Worldwide cesarean section use has nearly doubled in two decades and has reached “epidemic” proportions in some countries, doctors warned Friday, highlighting a huge gap in childbirth care between rich and poor mothers. They said millions of women each year …
A U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut made an emergency return to earth Thursday shortly after launching on what was supposed to be a mission to the International Space Station. Rescuers reached American Nick Hague and Russian Alexei Ovchinin after …
Facebook announced Thursday that it had deleted over 800 mostly U.S.-based pages and accounts that were posting politically oriented spam and engaging in “inauthentic behavior.” The social media giant declined a request from VOA News to name the 559 pages …
Elon Musk replied with a tweet saying “This is incorrect” after the Financial Times reported that outgoing Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. Chief Executive James Murdoch was the lead candidate to replace him as Tesla Inc. chairman. Tesla has until Nov. 13 to appoint …
Parties to a new global treaty to combat the illicit sale of tobacco products have taken the first steps toward cracking down on this multi-billion dollar trade. At a three-day meeting at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in …
Health officials say the rate of new Ebola cases has more than doubled since September after rebel violence in northeastern Congo caused response efforts to be briefly suspended. In a statement on Thursday, the International Rescue Committee says it …
From a young age, Phatwa Senene knew he wanted to be an inventor. He got his start at age 11, he said, when he attached a DC motor to a fan. He then attached the fan to a drill and …
The next big advance in technology could well come from Africa. At least, that is the hope of several new technology and innovation incubators on the continent. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Johannesburg on Toybox, an interdisciplinary hub founded by …
A U.S. astronaut and Russian cosmonaut are safe following an emergency return to Earth minutes after launching on what was supposed to be a mission to the International Space Station. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said a …
NASA says that two astronauts from the U.S. and Russia are in good condition after an emergency landing following booster rocket failure minutes after the launch. U.S. astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Alexei Ovchinin lifted off as scheduled at 2:40 …
An estimated 44 million people 65 years and older worldwide have Alzheimer’s, the most common cause of dementia. Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain disorder that causes memory loss, and impairs thinking, judgment and problem solving. So far, scientists have not …
U.S. President Donald Trump said that Wednesday’s stock market sell-off was in fact a long-awaited “correction,” and that the Federal Reserve, which has been raising U.S. interest rates, had gone “crazy.” Trump’s use of the word correction to describe the …
A characteristic twinkle in his eye, Ronald Reagan waves to a crowd from aboard a rail car in a hologram revealed Wednesday at the late president’s namesake library in Southern California. “We think we made a good beginning, but you …
The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday said that it had awarded a total of $2.3 billion in contracts to develop rocket launch systems for national security missions. The awards go to Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin; United Launch Services, …
Mat Beren and his friends used to drive by the vast greenhouses of southern British Columbia and joke about how much weed they could grow there. Years later, it’s no joke. The tomato and pepper plants that once filled some …
U.S. stocks posted their worst loss since February on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average finishing the day down more than 800 points. The losses were widespread as bond yields remained high after steep increases last week. Companies that have been …
Australia is rejecting the latest U.N. report on climate change, insisting coal remains critical to energy security and lowering household power bills. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its report released Monday that global greenhouse …
Google will begin offering its pay-to-carpool service throughout the U.S., an effort to reduce the commute-time congestion that its popular Waze navigation app is designed to avoid. The expansion announced Wednesday builds upon a carpooling system that Waze began testing …
The Treasury Department has issued new rules on foreign investments into American companies that will give the government more power to block foreign transactions on national security grounds. The rules represent the latest escalation in an intensifying economic conflict between …
America’s recycling industry is in the dumps. A crash in the global market for recyclables is forcing communities to make hard choices about whether they can afford to keep recycling or should simply send all those bottles, cans and plastic …
A new U.N. report finds a dramatic increase in the amount of economic loss incurred from natural disasters during the past 20 years, with climate-related disasters driving expensive property and infrastructure damage to new heights. The report finds so-called geophysical …
Nearly 77 years after repeated torpedo strikes tore into the USS Oklahoma, killing hundreds of sailors and Marines, Carrie Brown leaned over the remains of a serviceman laid out on a table in her lab and was surprised the bones …
Dark, dirty and slow, Zimbabwe’s trains, like much else in the impoverished southern African country, have seen better days. Once the preferred mode of transport for most Zimbabweans, the state-run rail service mirrors the decline in the country’s economic fortunes …
Mental health disorders are on the rise in every country in the world and could cost the global economy up to $16 trillion between 2010 and 2030 if a collective failure to respond is not addressed, according to an expert …