Perhaps more than any other moment in NASA’s history, the Columbia shuttle disaster reshaped the US space agency’s approach to innovation, forever altering how it balanced risk with the call to explore beyond Earth. The tragedy killed seven astronauts as the Columbia shuttle disintegrated upon its return to Earth on February 1, 2003, due to damage the vehicle sustained during ...

They were abducted from school and held in the depths of the vast Sambisa forest for years. Punished for daring to seek an education, the girls endured forced marriages, religious coercion and physical violence at the hands of their captors. Over the last decade, more than 100 of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls taken by terrorist group Boko Haram have since ...

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-linked container ship in a helicopter operation near the Strait of Hormuz, state news agency IRNA reported, with tensions already high after Iran warned it would retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Syria. IRNA reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy seized the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, which is now being ...

Juan Brito López was in his mid-20s when soldiers rushed into his home in the village of Pexla, nestled in Guatemala’s western highlands. He escaped, hiding in the wilderness, but could not save his wife and four daughters. Now 70 years old, Brito López recounted the horrors of that day to High Risk Court A in Guatemala City this week, saying the soldiers murdered ...

The world’s biggest election kicks into gear next week when the first ballots are cast in India’s mammoth national polls, considered the most consequential in decades with the potential to shape the country’s future. Nearly 1 billion people are eligible to decide whether to grant Prime Minister Narendra Modi a rare third consecutive term in office and extend the 10-year ...

A team of rescuers has suspended its efforts to save an orca calf that has been stranded for nearly two weeks in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island off the west coast of Canada. Crews with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Ehattesaht First Nation made the decision Friday afternoon the orca calf was not ready to be moved and ...

Agnes Marciniak-Kostrzewa’s phone won’t stop ringing. She’s been in the property business for 25 years, helping Poles to buy homes on Spain’s southern shores, but the past few months have been “really crazy.” There are lots of reasons why people might trade the Baltic coast for the Mediterranean. More than three decades after the collapse of communism, Poles are richer than ever ...

Six people have been killed and several others injured, including a child, in a mass stabbing at a busy shopping center in Sydney, Australian police said. Police were called to Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon local time following reports of multiple people stabbed. Witnesses described scene of panic with some forced to hide in shops as the attack unfolded. ...

A transitional council responsible for choosing Haiti’s next leadership has been established after weeks of uncertainty, according to a decree published in Haiti’s official state journal. The move comes a month after Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced he would step down once the council is inaugurated and names a new prime minister and cabinet. The council, composed of seven ...

The total solar eclipse that delighted spectators across Mexico, the United States and Canada on Monday was a celestial experience not to be missed. Millions were in the path of totality to watch as the moon moved between Earth and the sun. Readers shared their images of the eerie sight and stories that illustrate the excitement of the once-in-a-lifetime event, ...