VATICAN CITY — The Vatican this week rolled out its latest “Click to Pray” app, offering a personal planner among new functions for what it hopes will be an improved digital “praying experience” in a fast-paced world.
TACOMA — Vaccines and the swarm of Delta cases that overwhelmed the state’s hospitals this summer have created some level of COVID-19 immune response among an estimated 61.5 percent to 65.7 percent of Washington state’s population.
WELLINGTON — New Zealand's first indigenous Māori woman to be named Governor-general, Dame Cindy Kiro, was formally sworn into the largely ceremonial role in parliament in Wellington on Thursday, pledging to reach out to migrants and marginalised citizens.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. authorities arrested 1.7 million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border this fiscal year, the most ever recorded, according to a U.S. government source familiar with the numbers, underscoring the stark political and humanitarian challenges the Biden administration faces o…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, eight timber-framed buildings covered in sod stood on a terrace above a peat bog and stream at the northern tip of Canada’s island of Newfoundland, evidence that the Vikings had reached the New World first.
LONDON — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, decided on Wednesday to rest for the next few days on advice from doctors and cancelled a planned visit to Northern Ireland, Buckingham Palace said.
MOSCOW — Russia delivered a blow to hopes of a breakthrough international deal on climate change when the Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin would not fly to Scotland for talks starting at the end of this month.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The work of U.S. and Canadian missionaries kidnapped in Haiti over the weekend included helping rebuild homes following an August earthquake on the island, according to their Ohio-based organization that has aid projects all over the world.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The new U.S. travel policy will block entry to foreign nationals who have recovered from COVID-19 and then gotten one dose of two-dose vaccines — a standard that France and the European Commission consider full vaccination.
LA PALMA, Spain — A Spanish drone operator on Tuesday received permission to try to rescue three emaciated dogs trapped near a volcano in the Canary Islands, by catching them with a remote-controlled net and flying them out over a stream of lava.
PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti — Haitians on Monday mounted a nationwide strike to protest a growing wave of kidnappings, days after the abduction of a group of missionaries prompted FBI involvement and fueled international concerns over gang violence in the crisis-stricken Caribbean nation.
JIUQUAN, China — China on Saturday launched a rocket carrying three astronauts, including one woman, to the core module of a future space station where they will live and work for six months, the longest-ever duration in orbit for Chinese astronauts.
PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on Friday to the last surviving member of an order honouring heroes of France’s liberation during World War II who died this week.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. will open its borders to vaccinated foreigners on Nov. 8, a White House official said, granting access to millions of people who have been shut out of the country while closing it off to anyone who hasn’t had their shots.
MOSCOW — Russia said one of its military vessels chased away a U.S. naval destroyer that attempted to violate Russian territorial waters during Russian-Chinese naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Friday.
LEIGH-ON-SEA, England — A British lawmaker was stabbed to death on Friday in a church by a 25-year-old man who lunged at him at a meeting with voters from his constituency, knifing him repeatedly in an attack which politicians described as an assault on democracy.
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah said on Friday it would not be dragged into civil war even as it stepped up accusations against the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) party it says killed seven Shi’ites in Beirut’s bloodiest street violence in years.
KONGSBERG, Norway — The man who killed five people with a bow-and-arrow and other weapons in Norway was probably suffering from mental illness, police said on Friday.
SEOUL — South Korea plans to test its first domestically produced space launch vehicle next week, a major step toward jumpstarting the country’s space program and achieving ambitious goals in 6G networks, spy satellites, and even lunar probes.
NEW YORK — In a global call to arms, the World Health Organization described climate change as the “single biggest health threat facing humanity” in a new report.
MOSCOW — Russia and the United States failed to make any major progress on Tuesday in resolving a row over the size and functioning of their embassies and there is a risk that relations could worsen further, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
DOHA, Qatar — A U.S. delegation met with senior Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend to discuss issues including security, terrorism and human rights, their first direct talks since the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in late August.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. delegation will meet with senior Taliban representatives in Qatar on Saturday and Sunday in their first face-to-face meeting at a senior level since Washington pulled its troops from Afghanistan and the hardline group took over the country, two senior administration…
ZURICH — Roche said on Friday its gantenerumab antibody had received breakthrough therapy designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
MEXICO CITY — The United States and Mexico on Friday discussed a new joint security plan to help fight drug cartels as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on a visit aimed to patching up frayed ties.
OSLO, Norway — Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, who braved the wrath of the leaders of the Philippines and Russia to expose corruption and misrule, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, in an endorsement of free speech under fire worldwide.
NAIROBI — The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday the only approved vaccine against malaria should be widely given to African children, potentially marking a major advance against a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people annually.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States and China have agreed in principle for their presidents to hold a virtual meeting before the end of the year, a senior U.S. administration official said on Wednesday, after high-level talks aimed at improving communication between the two countries.
MIAMI — An unusual flow of Chilean children of Haitian descent traveling through South and Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border has led to the arrest of nine people suspected of operating an international migrant smuggling ring that used the social media WhatsApp messaging platform to p…
STOCKHOLM — Japanese-born American Syukuro Manabe, German Klaus Hasselmann and Italian Giorgio Parisi won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for work that helps understand complex physical systems such as Earth’s changing climate.
TOKYO — Japan’s Fumio Kishida was appointed prime minister by parliament Monday, and is set to reveal a new cabinet lineup as he seeks to revive support for his ruling party ahead of a general election that could likely come this month.
STOCKHOLM — American scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday for the discovery of receptors in the skin that sense temperature and touch and could pave the way for new painkillers.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Czech prime minister, the king of Jordan and the chairman of a well-known Indian conglomerate were among global figures denying wrongdoing on Monday after the leak of what major news outlets called a secret trove of documents about offshore finance.
DUBAI — A group of American citizens and lawful permanent residents evacuated to the United Arab Emirates from Afghanistan flew out of the Gulf state bound for the United States on Thursday, the country's foreign ministry said, after being temporarily held up for vetting.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Female students won’t return to Kabul University until “a real Islamic environment” is provided for all, the Taliban-appointed chancellor said this week, dealing another blow to women’s rights in Afghanistan since the group came to power last month.
LONDON — The dollar was flying high on Wednesday and hit a 2021 peak against rival currencies even though arguing in Washington over the U.S. debt ceiling threatened to plunge the government into a shutdown.
GENEVA — More than 80 aid workers including some employed by the World Health Organization (WHO) were involved in sexual abuse and exploitation during an Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an independent commission said on Tuesday.
LA PALMA — Intensifying volcanic explosions on the Spanish island of La Palma forced firefighters to retreat and authorities to evacuate three more towns on Friday, while airlines cancelled flights due to a cloud of gas and ash, the biggest since the volcano erupted.
DEL RIO, Texas — An impromptu border camp that roiled U.S. politics was emptied of thousands of Haitian migrants by Friday, with most remaining in the United States for now and others expelled on deportation flights or returned to Mexico.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States and European Union plan to take a more unified approach to limit the growing market power of Big Tech companies, according to a draft memo seen by Reuters.
CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico — The U.S. envoy to Haiti dramatically resigned on Thursday in a letter that excoriated Washington for deporting hundreds of migrants to the crisis-engulfed Caribbean nation from a border camp in recent days.
LA PALMA, Spain — Jets of red hot lava shot into the sky on Spain's La Palma on Thursday as a huge cloud of toxic ash drifted from the Cumbre Vieja volcano toward the mainland and jeopardised the island's economically crucial banana crops.
UNITED NATIONS — President Joe Biden mapped out a new era of vigorous competition without a new Cold War despite China’s ascendance during his first United Nations address on Tuesday, promising military restraint and a robust fight against climate change.
BRUSSELS — Germany joined France on Tuesday in berating the United States for negotiating a security pact in secret with Australia and Britain that cost Paris a lucrative defense deal, while the EU’s top official said such behavior was unacceptable.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. will soon allow entry to most foreign air travelers as long as they’re fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — while adding a testing requirement for unvaccinated Americans and barring entry for foreigners who haven’t gotten shots.
CIUDAD ACUÑA, Mexico — The White House on Monday criticized the use of horse reins to threaten Haitian migrants after images circulated of a U.S. border guard on horseback charging at migrants near a riverside camp in Texas.
OTTAWA — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hung onto power on Monday as his main rival conceded defeat, saying he had won a clear mandate to govern although he fell short of his goal for a majority win.
OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau and his Conservative rival are nearly tied heading into the final weekend of Canada’s election campaign, leaving the prime minister with decent odds of holding on to power.
CIUDAD ACUÑA, Mexico — Haitians fleeing a country hammered by political turmoil and two natural disasters made up most of over 10,000 migrants sleeping on the ground and desperate for food in a squalid camp under a bridge in southern Texas on Friday, in a growing humanitarian and political c…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden urged world leaders on Friday to join the United States and European Union in a pledge to cut methane emissions, hoping to build momentum before an international summit on climate change begins next month.
