Every year, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains hundreds of thousands of men and women found living and working in the United States in violation of immigration and visa laws. Detainees are confined as if prison even though they have not been charged with any crime. Conditions in I.C.E.'s over 300 detention centers have been criticized by national and international watchdog groups, including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union.

On a bitterly cold evening this December, human rights activists and religious believers from a variety of traditions gathered outside a federal detention facility in New York City. They held candles and called for the US government to release the people locked up inside.

Opponents of amnesty for illegal immigrants say that no violation of US law should be tolerated, but these protesters see a larger moral issue at stake. They say that the detention centers, where people are held without charge and dozens have died of medical neglect, violate detainees' fundamental human rights.

Over a quarter of American children live in one-parent homes. In this slideshow, we meet one Manhattan mom and her ten-year-old son.

Local non-profits, government agencies and environmental activists provided hands-on activities and information on everything from paddling the Bronx River to conserving energy in your home at the second annual South Bronx Earth Fest on April 25 in St. Mary's Park.

Photos from an afternoon bike ride out of the city of Hanzhong, in Shaanxi province. Coal is China's primary source of energy, from power plants to the cooking stoves in individual homes. Environmental destruction is widespread, even in the countryside. Yet rural families who make their livelihoods through grueling traditional agriculture continue to live "close to the earth."

Scenes from the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and the old hutong neighborhoods.