Krishnadev Calamur

Russia's central bank raised its interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent in an early Tuesday decision that comes as the ruble continues its year as the world's worst-performing major currency.

"This decision is aimed at limiting substantially increased ruble depreciation risks and inflation risks," the Bank of Russia ...

In 1996, China executed an 18-year-old man named Huugjilt for the rape and murder of a woman in a public toilet. But Monday, Chinese authorities cleared the ethnic Mongolian of the crime and offered a rare apology to his family.

The official Xinhua news agency reported that Huugjilt was ...

"We run the risk of going from hysteria to a sense of indifference," says the now-recovered physician. "And I think that is even more dangerous than our fear."

Denmark, together with Greenland, today will claim around 350,000 square miles of the continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean, in an area around the North Pole that is slightly larger than the size of Texas and Oklahoma combined.

"The submission of our claim to the continental shelf north of ...

It seems there are fewer armchair socialists — or their right-wing counterparts — than there are armchair centrists according to a study published in BMJ, the former British Medical Journal, as part of its annual tongue-in-cheek Christmas edition.

The authors from Australia's University of Sydney used European Commission

Uber's troubles are mounting. The ride-sharing service was criticized in Australia after its "surge pricing" kicked in, quadrupling fares for some customers trying to flee the area in Sydney where a gunman took hostages in a cafe.

Here's a screenshot that one customer sent to Mashable with details ...

A new study shows what at least some of us might have suspected for a long time: Men are idiots and do stupid things.

That's the premise of the authors' Male Idiot Theory. The study, published in BMJ, the former British Medical Journal, looked at past winners of the ...

The death of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old Cleveland boy who was shot last month by a police officer, has been ruled a homicide by the Cuyahoga County medical examiner.

Tamir suffered gunshot wounds to the torso and suffered injures of "major vessel, intestines and pelvis," the examiner's report said.

...

Pope Francis won't meet privately with the Dalai Lama because of a "delicate situation," the Vatican's spokesman said today, in an apparent reference to the Holy See's relations with China.

The Dalai Lama, who is in Rome for a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize winners, had requested a ...

A smartphone app will soon serve as an official driver's license for many Iowans.

"We are really moving forward on this," Paul Trombino, director of the state's Department of Transportation, told Gov. Terry Brandstad during an agency budget hearing this week. "The way things are going, we may be the ...

Former supermodel Beverly Johnson has become the most famous person yet to accuse comedy legend Bill Cosby of drugging her.

Johnson, the first black woman featured on the cover of Vogue, told ABC News that it happened in the 1980s, and that she knew she had been ...

Before Mickey Mouse, there was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Only 25 seconds of Empty Socks, a Walt Disney cartoon featuring Oswald, was thought to exist. But archivists at Norway's National Library conducting an inventory at the library's vault in Mo i Rana, in the Arctic Circle, found an almost ...

The act of kindness in Tarrant, Ala., was caught on video. The story garnered so much attention that donations of money, food and clothes poured in from around the world.

Does a cross between Brussels sprouts and kale sound like your vegetable dream come true? Maybe so, if you're someone who's crazy for cruciferous vegetables and all the fiber and nutrients they pack in.

Meet Kalettes, a hybrid of the two that looks like a small head of ...

A Christian group in Kentucky that is building a Noah's Ark theme park says it will legally challenge the state's decision to withdraw its offer of tax breaks for the project.

"We have been working on this project with Kentucky for more than two years, so this just-received denial ...

CIA Director John Brennan defended his agency's actions after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and said while it is "unknowable" whether the CIA's interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects provided useful information, the agency did not mislead the Bush White House about its activities.

Brennan's comments, at a rare news ...

Power outages, canceled ferry services, flight delays: Those are some of the effects of one of the windiest and rainiest storms in recent years to make their way across Northern California.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings along the West Coast. Some parts of Northern ...

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has been awarded the Confucius Peace Prize, China's version of the Nobel Prize.

The Global Times, an official newspaper, said Castro, 88, was selected for the prize because he did not use force while dealing with international disputes, especially against the U.S. The newspaper ...

Today was another big day for energy news: Oil prices fell to a new five-year-low, below $61 per barrel on world markets; the U.S. said its supplies of crude oil increased last week; and OPEC said it expected lower demand next year.

The news prompted a selloff on Wall ...

Uber, the ride-sharing service that is growing in value, is also watching its troubles mount.

It's latest woes are in California where, as NPR's Laura Sydell tells our Newscast unit, the attorneys general of San Francisco and Los Angeles counties are suing Uber. Here's more from Sydell's report:

...