BERLIN The United States will increase the number of refugees it takes in by 15,000 over each of the next two years, bringing the total to 100,000 by 2017, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said after talks with his German counterpart on Sunday. The remarks m... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said on Saturday it was not his job to stand up for U.S. President Barack Obama after a man at one of his campaign events said he was a Muslim and “not even an American.” “Am I morally obligated to de... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Eric Fanning to become the next secretary of the Army, the White House said on Friday, paving the way for the first openly gay leader of a military service branch in U.S. history. Fanning is currently serving as... More »
GUATEMALA CITY Guatemala looked bound for a presidential election run-off as results showed the three leading candidates splitting the vote on Sunday, prolonging political uncertainty just days after a graft scandal toppled the president. Otto Perez resigned a... More »
SAN JUAN Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio told residents of Puerto Rico on Friday the island needed new political leadership as it grapples with its fiscal crisis, but protection under bankruptcy laws would not solve the U.S. territory’s problems.... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Boeing Co (BA.N) took the wraps off an assembly plant on Friday for its first line of commercial spaceships, which NASA plans to use to fly crews to the International Space Station, officials said. “This is a point in history that reflects... More »
SAN FRANCISCO Ride services Lyft and Uber have poached dozens of key Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) employees over the past year, including top engineering managers, to help personalize their apps. Twitter’s management turmoil and 44 percent stock fall over the last 12 ... More »
LOS ANGELES Justin Bieber might be making a comeback and Taylor Swift is leading nominees, but at Sunday’s annual MTV Video Music Awards, all eyes will be on the show’s wildcard host, Miley Cyrus. After twerking her way into national headlines with a latex lin... More »
NEW YORK British actor Clive Owen swaps Hollywood for the stage in “Old Times”, making his Broadway debut in a revival of Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter’s 1971 play. The “Children of Men” and “Closer” actor, who has London theater credits to his name, will appea... More »
VIENNA The European Union might have had a better start, but in the end it was the Balkan countries who brought the game home in this unlikely diplomatic soccer match on Wednesday to kick off the Western Balkan summit in Vienna. Team “FC EU”, made up of Austri... More »
GUATEMALA CITY Guatemalan Finance Minister Dorval Carias resigned on Monday amid a deepening corruption scandal that has also featured calls for the impeachment of President Otto Perez. A statement released by Carias’ office did not give a reason for his decis... More »
LOS ANGELES Country singer Luke Bryan held onto the top spot of the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on Monday, holding off Ed Sheeran and Dr Dre. “Kill The Lights,” the fifth studio album from Bryan, sold 83,000 albums, 114,000 songs and was streamed 6.8... More »
LONDON/LOS ANGELES One Direction member Niall Horan said Monday that the hugely successful British boy band will take a “well earned break” next year, but are not splitting up. Horan, 21, told his 23 million fans on Twitter that the group will continue to tour... More »
A pedestrian bridge designed by Olafur Eliasson has opened in Copenhagen, inspired by the Danish-Icelandic artist’s childhood in Iceland. Reminiscent of sailing boats, Cirkelbroen, or circle bridge, is made of five circular platforms in different sizes, each w... More »
BRUSSELS/ATHENS Euro zone finance ministers have agreed to lend Greece up to 86 billion euros ($96 billion) after Greek lawmakers accepted their stiff conditions despite a revolt by supporters of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Assuming approval by the ... More »
NEW YORK A group of mainly U.S.-based stock traders and computer hackers in Ukraine made as much as $100 million in illegal profits over five years by conspiring to use information stolen from thousands of corporate press statements before their public release... More »
NEW YORK A group of mainly U.S.-based stock traders and computer hackers in Ukraine made as much as $100 million in illegal profits over five years by conspiring to use information stolen from thousands of corporate press statements before their public release... More »
BOSTON Days after surveillance video from the 1990 Stewart Gardner Museum heist was made public, FBI officials on Tuesday said they are investigating a “handful of tips,” including one identifying a mystery man let in to the museum the night before it was robb... More »
MOSCOW A pair of Russian cosmonauts began their working week on Monday by cleaning the windows of the International Space Station (ISS), floating 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth’s surface. Station commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mikhail Kornie... More »
BOSTON Federal investigators in Boston on Thursday released 25-year-old surveillance video showing a security guard admitting a man to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum the night before it was robbed of $500 million worth of art in the largest such heist in ... More »
LONDON/GENEVA The world is on the verge of being able to protect humans against Ebola, the World Health Organization said on Friday, as a trial in Guinea found a vaccine to have been 100 percent effective. Initial results from the trial, which tested Merck... More »
LONDON Best-selling boy band One Direction released a surprise first single as a foursome on Friday, two days after former member Zayn Malik announced a new record deal as solo artist. “Drag Me Down” follows November’s “Night Changes” and is the first single t... More »
COPENHAGEN Chuckling “Ho ho ho” and waving to the public, dozens of Santas brought some Christmas cheer to the Copenhagen summer on Monday as they began their annual World Santa Claus Congress. Drawing Santas from around the world, the three-day event in the D... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday welcomed the “new beginning” of ties between the United States and Cuba but said many differences remained between the two nations and that full normalization will be a long and complex process. Kerry, in... More »
RAGLAN, New Zealand Deep in New Zealand’s dairying heartland, drone maker Aeronavics tests aircraft designed to corner the fast-growing emerging market for unmanned aerial vehicles in the film and television business. The developer of drones used in the produc... More »
LOS ANGELES From his classic 1967 Los Angeles pool scene “A Bigger Splash” to his interpretations of Yorkshire forests, British artist David Hockney has always injected the world around him with a vibrant palette, most recently in a study of perspectives. “Dav... More »
VIENNA A senior Iranian negotiator voiced hope on Monday that a nuclear deal with six major powers would be completed but cautioned that there was work to be done and he could not promise the talks would finish by Tuesday night, Iranian media reported. “I cann... More »
SAN DIEGO, Calif. Fans hoping to get a glimpse of what HBO’s “Game of Thrones” has in store for its anticipated next season were left in dark at San Diego’s Comic-Con on Friday, as the cast kept tight-lipped on the fate of their characters. “Our cast here, the... More »
WASHINGTON White House state dinners are not normally known for centerpieces made of brussels sprouts, green smoothies and eating with your fingers. But when your guests are 55 students who won a nationwide healthy recipe contest, it is a fitting feast to prom... More »
ZIONSVILLE, Ind. Authorities conducted a day-long search inside the Indiana home of Subway sandwich chain pitchman Jared Fogle on Tuesday, two months after the executive director of Fogle’s foundation was arrested on federal child pornography charges. As autho... More »
CARACAS Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday said he was calling in the country’s ambassador in neighboring Guyana for consultations amid an escalating row over oil exploration in a disputed offshore territory. The OPEC nation in June demanded that Gu... More »
LOS ANGELES Comedian Bill Cosby testified in 2005 that he had obtained Quaaludes with the intent of giving the sedatives to young women in order to have sex with them, according to court documents unsealed on Monday. Cosby, 77, made the admission during testim... More »
VIENNA A dispute over U.N. sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program and a broader arms embargo were among issues holding up a nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers on Monday, the day before their latest self-imposed deadline. “The Iranians want... More »
CHARLESTON, S.C. South Carolina lawmakers took a step on Monday toward removing the Confederate battle flag that flies at the state house in Columbia, long denounced as a symbol of slavery by critics. A bill to banish the flag from a Civil War memorial on the ... More »
LONDON A restored World War Two Spitfire which was shot down over northern France in 1940 is expected to raise about $3 million for charity when it goes up for auction in London next week. The wreckage of the Vickers Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1A was recovered in... More »
HONOLULU A Swiss man attempting to circumnavigate the globe with an aircraft powered only by the sun’s energy has broken a world record for the longest non-stop solo flight, the project team said on Thursday. The Solar Impulse, which took off from Japan on Mon... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – An unmanned SpaceX rocket exploded about two minutes after liftoff from Florida on Sunday, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station in the latest in a string of mishaps in supplying the orbiting outpost. The 208-... More »
NEW YORK Aerialists descend in a giant chandelier and lift a guest back up with them, a showgirl leads an audience member back in time to a 1920s Parisian nightclub and actors single out guests for a mysterious experience yet to come. Immersive theater product... More »
NEW YORK Donald Trump, the billionaire real estate developer, is planning to sue U.S. Spanish-language TV network Univision for hundreds of millions of dollars for dropping coverage of the Miss USA pageant, which he partly owns, his lawyer said on Thursday. Mi... More »
