Specifically, to a building used by a secret division of the Chinese military.
Mandiant calls the hacking group APT1. The report includes details about the methods used by APT1 to target its victims. It concludes the group operates with support from the Chinese government.
The company's vice president Grady Summers welcomed other researchers to scrutinize the data in the report. He said, "These accusations are not at all baseless. They are very well-rooted in fact, and very prudent actually."
China has questioned the evidence in the report. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei also denied allegations of hacking. He argues that China is a frequent victim of cyberattacks originating from the United States.
Summers concedes that hacking happens from all corners of the Internet. But he says, "We're stating very clearly that this is asymmetric, that China is attacking the U.S. on a scale like we've never seen before."
Mandiant counted 141 victims of APT1 over six years. Of those, 115 were based in the United States.
It's hard to imagine that the second-best quarterly profit ever made by a U.S. company wasn't good enough for investors.
But Apple isn't an ordinary company. And signs that the tech giant's unbelievable growth might be slowing is enough for investors to flee the stock. FULL POST
Ongoing violence and shelling - just one of many challenges facing the World Food Programme in Syria.
"Our food trucks have been attacked, we've seen rising number of attacks on trucks in various areas in the country," WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin tells me.
"The reality is we have conversations with everyone - the opposition side and the regime side to ensure that everyone recognizes we are not favoring one community over the other. Our goal is that we get assistance to every community."
Play a game of word association and there's fat chance (pun entirely intended) you'd pair "Coca-Cola" with "healthy". Perhaps that's exactly why the world's most valuable brand is pumping millions of ad dollars into convincing us it cares about our bodies.
Technology isn't just part of News Stream, it's also something we love to cover.
So when we were asked to put together a special edition of the show with the top tech stories of the year, it was both very easy to pick the stories we thought were important... and very hard to leave out stories we loved but just couldn't fit.
You can watch the whole show here, divided into six parts.
PART 1: Breaking down the smartphone Patent Wars with The Verge's Nilay Patel; Microsoft launches Windows 8
My name was on the waiting list for the first batch of Raspberry Pi machines long before I traveled to Cambridge to meet Eben Upton.
Something about the tiny computer sent me back to my childhood days. It could plug into your TV, it could use the same programming language that I used in primary school. It was all very retro.
Only after I got my hands on one did I realize how useful the little thing actually is. At first I was excited about using it as an introduction to Linux and to refresh my dormant programming skills. It was only after I put some media software on it that it really became part of the furniture. FULL POST
All iPhone owners, rejoice: No longer do you have to put up with Apple's widely criticized Maps app. Google Maps is back, and it's much better than before.
And the irony is, we have Apple to thank for it.
As of 2 pm EDT, Hurricane Sandy packed 145 kph (90 mph) winds. At the time, 23 states had issued a Warning or Advisory for wind related to Sandy’s circulation.
The storm is expected to make landfall later Monday evening.
Based on pressure, Sandy is likely to be the strongest storm to make landfall north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
When it hits, Sandy will be undergoing a transition from a "tropical cyclone" to a "wintertime cyclone." Mari Ramos explains the difference.
Sandy’s field of tropical storm-force or greater winds extends nearly 620 1,600 kilometers (1000 miles). That's roughly twice the size of the U.S. state of Texas.
To put it another way, if that wind field were a country, it would be the 20th largest country in the world.
Skydiver Felix Baumgartner is set to freefall faster, longer and from higher than anyone. Ever.
If things go according to plan, he'll jump from 120,000 feet and break the sound barrier on the way down.
Only one person really knows what it will be like. Joe Kittinger set the previous record with his big jump. He reached an altitude of 102,800 feet, and describes a hostile environment.
He told CNN, "You know that right outside of you is a vacuum of space and without the protection of that pressure suit, you cannot live. And that's an interesting thought."
Baumgartner's jump is being called "Mission to the Edge of Space." It's catchy, though not entirely accurate.
The Kármán line is the accepted boundary between our atmosphere and outer space. It's 100 kilometers up. Baumgartner won't be close. He aims to free fall from 36.5 kilometers.
But who cares. He'll fly through the heavens without a vehicle separating him from the sky. That sounds incredible on its own.
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