Eyder Peralta

As a deadline came and went, the fate of two hostages being held by the Islamic State is uncertain.

As we've reported, Jordan has indicated it was willing to release a convicted terrorist in exchange for the release of a Jordanian prisoner. On Thursday, Jordan demanded proof of life ...

The South African government has decided to grant parole to a notorious Apartheid-era death squad leader.

As The Guardian reports, Eugene de Kock, who was known as "Prime Evil," was sentenced to two life terms in connection to the killings.

The Guardian adds:

"South Africa's justice minister, ...

At least three people are dead, after a gas tank truck exploded near a maternity and children's hospital in Mexico City on Thursday.

Television images showed the explosion caused the collapse of a big part of the hospital, the gas truck still smoldering as fighters tried to quell the blaze.

Jordan is asking the so-called Islamic State to prove that a pilot the group is holding is still alive.

Mohammed al-Momani, a spokesman for the Jordanian government, said the government is seeking proof of life before it releases Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman who was convicted in relation to a ...

Cuban President Raúl Castro seemed to throw some pretty big hurdles in front of efforts to establish normal diplomatic relations with the United States.

In a speech at a summit of Latin American countries, President Raúl Castro said a rapprochement with its northern neighbor would not make sense without three ...

The government of Malaysia has now officially declared the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 an accident.

The aircraft is thought to have crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean in March 2014, but search crews haven't found a trace of it.

The BBC reports:

"The declaration on ...

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven others were wounded during an attack near the Lebanese border on Wednesday.

Hezbollah, a long time Israeli rival in Lebanon, claimed responsibility for the attack and Israel told the United Nations that it would take necessary steps to defend itself.

According to ...

Mexico's attorney general made it official last night: The 43 college students who went missing last fall are dead.

That's the conclusion they've reached based on confessions of the alleged perpetrators and forensic evidence.

Tomás Zerón de Lucio, the man in charge of criminal investigations, laid out the evidence ...

Jordan says it is prepared to meet the demands of Islamic State militants in order to save the life of a Jordanian hostage.

On Tuesday, the Sunni extremists released a video in which they demanded that Jordan release a woman who was sentenced to death over an attack in Amman ...

A day after a monstrous winter storm spun its way across the Northeast, life is slowly getting back to normal.

Some residents of Massachusetts are digging out of almost 3 feet of snow. The AP reports that a travel ban has been lifted and Boston's highways are filling up ...

Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban revolution, has remained silent ever since the the U.S. and Cuba announced plans for a rapprochement back in December.

Late last night, the official newspaper of the island's Communist party released a letter reportedly written by Castro.

If you remember, Castro stepped down ...

A gunman walked into a New Hope City Council meeting near Minneapolis and opened fire on Monday.

Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Nelson tells our Newscast unit that the gunman was killed and two police officers were injured.

Tim filed this report:

"The city is a second-ring suburb northwest of ...

In celestial terms, asteroid 2004 BL86 pretty much buzzed the Earth on Tuesday, coming within 745,000 miles of our planet.

As NPR's Sam Sanders explained, Monday's flyby is the closest a known asteroid of this size will pass by Earth in at least the next two centuries.

This means ...

First the good news: Forecasts of a historic winter storm for the country's most populous city have failed to materialize.

Forecasters had called for up to 30 inches of snow in New York City, but as a new day dawned, meteorologists had downgraded the system to a winter storm from ...

It's official: 2014 was the hottest year on record.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center crunched the numbers and came to this conclusion:

"The year 2014 was the warmest year across global land and ocean surfaces since records began in 1880. The annually-averaged temperature ...

Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who oversaw the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, will step down.

Tavenner announced her departure on Friday in a message to staff.

"I have great pride and joy knowing all that we have accomplished together since ...

More than a decade after it went missing, British scientists say they have found a small spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

The Beagle-2 Mars Lander was launched aboard the Mars Express in June of 2003. It was an ambitious project that was supposed to look for life on the ...

Overnight across in France, Belgium and Germany police arrested more than two dozen people suspected of having ties to terrorism.

In Paris, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports police moved in at dawn and arrested about a dozen people, who police said were tied to Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, who attacked the ...

The United States took a big step toward normalizing relations with Cuba by easing some travel and financial restrictions that have been in place for decades.

The Treasury and Commerce departments announced that the new rules take effect on Friday. According to The Hill, the new rules mean:

-- ...

Amnesty International has released stunning satellite imagery that it says "show devastation of catastrophic proportions" in Baga and Doron Baga, two towns in northeastern Nigeria that were attacked by Boko Haram.

As we've pointed out in the past few days, there has been confusion over just how deadly this ...