Mother faces murder charges in Blackstone squalid home case

Erika Murray.

REUTERS/Paul Kapteyn/Pool

Erika Murray was charged in the deaths of two infants found in the home. The infants? father faces two counts of assault and battery on a child.

Children ran from the dining area to the amusement rides at last year?s Christmas in the City event.

KEVIN CULLEN

Christmas in the City gives the gift of dignity

Every year, Jake Kennedy and his wife, Sparky, transform a bland hall into a winter wonderland for homeless children.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/16/BostonGlobe.com/Business/Images/04531154.jpg Russian ruble continues catastrophic drop

In Moscow, panicky consumers rushed out to buy major appliances before they became even more expensive.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/16/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/photo-7712.JPG Boston students leave schools in protest of Ferguson, NYC

Hundreds walked to protest recent decisions not to indict white officers in the deaths of unarmed black men.

Movie posters for

Sony hackers reference 9/11 in threats tied to new leaks

Hackers made ominous threats against the premiere of Sony Pictures? film ??The Interview.??

FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2006 file photo, a man wears an Apple iPod Shuffle at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif. After just a few hours of deliberation, a jury in California on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014 found in favor of Apple in a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit over the price of its iPod music players. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Apple prevails in class-action lawsuit over iPod

The billion-dollar lawsuit involved older iPods, which didn?t play music from competing stores.

A self-portrait of the Curiosity rover on Mars, provided by NASA.

Curiosity rover on Mars finds methane and a mystery

The rover detected increases in methane gas on the planet, leading scientists to wonder about the cause.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Michael A. Cohen

Dick Cheney?s defense of CIA torture shows how low we can go

It?s rare to see a former public official engage in the kind of moral reasoning that would give dictators pause.

Kosilek, now in her early 60s, was born Robert Kosilek, but by 1990 was transitioning to a female identity. She strangled her wife, Cheryl, in Mansfield that year.

Ruling overturned on sex-change surgery for inmate

In 2012, a judge ordered that the state must provide taxpayer-funded sex change surgery for Michelle Kosilek.

Women mourned the death of a 15-year-old boy in the Taliban attack.

Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS

132 children killed in Taliban attack on school in Pakistan

The massacre of children at a military-run school horrified a country already weary of unending terrorist attacks.

Bill Cosby performed in Melbourne, Fla., in November.

LA prosecutor won?t charge Cosby in molestation claim

A woman had claimed that Bill Cosby had molested her in 1974 when she was 15 years old.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/16/BostonGlobe.com/National/Images/68f8f0b1287a412b927c3f3c86757f17-68f8f0b1287a412b927c3f3c86757f17-0-1276--90x90.jpg Man accused of killing ex-wife, five relatives in Pa. found dead

Prosecutors say Bradley William Stone committed suicide in the woods near his home.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/16/BostonGlobe.com/National/Images/474646291.jpg Jeb Bush is exploring a run for president

The move by the former Florida governor could dramatically reshape the Republican primary.

Evan Horowitz

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/16/BostonGlobe.com/Politics/Images/horowitz-068--90x90.png The art of not-quite-running for president

Jeb Bush has joined an already-crowded group of ?active explorers.? Why can?t candidates stop dithering and start their campaigns?

Wealth inequality grew along racial lines, study finds

The net worth of white Americans was 13 times that of African-Americans in 2013, the highest wealth disparity in 30 years.

Opinion

Jeremy Travis and Bruce Western

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/10/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/ryan_diein6_met.jpg Protests shine light on deeper issues with modern justice

The system destroys a community that has historically suffered under institutionalized subordination.

The Big Picture

Residents of the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmouk queuing to receive food supplies in Damascus, Syria, in a photo taken Jan. 31, 2014.

UNRWA

Best photos of 2014, part 1

Photographs from around the world on a range of topics taken during 2014.