Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to be realizing a sobering reality about virtual reality: His company’s Oculus headsets that send people into artificial worlds are too expensive and confining to appeal to the masses. Zuckerberg on Wednesday revealed how Facebook …
California regulators took an important step Wednesday to clear the road for everyday people to get self-driving cars. The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles published proposed rules that would govern the technology within California, where for several years manufacturers have …
Over the past few years, Chinese companies have flooded the globe with investments, buying up everything from real estate to football clubs and entertainment companies. As a result, hundreds of billions of dollars in capital have flowed out of the …
About half of teenagers in the United States and Japan say they are addicted to their smartphones. University of Southern California (USC) researchers asked 1,200 Japanese about their use of electronic devices. The researchers are with the Walter Annenberg School …
There have been four outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian flu in farms in central and northern Italy since the start of the month and about 865,000 chickens, ducks and turkeys will be culled, officials said on Wednesday. The biggest …
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be 2.4 percent in 2017, the World Bank said on Wednesday, down from the 2.6 percent projected in April. It said the downgrade was due to a number of reasons, including Nigeria’s …
Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for showcasing Facebook’s virtual reality capability with a tour of hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. The Facebook founder and another executive discussed the platform’s virtual reality project through avatars in a video recorded live Monday. The video begins …
U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met at the White House Wednesday to discuss the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement amid growing animosity over how to reshape the pact. Trade experts predict the …
U.S. researchers said this week they have discovered a way to genetically engineer corn, the world’s largest commodity crop, to produce a type of amino acid found in meat. The result is a nutritionally rich food that could benefit millions …
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the country’s surging stock markets would grow even faster if Congress enacts his proposed overhaul of the country’s tax laws. Trump is heading to a Pennsylvania airport hangar to talk to a group of …
Financial markets in Istanbul were pummeled this week as the tit-for-tat visa spat between the Unites States and Turkey escalated. Turkish stocks and currency values fell on Monday before rebounding in Tuesday’s trading. The Oct. 8 decision by the United …
While mountains of waste and trash keep growing in industrialized and developing countries, materials scientists are busy as ever experimenting with new methods for turning those scraps into something useful, from biofuel to food. VOA’s George Putic looks at some …
Attorneys for the Trump administration said a federal judge has no authority to second-guess a presidential permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline as they seek to stop a lawsuit that would block the project. Justice Department attorneys are due …
A study shows there has been a tenfold increase in the number of obese and overweight children and adolescents worldwide in just 40 years. In one of the biggest epidemiological studies ever undertaken, scientists with the World Health Organization and …
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Tuesday sharply criticized technology companies that have built strongly encrypted products, suggesting Silicon Valley is more willing to comply with foreign government demands for data than those made by their home country. While …
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan pledged gas, investment and support for the Balkans on Tuesday, in an apparent bid to expand influence in a region frustrated by the slow pace of EU accession. His two-day trip to Serbia — a mainly …
The most powerful U.S. business lobby accused the Trump administration of making “poison pill proposals” to sabotage NAFTA on Tuesday, as Mexico’s foreign minister said the demise of the regional trade pact would hurt bilateral cooperation. The process of renegotiating …
European Union Council President Donald Tusk said Tuesday that Brexit negotiations will not move to the next stage focused on trade relations before December at the earliest — not later this month, as Britain was hoping. Tusk bemoaned the slow …
Spacewalking astronauts hustled through a lube job and camera swaps outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, their second trip outside in less than a week. Astronaut Mark Vande Hei made fast work of greasing the big robot arm’s new …
Miroslav Lajcak, president of the 72nd session of the U.N. General Assembly, has an ambitious agenda of global issues he wishes to focus on in the coming year, and moving the implementation of the Paris climate change agreement forward is …
The global economy is expected to expand to a 3.6 percent annual rate this year, up from last year’s rate of 3.2 percent. Tuesday’s assessment comes from the International Monetary Fund as economic officials from the World Bank and …
A mass oral cholera vaccination campaign for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees and host communities is taking place in Bangladesh. The campaign is led by the Ministry of Health and supported by the World Health Organization and U.N. Children’s …
Washington state sued President Donald Trump on Monday over his decision to let more employers claiming religious or moral objections opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who successfully sued to block Trump’s …
Environmental groups are outraged over the Trump administration wanting to overturn an Obama-era plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt announced Monday he will scrap the Clean Power Plan, declaring “the …